Green Card by Marriage with U. S. citizen or Green Card holder
As we mentioned in our previous episodes, the easiest and simplest and less time consuming way to obtain Green Card in America is to marry either a U. S. citizen or a Green Card holder. In the case of Green Card holder spouses and unmarried children under 21 year even though there use to be a waiting period of about 24-26 months, since July 2019, there is no waiting period for visa availability. The waiting period was due to limited number of visas available to spouses and unmarried children under 21 years bon in India due to per country quota imposed by U. S. Immigration laws. For spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of U. S citizens, there is no waiting period, since there is no per country quota for visas. The processing backlog for petitions for spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of U. S citizens is about 15-18 months while it is about 18-24 months for spouses and unmarried children of Green Card holders. This is because of so many people have filed immigrant petition and waiting in line for processing their cases by USCIS. The above delay is pre-COVID-19 and at this time we don not know how long the delay because cases filed after March 2020 is still pending for processing with the USCIS. The person who files the petition is knows as Petitioner and the person for whom the petition is filed is known as beneficiary.
The first step is to file immigrant petition (separate petitions for spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of U. S. citizens) along with filing fee and all supporting documents to prove the eligibility and also to prove that the marriage is genuine and faithful and that they are maintaining the marital relationship, especially when they live and wok in two different countries. The USCIS may review the case and approve the petition if all documents and evidence meet their guidelines for. such cases. If not, the USCIS may issue a Request for Evidence (RFE) and will grant 87 days to submit additional documents and evidence and in some cases including report of DNA examination. The USCIS hold the cases without processing, which will addd to the delay, until you submit additional documents and evidence.
After approval of the petition, the USCIS will transfer the approved file by electronically to National Visa Center (NVC), an agency under the Dept. of State. NVC does all paper works including accepting the visa fee, affidavit of support fee, submission of online immigrant visa applications for spouse and unmarried children under 21, submitting affidavit of support by the U. S. citizen or Green Card holder spouse with all supporting documents and evidence. Finally, copy of all civil documents from petitioner and beneficiaries must be uploaded to NVC online system. NVC will review the documents and send e-mail to the petitioner and beneficiary stating that the case is documentary eligible to schedule the interview at the U. S Embassy or Consulate. Once interview is scheduled, NVC will send the e-mail to the petitioner and beneficiary notifying the date and time of the interview.
The beneficiary must create a profile at the agency web site, select pick up location for return of passports with visas affixed, schedule for finger print appointment. All beneficiaries must obtain medical report from the approved medical facility and take it with them for interview along with all original documents and additional evidence and documents to prove that their marriage is genuine and faithful and that they maintained martial relationship after filing the petition with the USCIS. The interview may last only for about 10-15 minutes unless there arise issues including the case may be put on hold for administrative processing for verification of the evidence and documents by the consulate directly.
The security checks including finger print will be cleared within 72 hours and once the consulate review the same, they will print the visas and paste them in the passports and will return the passports to the pick up location selected when created the profile. The visas are valid only for 6 months and the beneficiary must pay the fee for green card processing prior to departure to America. The beneficiary and children must enter America within this 6 months and the principal beneficiary must enter first or accompanied by children. In other words, in the case of spouses and unmarried children under 21 of Green Card holders, the spouse must enter first or accompanied by children. The children announced enter first and then followed by the spouse. They will receive the Green Card and Social Security cards (if requested) within 2-3 weeks of entry.
Lal Varghese, Attorney at Law, Dallas
WhatsApp# +19725561109 E-Mail: attylal@aol.com
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