USA Visa Petition 2023 | Eligibility | How to Apply

Advertisement

When a family living in the US sponsors an individual to come and work or live in the country this is known as a USA Visa petition.

In this article, we would be going through everything you need to know about the USA visa petition, the requirements, and how to apply for it. Here is the breakdown of what we would be discussing in this article:

  • What is USA Visa Petition?
  • Family-Based Visa Petition
  • USA Visa Petition Procedures
  • How to Apply
  • Key Takeaways

What is USA Visa Petition?

USA visa petition was established for the purpose of helping immigrants that desire to migrate to the USA through the means of petitioning. How this works is that a petitioner provides support for immigrants and is also able to prove that he/she is able to sponsor such a person into the United States.

Advertisement

In the case of a family based sponsorship, the family member has to show documents proving their relationship with the immigrant.

In other cases, whoever would be petitioning would have to prove their capability of sponsoring such a person to come to the USA to live or work.

Furthermore, if you are to go the route of a work based petitioning, the company would have to justify your role for such a job in the USA.

Advertisement

They accomplish this by providing a labor certificate that shows your employment status, along with other attached documents such as your degree or certifications needed for such a job.

Family Based Visa Petition

In this section, we would be focusing more on the family based visa petition. This is otherwise one of the most commonly used visa petition strategies.

This among others is also considered to have a high acceptance. If you have a family living in the USA on a permanent residency, they are able to petition the USCIS to grant you a visa to come and live or work in the country.

This strategy is supported by the Nationality Act which allows for the immigration of foreigners to the US based on a relationship with a US citizen.

When this is done, you might be granted a work visa to work in the USA, after which you can apply for a more permanent resident visa.

The family based visa petition is divided into two categories which are:

  • Immediate relative
  • Family Preference

Immediate relative

These are for family members who are a close relatives. Visas issued for these categories can be seen below:

  • 1- For spouses of a US. permanent resident
  • 2- Unmarried child under 21 years of the US. permanent resident
  • 3- Orphan to be adopted in the US by the US. permanent resident
  • 4- Orphan adopted abroad by a US citizen
  • 5- Parent of a US citizen who is at least 21 years

If you are among the above categories, you are eligible for immediate relative visas.

Family Preference

The family preference has about 4 categories of visas under it:

  • Family Preference 1: For unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens and their little children
  • Family Preference 2: For spouses, children, and unmarried sons under the 21 years old
  • Family Preference 3: For married sons and daughters of US citizens and their spouses
  • Family Preference 4: For brothers and sisters of US citizens and their spouses and little children

How to Apply

How you can apply is choosing what approach you want to take either the family based petition or the work based petition. If you are going for the family based petition, your family member living inside or outside the US would file for the petition, which would start the process.

A form would be filled which is the Alien Relative petition form, after that the USCIS would make the decision on the petition and either approves or denies you the visa.

Family members who are qualified to file the petition on your behalf have to be a close relation to you. If not, your petition would be denied.

After your petition has been granted, your USA visa would be made available. You can then proceed to submit an application for permanent residency when you come to the US.

Key Takeaways

Advertisement

One of the important things to note is that you should expect to wait at least 3-6 weeks before you would receive information about your petition to the USCIS. And also, close relations with the immigrants are given higher priority than other immigrants who have no close relations in the US.

 

Advertisement