Immigrant visa IR1 or CR1 for your wife or husband.
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 The process starts when a U.S. citizen files a petition for Alien Relative (form
I-130) to immigrate to America with the appropriate immigration
Field Office of the USCIS. In certain cases the initial paperwork
can be filled at a U.S. consulate or embassy, usually when an American
citizen lives in a foreign country
American immigration laws consider a spouse to be:
A spouse is a legally married husband or wife, and simply living
together does not constitute marriage in the eyes of the law. So called
"common-law" husband or wife may sometimes be considered
spouses, but only if the law of a specific country where they occurred,
gives the the same rights, obligations and protections, that lawful
marriages have. In countries where it is possible to have more then
one spouses, only the first spouse (wife) will be considered for immigration.
there is no formal age requirement to file a petition for a husband
or wife to immigrate to the U.S., but in order to sign and file an
Affidavit of Support on form I-864, a U.S. citizen must be 18 years
old and live in the States.
The National Visa Center processing.
Approved by the USCIS office in the United States petitions
are transferred to the National Visa Center - NVC which will conduct
the following actions:
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It will assign a unique case number.
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Will send form DS-3022 to in order to select
the so called Agent which can be anyone including the applicant
and choose the Address. All future correspondence from National
Visa Center regarding
immigrant visa
will be sent to the Agent.
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Will send the bill to pay all processing fees
to the person who petitioned for the immigrant.
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After receiving the appropriate fees NVC sends
Affidavit of Support to the petitioner.
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Sends the bill for immigrant visa processing
fee.
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Next NVC will send a package with instructions
to the agent (after visa processing fees are paid).
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Will conduct final reviews of the application
to insure it is complete.
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Finally it will send the petition the the appropriate
American consulate or embassy where a spouse will apply for immigrant
visa.
Fees for the National Visa Center (NVC) Services.
Note, that during the process NVC sends two separate bills. First
for processing of Affidavit of Support. This bill is send to the petitioner,
the second bill for processing immigrant visa is send to the Agent.
If you filed a petition for your spouse when you were a lawful
permanent resident.
In some cases a spouse applied for an immigrant visa for a husband
or wife when the person was a permanent resident in the U.S. and later
become a citizen. Such application should be upgraded to immediate
relative status form its original "family second preference(F2
status). It can be archived by sending proof of the citizenship
status in the United States to the National Visa Center.
Child status.
A child can be included in his or her parent petition but can not
have so called "derivative status". If a U.S. citizen files
a petition for a spouse, the person must also file separate immigrant
visa paperwork for each child. It is different in case when a person
had a child born in a foreign country after they become a U.S. citizen.
Such child may qualify to be a U.S. citizen as well. A U.S. embassy
representative will advice and make a determination if a child is
a U.S. citizen or not, and they can apply for U.S. passport or an
immigrant visa if they wish to immigrate to America.
Conditional green card.
Usually in all cases when people were married for less then 2 years
the green card status will be considered
conditional (less then 2 years from when the marriage took place to
the moment a spouse comes to the United States on immigrant visa)
Spouses should apply for
removal of conditional status within 90 days
of the second anniversary of the date when the immigrant husband or
wife came to the U.S. It should be filed with local USCIS office.
Certain conditions makes an applicant ineligible for an immigrant
visa to the United States:
Drug trafficking.
Having HIV/AIDS.
Overstaying a previous visa.
Practicing polygamy.
Advocating the overthrow of the government.
Submitting fraudulent documents.
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