visaroot's blog

Talks of immigration reform have always been circling with every new administration and every new session of Congress. Every session, a bunch of Congressmen and Senators get together and introduce a new piece of legislation aiming to reform the currently outdated immigration laws. One such piece introduced in March 2009 is called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, more popularly known as the DREAM Act. This Act purports to provide a pathway for legal residency for the thousands of undocumented minors living in the United States. It is a promising piece of legislature if implemented correctly.

The DREAM Act allows undocumented high school graduates with good moral character (which essentially means no criminal background), who arrived in the U.S. as children and have lived here for a continuous period of five years a chance to gain legal status irrespective of their parents’ situation. Qualifying students would receive a six year period, conditional permanent residency status, within which the qualified student must either acquire two years of post-high school education or serve in the uniformed armed services for at least two years. This is an interesting piece of legislation because currently a child who entered the United States with his/her parents can only gain permanent resident status through said parent. With the passage of the Act, hopefully mistakes made by the parents will not be revisited upon their children.

What is a marriage visa? What is a K-3 Spousal visa? Is there a difference?

Simply enough, a marriage visa is an immigrant visa that allows the spouse of a U.S. citizen to enter the United States to live here on a permanent basis. It is also wildly popular as an I-130 and IR-1 but at the end of the day, they all mean the same thing. The process starts here in America with the U.S. citizen spouse; he/she has to file a petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A marriage visa can be processed in one of two ways; if the foreign national spouse is in the United States on a valid visa, then the marriage visa petition can be filed concurrently with an application to adjust status. If the foreign national spouse is outside of the United States, the marriage visa petition is filed alone and the adjustment process is done overseas in what is called consular processing. Either way, the process can take anywhere from six to nine months. There have been instances in the past where the processing of the I-130 would take more than five months. This delay in processing affected those couples who were proceeding with consular processing. Therefore, Congress introduced and put to use the K-3 visa category. A K-3 visa is a non-immigrant visa category allowing foreign national spouses’ who already had a marriage visa petition filed on their behalf to travel to America and wait of the processing here. This category was introduced for the sole purpose of bringing married couples close together. It is not an alternative to filing a marriage visa petition. In fact, an applicant cannot qualify for a K-3 spousal visa unless an I-130 marriage visa petition has been filed first. The spouse can enter America on a K-3 and remain here until the I-130 is finished processing. Once the I-130 is approved, the spouse then has to file for an adjustment of status. It used to be that K-3 visas were processed faster than I-130 and therefore were more preferable. But now, the processing time for both types of visa is approximately the same time making the K-3 obsolete. It is cost prohibitive to file for both an I-130 and K-3 especially when they are both taking the same amount of time to be approved. If an I-130 is approved before a K-3, the U.S. Consulate will not go forward with the K-3 and will continue on to process the marriage visa.

C = Current

U = Unavailable

Cut-off date = Only applicants who have priority dates earlier than the cutt-off date may be allocated a number

It is very important that before you begin the K1 fiance visa process that you are familiarize yourself with all of the fiance visa requirements. The most important one being that one of you has to be a United States Citizen. The fiance visa category does not apply to individuals in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa or a green card. As for the other requirements, both you and your fiance must be free to marry. This means that any and all prior marriages must be legally terminated. The K1 fiance visa process is generally a two step process. The first step includes filing a petition with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security [USCIS]. USCIS conducts the initial fiance visa processing. The second step of the fiance visa process includes an interview. Your fiance will have to attend a visa interview at the local U.S. embassy having jurisdiction over her place of residence. Fiance visa processing is delicate and involves several federal agencies, therefore it is important that you do your research, meet the K1 fiance visa requirements and complete the fiance visa process carefully.
 

Detailed information on K1 Fiance Visas found here.

Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Janet Napolitano made her first major speech outlining the administration’s efforts to push for comprehensive immigration reform in early 2010 on Friday the 13th at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Advocates on both sides of the immigration fence have started to doubt the President’s promise for immigration reform. President Obama, who is currently in Asia, has plenty on his plate; namely overhaul of the health care system and the spiraling economy. With unemployment rate hitting an all time high of 10%, it is surprising to hear the Secretary confirm the President’s promise to tackle immigration reform in early 2010. Secretary Napolitano argued that CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) will enhance national security and protect American workers from having to compete with lower-paid illegal immigrants. Under the current plan, illegal immigrants already present in America would have to register, pay fines, pay all taxes owed, pass a criminal background check and learn English. The administration emphasizes that allowing illegal immigrants a legal pathway will strengthen the economy because millions of presently illegal immigrants will become full-paying taxpayers. Members of Congress from both sides have been working diligently to present a CIR bill to the President soon.