The United States Immigration Tutorial

Introduction:

The United States Government made a promise to protect the safety of our country's citizens while balancing healthy tourist and legal immigrant policies. US government will now require additional application forms and security clearances. Visa applications may take longer to process. Immediately after the changes, many applicants experienced delays in processing of their visas. Recently it seems as if there have been improvements in processing visa clearances.

 

My notes: Basically what it means is that government looks at everyone under a microscope and each person applying for any visa type is presumed to be guilty. Our responsibility is to prove our right to visit or get a permanent status in US. Of course I understand that 09/11/01 has introduced some new requirements and US government has a responsibility to protect its citizens but that excuse is overused, in my humble opinion. So expect delays and more bureaucracy as a norm, not as an exception.

The Two Types of Visa Classification:

	Classification: Nonimmigrant Visas. Temporary in their nature, nonimmigrant visas apply to those who want to enter the USA for a specific yet temporary purpose such as a visit, study or work.
	Classification: Immigrant Visas. Those who successfully apply and are granted an immigrant visa are provided with permanent residency status and are issued a "Green Card"

Which Classification is Right For Me?

When considering traveling to the USA, you should first pick the visa classification that best fits the purpose of your travel. For example; if you will be visiting the USA, then a temporary visitors visa would be your choice. Since temporary is regarded as nonimmigrant, you would select the nonimmigrant visa classification. If you are the spouse of a US Citizen, and you are moving to the USA to unite with your US Citizen husband or wife, then your intentions will be to stay indefinitely in the USA. The Immigrant Visa classification would be the more suited one for this purpose since the nature of your intentions are permanent and not temporary.

Each of the above classifications contains rigid visa categories. For each category there are specific eligibility requirements. The system will work best for you if you can figure out whether you qualify for the any of the eligibility requirements listed under a specific visa category.

Your first step is to identify the visa classification you will be pursuing, i.e.; Immigrant or Nonimmigrant. Once you identified the classification of the visa, you need to identify the category which will be most suited to your needs.

My notes:Requirements for filing documentation and forms that must accompany them become more and more strict. Each application has its own filling fee which in most cases are not refundable. While it is extremely important to determine which visa type is right for you it even more important to know EXACTLY full process that takes place. Most of the applications have a time restrictions within which they can be submitted, processed and also time frames that determine your eligibility. All supporting documents should be completed with no mistakes and time frames followed. I have personally experienced couple times when my documents were returned because of something missing and have friends who filed for a citizenship when they just moved to state the filed from and got denial. Turns out somewhere in small print it specifies that there is a time requirement to live in that state for a minimum of 3 month. They lost over $600. So make sure you read all docs and small prints! If need a better way, I highly recommend using packaged solutions from immigration center as they greatly simplify the process.

This information is published on American Immigration center website and commented by me.

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