How To Petition The Immigrating Spouse of U.S. Citizen?

If you are the spouse of a US citizen, you may immigrate to the United States through family based immigration. To immigrate to the United States, you must be sponsored by your US citizen spouse. Your spouse who is a US citizen, must file the USCIS Form I-30, Petition for Alien Relative, in order to sponsor an immigrant visa with which you may enter the United States. In order to be eligible for a marriage visa, you must prove that you are a legally wedded husband or a wife of the US Citizen. With a marriage visa, the foreign spouse of a US citizen or a lawful permanent resident may immigrate to the United States.

The spouse of a US citizen is considered to be an immediate relative and there is no annual limit in the numbers visas issued to immediate relatives of US citizens. If the foreign spouse of the US citizen is already in the United States in some other non-immigrant category, the foreign spouse may adjust status to permanent resident status by filing Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status to Permanent resident, at the same time while the US citizen spouse files Form I-130, Petition for Alien relative. Through adjustment of status, the foreign spouse who is in the United States as a non-immigrant, may become a permanent resident.

If the US citizen wishes to sponsor an immigrant visa for a spouse who is abroad, the US citizen may first file Form I-130, for the foreign spouse. After approval of the petition, USCIS will work with the US Consulate or Embassy, in the country where the foreign spouse lives. After the process is complete and after filling the necessary forms, the foreign spouse must apply for an immigrant visa at the US Embassy or Consulate, in the country where she lives. On obtaining an immigrant visa, the foreign spouse may enter the United States with that visa and she may become a permanent resident.

Filing Form I-130

As a US citizen, while you file Form I-130, you must submit certain other documents as supporting evidence. You must submit copies of documents such as your US passport in order to prove that you are a US citizen. To establish your relationship with your foreign spouse and to prove that your marriage is genuine, you must submit copies of your marriage certificate. You may be required to provide copies of certain other documents to establish that your marital status is authentic. You must also make all efforts to prove that you had not entered into the marriage just for immigration purposes.

Fill out the form completely, without missing or concealing any important information. As the form consists of three parts make sure that you mention the relationship between you and the beneficiary in the Section A, details about yourself such as your name, address and date of birth in Section B and the details about the beneficiary in Section C. You must also complete and sign Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, to demonstrate that you will accept the legal responsibility to financially support your spouse for whom you sponsor an immigrant visa to immigrate to the United States. An affidavit of support is required to show that the foreign spouse who is seeking a marriage visa to immigrate to the United States has enough financial support and that the spouse may not become a public charge.

Useful Tips on How to Get Immigrant Visas

A foreign national must get an immigrant visa to immigrate to the United States and to live there permanently. There are different types of immigrant visas that are available for the people who wish to immigrate to the United states. It is not a very easy task to immigrate to America and it involves filing various forms and various steps are involved in the immigrant visa process.

Generally, to immigrate to the United States and to apply for an immigrant visa, a foreign national must be sponsored by a US citizen relative, US Green Card holder or by a potential employer. Once you decide to immigrate to the United States, the first step that you must take is to file an immigrant visa application with the USCIS. An appropriate form depending on your category must be filed.

If the foreign national is sponsored by a US citizen or a lawful permanent resident sponsor who is residing in the United States, the person who is sponsoring must file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with the USCIS Chicago or the Phoenix Lockbox facility. If a US employer is offering a job to a foreign national, the potential employer must file Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker.

The immigrant visa petition filed by the US citizen family member or the employer must be approved by USCIS. After the immigrant visa petition is approved by USCIS, the preliminary processing of the visa with the Department of State, National Visa Center, will begin.

It is the duty of the National Visa Center(NVC) to provide instructions to the sponsors and visa applicants. The NVC will review the required Affidavit of Support forms submitted by the sponsors. It will receive the required fees, application forms and other supporting documents that are required. Certain immigrant visa categories are assigned a numerical limit. For such categories, the NVC will contact the applicant after the priority date becomes current.

After verification of the required documents, the NVC will schedule an interview with US Embassies or Consulates. The immigrant visa case files of the applicants will be sent by the NVC, to the US Embassy or the Consulate, where the interview is scheduled. After you get an interview appointment from the NVC, you must get prepared for the immigrant visa interview. You must prepare for the medical exam and make sure that you possess all the required original documents to be submitted at the time of the interview.

Diversity Visa Program is another way through which a foreign national may obtain an immigrant visa to immigrate to the United States. This program provides visas to applicants drawn from countries with low immigration rates to America. The other immigrant types require a US sponsor, but the Diversity Visa (DV) program does not require a US sponsor. It also does not require a visa petition.

How To Obtain A Family Based Green Card?

It is the general policy of the USCIS to design the immigration processes in such a way so that it will be easy for any category of immigrants to realize their dream. The common dream of these immigrant classes is that of living and working in the US, for which they should first get a green card. As mentioned earlier, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has laid out so many pathways for an immigrant to become a green card holder. All that an applicant needs to do is ensure that he/she is eligible for it and then choose the most appropriate route for getting it.

Pathways to getting a green card

The most favored ways for getting a green card are as listed below

• Family based green card
• Green card through a job
• Green card through Asylee or Refugee status

Apart from these, there are other ways of getting a green card like, by being victims of human trafficking; being an US Armed Forces member, through the DV lottery program etc. The most sought after and the easiest way of becoming a legal permanent resident of the US is through the family route only.

Getting a family based green card

Before getting to know about this specific process, you need to know the general eligibility criteria required to file in a green card application – You should be eligible for any one of the immigrant categories that is drafted in the INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) and be admissible to the US. You must have your immigrant petition filed in by a suitable sponsor and got it approved. You must also be in possession of a valid immigrant visa, which is immediately available, as a result of the approved immigrant petition.

Once these are taken care of, you can then move on to the specific instructions of getting a family based green card. When you have your immediate family members as US citizens, then you are very lucky. This is because you need not wait in-line for a visa to become available, which is the case for the general category of applicants Also there is no limit prescribed by the USCIS for visas in this category. Ensure that you fall under any of the three categories of relatives to qualify as immediate relatives.

• You are a parent of a US citizen( In this case, your US Citizen child should be at least 21 years of age)
• You are the spouse of a US Citizen
• You are the child (unmarried) of a US citizen who is under the age of 21.

Any other form of relationship with the US citizen will not entitle you with the privilege of not waiting in line for an immigrant visa. However, they will be considered to issue a family based green card with some amount of waiting time for a visa.

I preference category          –  Unmarried, adult sons/daughters of US citizens (Age -21yrs or

                                                   older)

II preference category (A)   –  Unmarried children (Age- below 21 yrs) and spouses of the

                                                    Permanent residents

II preference category (B)   –  Unmarried sons/ daughters of Permanent Residents (age- 21 yrs

                                                    or older)

III Preference category        -   Married sons/daughters of US citizens, spouses with their

                                                     minor children

IV preference Category          - Siblings of US citizens, spouses with their minor children

The US citizen or permanent resident should file in USCIS Forms I-130 which is the procedure to petition an alien relative into the US. This should be filed in with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to establish the qualifying relationship of the Citizen or the permanent resident with the relative. Once this is approved, the USCIS will intimate the US Embassy in the country in which the relative resides. From here on, it is the applicant who has to follow up, in order to get a family based green card. He/she should then file in Form I-485 to adjust to the status of a permanent resident, based on the instructions of that particular embassy.

What is concurrent Filing?

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The stage 2 in an Employment based green card application process is filing an immigrant petition Form I-140 on behalf of the beneficiary. As per the new rule by USCIS the green card application can be filed simultaneously with I-140 petition. The process of filing Form I-140 and Form I-485 at the same time is called concurrent filing.
On Form I-140 one has the option to choose between consular processing and adjustment of status for green card application. Concurrent filing on Form I-140 and Form I-485 can be made only if the employee is currently inside the United States. Concurrent filing on Form I-140 and I-485 is not applicable if the employee wishes for a consular processing outside the United States.
The Form I-140 and Form I-485 can be filed together only when a visa number is immediately available. First one needs to determine if an visa number is immediately available. In case of employment based first preferences category the immigrant visa number is usually current, so one can apply for green card application while filing I-140. Concurrent filing of green card application based on other preference category usually depends upon the the date the labor certification application was accepted by the Department of Labor for processing when a labor certification is required. The Visa Bulletin is available using which one can check their place in the immigrant visa queue. The cut-ff dates for all the categories of employment based green card application is provided by the Visa Bulletin.
If there is no much demand than the visas in a given preference category and based on country of birth or it may be the country of changeability, then immigrant visas becomes current. If the Chart shows “C” then it means the visas is immediately or it is current and one is eligible for both filing both the Form I-140 and Form I-485 simultaneously.
When Form I-140 and Form I-485 are concurrently filed one has lots of benefits like filing the green card application earlier along with it one will be filing Employment Authorization Documents and Travel Document, so one can work legally and also can travel outside the United States.
USCIS will issue separate Receipt Notices for the Form I-140 Immigrant Petition and the Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status to Permanent Resident. The Receipt Notices will be issued on Form I-797. You can expect to receive the Form I-140 Receipt Notices within 30 days. The Form I-485 Receipt Notice will be issued to also within 30 days. The Form I-797 Receipt Notices are confirmation that USCIS has received the petition and application, and accepted them for processing.

One must wait for USCIS to complete processing of this case. Generally, an interview is not required. However, if an interview is required, USCIS will be issue an appointment notice to complete processing. If an appointment is not required, decision via mail will be sent. USCIS will most likely issue a decision on the Form I-140, Immigrant Petition before it issues a decision on the Application to Adjust Status to Permanent Resident. If I-140 is approved USCIS will process the I-485 application. If USCIS denies I-140 then I-485 will also not be processed.