Many applicants get lost easily in the jungle of terms and provisions that they sometimes lose sight of what’s really important. To make the U.S. immigration system more accessible, I’ve summarized the important steps below to provide you with a very broad overview of the admission process.
Family-based Immigration
The admission process begins with a “visa petition”. This is filed by a sponsor who is either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident (LPR). This is typically done at a regional office of USCIS in the United States. The visa petition primarily serves the purpose of determining whether the beneficiary (the person being petitioned) indeed has the claimed relationship to the sponsor. Upon approval by USCIS, a visa application can be filed by the beneficiary at the U.S. consulate in the latter’s home country. The date of the visa application determines the applicant’s position in the queue. This date is called the applicant’s “priority date”.
Shortly before the priority date becomes current, a consular officer will make a background check of the applicant and determine whether the latter falls within any of the inadmissibility grounds. If everything goes well for the applicant, the U.S. consulate will issue an immigrant visa. At the port of entry in the U.S. the applicant will have to present this visa to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspector. Theoretically, the CBP officer has the right to reexamine the immigrant and the validity of his/her visa. However, border inspection usually goes smoothly for the majority of immigrants entering the U.S., assuming that he/she has a valid visa.
Employment-Based Immigration
The admission process is very similar to the family-based immigration process. One important distinction is the requirement of a certification issued by the Department of Labor stating that:
- the job the applicant proposes is one for which not enough qualified U.S. workers are available and
- the immigrant’s employment does not have any adverse effect on the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers.
All other steps as mentioned above in the family-based petition apply here as well.
Adjustment of Status
This is a process applicable to those who are already residing in the U.S. As opposed to the belief of many, an applicant for the adjustment of status needs to meet all requirements for admission like any other applicant filing outside the U.S. The only difference is that the applicant does not need to leave the U.S. to file for the adjustment of status.
Refugees
To be eligible to apply for a refugee status, the applicant has to have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
There are two programs for admission as a refugee:
- Overseas refugee program
Under this program, the number of refugees to be admitted depends on the numerical limit set by the President in a year. As the name says, this program is applicable to those filing overseas.
- Asylum program
This program does not have a numerical limit as opposed to the overseas refugee program. It is applicable to those who have already arrived at a U.S. port of entry.
I will discuss both programs in detail in another post.
Nonimmigrants
Typically, a noncitizen applying for a nonimmigrant visa does not have to go through the visa petition process with USCIS. Applicants file their visa applications at the U.S. consulate in their home country. Once a visa is issued by the consulate, they can present this at the border control of the U.S. port of entry upon arrival.
Please note though that there are a few categories of nonimmigrants who need to undergo the visa petition process and obtain labor certifications.
Change of Status
If a nonimmigrant wishes to change his/her status to another nonimmigrant category, he needs to undergo a process called “change of status”. This is the counterpart to the “adjustment of status” which is applicable to immigrants. A nonimmigrant who intends to change his/her status will need to contact USCIS and in some cases, the Labor Department as well.
Again, this is just a brief overview of the important steps to obtain an entry document to the U.S. Details and case studies will follow in subsequent entries. This overview serves the purpose of providing you with an initial roadmap of the admission process. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below.
Photo by: Johann C. Rocholl
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