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How Do I Get an Immigrant Visa Number?
What is an Immigrant Visa Number?
What Does the Law Say?
Who is Eligible?
How Do I Apply for an Immigrant Visa Number?
How Can I Find Out When an Immigrant Visa Number Will Be Available for Me?
Can Anyone Help Me?
Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]
What is an Immigrant Visa Number?
An immigrant is someone who is
not a U.S. citizen but has been authorized to permanently live and work in the
United States. If you want to become an immigrant, you must go through a three-step
process. First, the INS must approve an immigrant petition for you, which is
usually filed by an employer or a relative for you. Second, a visa number, through
the State Department must be immediately available to you, even if you are already
in the United States. If you receive an immigrant visa number, it means that
an immigrant visa has been assigned to you. Third, if you are already in the
United States, you may apply to adjust to permanent resident status after a
visa number becomes available for you. (If you are outside the United States
when an immigrant visa number becomes available for you, you must then go to
your local U.S. consulate to complete your processing.)
U.S. law limits the number of immigrant visa numbers that are available every
year. This means that even if the INS approves an immigrant visa petition for
you, you may not get an immigrant visa number immediately. In some cases, several
years could pass between the time INS approves your immigrant visa petition
and the State Department gives you an immigrant visa number. In addition, U.S.
law also limits the number of immigrant visas available by country. This means
you may have to wait longer if you come from a country with a high demand for
U.S. immigrant visas.
For more information on how to apply for an employee to become an immigrant,
please see How Do I File a Petition for an Immigrant Worker? In addition, please
see our index of How Do I? documents
that will provide information on bringing relatives to live in the United States.
For more information on adjusting to permanent resident status, please see How
Do I Become a Lawful Permanent Resident while in the United States?
What Does the Law Say?
The Immigration and Nationality Act is a law that governs the admission
of all immigrants to the United States. For the part of the law concerning immigrant
visa numbers, please see INA
§ 201,
INA
§ 202, and
INA
§ 203.
Who is Eligible?
People who want to become immigrants are divided into categories based on a
preference system. The immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, which includes
parents, spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21, do not have to
wait for an immigrant visa number to become available once the application filed
for them is approved by the INS. An immigrant visa number will be immediately
available for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. The relatives in the
remaining categories must wait for a visa to become available according to the
following preferences:
- First Preference:
Unmarried, adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. Adult means 21 years of
age or older.
- Second Preference: Spouses of lawful permanent residents, and the unmarried sons and daughters (regardless of age) of lawful permanent residents and their children.
- Third Preference: Married sons and daughters of
U.S. citizens, their spouses and their minor children.
- Fourth Preference: Brothers and sisters of adult U.S.
citizens, their spouses and their minor children.
All people who want to become immigrants based on employment must wait for an immigrant
visa number to become available according to the following preferences:
- First Preference: Priority Workers including aliens
with extraordinary abilities, outstanding professors and researchers,
and certain multinational executives and managers.
- Second Preference: Members of Professions Holding
Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability.
- Third Preference: Skilled Workers, professionals
and other qualified workers.
- Fourth: Certain special immigrants including
those in religious vocations.
- Fifth: Employment Creation Immigrants.
How Do I Apply for an Immigrant Visa Number?
You do not directly apply for an immigrant visa number. In most
cases, your relative or employer sends a visa petition to the
INS for you (the beneficiary) to become an immigrant. (Certain
applicants such as priority workers, investors, certain special
immigrants, and diversity immigrants can petition on their own
behalf.) INS will tell the person who filed the visa petition
(the petitioner) if the visa petition is approved. INS will then
send the approved visa petition to the Department of State's National
Visa Center, where it will remain until an immigrant visa number
is available. The Center will notify you (the beneficiary of the
application) when the visa petition is received and again when
an immigrant visa number is available. You do not need to contact
the National Visa Center, unless you change your address or there
is a change in your personal situation that may affect your eligibility
for an immigrant visa. You may contact the National Visa Center
by writing to: The National Visa Center; 32 Rochester Avenue;
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801-2909.
How Can I Find Out When an Immigrant Visa Number Will Be
Available for Me?
Each approved visa petition is placed in chronological order according to the date the visa petitioin was filed. The date the visa petition was filed is known as your priority date. The State Department publishes a bulletin that shows the month and year of the visa petitions they are working on by country and preference category (see eligibility information above). You
can estimate of the amount of time it will take to get an immigrant visa number by comparing your priority date with the date listed in the bulletin. For instance, suppose you look under your country and preference category, and see that the State Department is working on applications they received in May 1996. If your priority date is May 1998, then you may have to wait several more years for an immigrant visa number to become available. You may access the State Department Visa Bulletin at the State Department's Website, or you may call the Department of State Visa Office at (202) 663-1541, to learn which priority dates are currently being processed.
Can Anyone Help Me?
If advice is needed, you may contact the INS District Office near
your home for a list of community-based, non-profit organizations
that may be able to assist you in applying for an immigration
benefit. Please see our INS field offices home page for more information on contacting INS offices.
Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]
Do you want further information? Please see Frequently Asked Questions on
immigration. See the State Department Website for more information on immigrant visas.
The above information has been obtained from INS and was last modified on 07/02/2002
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