Immigrant Petitions

 

“Getting a family visa can be complex, whether your husband, wife, child, parent, brother, or sister. We’ll assist you with every step of the Immigrant Petitions. There’s a reason you’re here; you value your family. You intend to sponsor them in the United States so they can live with you. It is your goal to make them permanent residents. It’s our goal to help you achieve those goals.”

 

Filing an I-130 petition is commonly perceived by some U.S. citizens and permanent residents as easy. There is a danger in this assumption. Also, delays and more costs can cause your loved one to be unable to come to this country. It can also lead to the denial of the relative’s visa.

To increase your chances of success, the Immigration Attorney group explains how to apply for a family visa and petition using the I-130 program. Who can sponsor a family member, and what requirements do you need to meet for each family member?

 

What Is an Immigrant Petition?

To be able to immigrate to America, you will likely have to file an immigrant petition. If you want to remain in the country, you must submit this document to the U.S. government.

An immigrant usually has someone else file the petition for them. Additionally, each immigrant may need to file a separate petition.

Even so, learn a little more about immigration petitions, how they’re filed, and how long filing those takes before you start.

 

Immigration Petitions: Which One Do We Use?

In the United States, there are two main immigration petitions:

• Form I-130 for a family-based petition:
• Form I-130, Petition for an Alien Relative, must be filled out and submitted for aliens who are not citizens of the United States.

 

Form I-140 for an employment-based petition:

When petitioning to come into the country as an employee, your employer must submit Form I-140, Immigration Petition for an Alien Worker.

 

Family-Based Immigration Petition

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service can process your application using Form I-130 on your behalf. This form requires a $535 application processing fee from USCIS.

An immigration petition may be able to support the following relatives:

• S. citizens’ parents
• S. citizen siblings
• S. citizens and permanent residents’ spouses
• S. citizens and permanent residents’ children

 

Employment-Based Immigration Petition

Depending on where someone works, they may be able to immigrate in more than one way. Employers can use the I-140 form to sponsor immigration for their employees. This petition requires a $700 application processing fee.

Employees who are eligible for Form I-140 include:

• A recognized researcher or professor in a specific academic field with a smallest of three years of experience in research or teaching
• Bachelor’s degree-holding professional
• Unskilled workers must perform jobs for which there are no U.S. workers available.
• An individual with specialized training or experience who needs to perform a job that is not available to U.S. workers
• An alien who has worked for the company for at least one year before the application deadline and wants to continue working there as a manager or executive
• An individual with advanced degrees or skills in the arts, sciences, or business that will contribute to the welfare, economy, or culture of the United States
• Or, you may enter the U.S. on an H-1B visa and then adjust your status to permanent residency.

 

Form I-140 without an employer

If you meet the following requirements, you may be able to file this immigration petition on your behalf:

• Filing for a National Interest Waiver can exempt you from a job offer if you have an advanced degree or extraordinary business, arts, or sciences abilities.
• Petitioning for an immigrant visa is the first step in obtaining a green card for a family member.
• To make sure that your family can be present in the country and work, you want to help them.
• Despite this, you’re not sure how to make it happen.
• When so much is at stake, why take a chance?
• Finding the best solution does not need guesswork.
• It is bringing your loved ones together – or keeping them together. It can be generally scuttled before they get started. When it comes to bringing family members together – or keeping them together – it is easily scuttled before it gets started.
• Your concerns are understandable.
• You’re afraid of making mistakes that might harm your family.

 

As an example:

You heard gossip in the neighborhood. The petition is for your elderly mother, who needs a family petition. The tourist visa she had expired a few years ago. She has lived with you and your husband for the past two years. Your neighbor told you that your mother could not immigrate. It is hard for you to believe such advice.

Your chances of winning are slim. A family visa is what you need for your son. You filled out the petition at the immigration consultant’s office for him to become a permanent resident. He is 21 and married, so she told me you could not help him. Your situation seems hopeless. If you want to keep fighting, you don’t know whether to give up or keep fighting.

The deportation fear of your loved ones. Sponsoring your husband is something you want to do. A few years ago, his ex-wife filed papers against him. The couple divorced. The spousal petition he filed for I-130 was canceled. An individual who filed green card papers and went to an interview without his new spouse was arrested after he filed green card papers. He was then deported after appearing in immigration court. It worries you that your spouse might face the same situation.

You should never make immigration family unity decisions based on fear. The experience we have in handling family-based immigration petitions comes into play here.

 

Here’s what your family needs to know

 

Petitions for Immigrant Relatives on Form I-130

Unfortunately, U.S. citizens and permanent residents make costly and time-wasting mistakes when petitioning relatives to join them in the country.

 

 

It is common for these problems to arise when immigrants try to assist themselves, take advice from friends, hire the wrong lawyer, or listen to non-attorneys. The consequences can be disastrous.

• Consider Richard, a college graduate from Nigeria living in San Bernardino. His second wife had been his wife for five years. Richard’s wife and he both have a high education level, so they decided to file the I-130 petition on their own to immigrate Richard to the United States. The request was denied. It affects that he had committed immigration fraud based on a flawed petition filed by his first wife several years ago.
• A Filipino immigrant trained in the Philippines as a chef, Boniface and his wife ran a small restaurant in Riverside. Due to their desire to support small businesses, they hired a legal assistant who was not a lawyer to handle Omar’s I-130 paperwork. There was no incomplete information on the petition. The deficiencies were not discovered until he was legally served with an immigration court notice to appear for deportation proceedings.
• The Guatemalan lawyer Alejandro hired had a television ad and a radio ad he had heard repeatedly. After over two and a half years, he visited our immigration law office in San Bernardino. Despite his best efforts, he could not reach his lawyer to discuss the status of his case. As he had just returned from seeing his wife and children, he felt guilty as his 4-year-old son had asked, “When can we go with you, Dad?”

In many cases, such missteps prevent family members from ever living together with their sponsors. Whether you’re applying for a visa for yourself or a family member, we will help you avoid such setbacks.

Then they will be able to live and work in the U.S. legally. Get Your Family-Based I-130 Petition Approved by Our Family Visa Attorneys. Now let’s look at how your family member got their green card.

 

I-130 Immigrant Visa Petition Preparation and Filing

Obtaining a visa begins with completing and submitting Form I-130.

To qualify to sponsor immigrant relatives for a green card, by evidence you can support your petition:

• It does not matter if the petitioner is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
• Are the petitioner and beneficiary related by blood (i.e., husband-wife, parent-child, and brother-sister)?
• A green card interview will occur in the beneficiary’s home country or the U.S.

A court or government agency must properly certify any legal document, such as a birth or marriage certificate. Get an official translation and proper certification from the appropriate courts or agencies in your home country if any of your documents are in a foreign language.

While the I-130 questions may seem straightforward, it is important to give your answers seriously. Legal ramifications cannot be evident on the form’s surface.

 

Tips To Avoid Mistakes, Delays, and Problems

To avoid hidden complications, our office always follows a few simple rules.

• A petition for an I-130 is never filed unless the petitioner and beneficiary have been properly interviewed.
• We receive calls from clients asking if we can review their petitions before they file them. This is not acceptable to our office. It is like the blind leading the blind by asking a few quick questions and obtaining a few quick answers.
• It is never our practice to file I-130 family visa petitions if we doubt the accuracy of the answers provided by the petitioner.
• It is wise to investigate discrepancies and clarify inconsistencies before submitting your petition.
• Occasionally, we must conduct background checks for arrests, divorces, criminal convictions, and past immigration status records.
• After going forward on their own, clients who seek our services often do so after learning an assumption they made was incorrect. It’s like a previous divorce that was never finalized, so their divorce isn’t finalized, and their current marriage is unenforceable.
• When we suspect that any of the information on the I-130 is false or deceptive, we do not file it.

Sometimes, clients come to our office after discovering errors made by others. Clients trust their papers to a legal services office only to discover that the documents have been improperly filed by a notary or paralegal that has omitted or falsified important information.

Sometimes, we can correct the problems in these situations. It’s not always like that. An immigration fraud suspicion can lead to the relative you’re trying to sponsor being deported if the government suspects fraud.

 

Review of I-130 Family-Based Immigrant Relative Petition by USCIS

The government reviews I-130 immigrant relative petitions once they are received. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the agency that examines your documents.

Before this, petitions could only be properly submitted by mail. The government has now announced the electronic filing of I-130 petitions.

• It is impossible to submit applications electronically or via standard U.S. mail to local immigration offices.
• There may be some stumbling blocks at this point. It is common for problems to arise when supporting evidence packages are incomplete. Errors like these include:
• Documents or signatures that are illegible or missing
• A birth, death, marriage, or divorce certificate does not have the proper government certification.
• An incorrect filing or conflicting information was commonly listed on the petition.
• Ink or highlighters that are the wrong color, or correction tapes and liquids that are the wrong color
• Incomplete filling out of the required forms
• You may receive the entire package back from USCIS. There are also times when the agency will send you a Request for Evidence, which identifies what evidence they’re questioning.

If there are no major legal problems, the government will proceed to the next stage of your petition after you follow their request for extra information.

 

I-130 Immigrant Relative Visa Petition Approved By USCIS

USCIS issues an approval notice after reviewing the I-130 and finding the petitioner meets all requirements.

Immigrants may be confused about what an approved I-130 petition means. This document shows that you have a good relationship with your family so they can immigrate to your country. For example, petitioning your wife for green card benefits only proves that your marriage is legally binding.

Beneficiaries do not receive permanent residency benefits as a result of this program. An immigrant does not receive employment authorization through it. But the good news is that the green card application process is moving forward.

 

How much it takes for an I-130 immigrant relative petition?

I-130 immigrant relative visa petitions usually take about five months to receive an Approval Notice.

A petition may be approved more quickly in some cases. Some take longer than others.

It is important to note that filing the I-130 immigration family visa petition is the first step in legalizing family unity.

It takes two steps to help a relative enter the U.S. and work there.

The second step in the family-based legalization process is to apply for permanent housing after your immigrant visa petition approval.

 

What Happens After Approval of an I-130?

A relative outside the United States applies for a visa through consular processing. Upon approval of the visa, the individual may travel to the United States and be fully inspected. They are then considered permanent residents of the USA after approval by the country. Contact an Immigrant attorney from the attorney group now if you have to file an immigrant petition!