Adjustment of Status
Anyone, from any part of the world is eligible to immigrate to the United States, but only if they have a close relative who is either a legal permanent US resident or a US citizen to sponsor them for a visa or an adjustment of status.
The requirement is that an American relative is the one who would need to initiate the petition for a visa to start the citizenship process. This would be done on behalf of the foreign relative who is wanting to emigrate from their home country.
An adjustment of status application is a set of official forms that is submitted by an alien who is currently within the borders of the US, or who is already a resident alien. It is the step to be taken in order to change their status from a non-immigrant to that of an immigrant. This would also mean that they would become a permanent resident with that change of status.
Immigration to the US is based on a petition of a relative and can sometimes take quite a long time to process. For example, it can take up to 12 years for a brother or a sister of a US citizen to successfully go through the process. However, the process of citizenship to the United does not take as long if both the US citizen who initiates the petition and the foreign beneficiary are considered by the US immigration service to be "immediate relatives."
An immediate relative, according to US immigration law, is defined as a spouse of an American citizen, an unmarried child of an American citizen who is under 21 years of age and the parents of any American citizen.
All other relatives, for the purposes of immigration, and including children of an American citizen who is over the age of 21, are required to wait for what is known as their visa priority date to arrive, in order to receive a visa number.
Should the foreign relative who is seeking to immigrate, already be within the borders of the US, then a close relative has previously filed the Alien Resident Petition on their behalf. This means that they will be able to become a legal permanent resident without having to go through the consular process for an immigrant visa by means of a US Embassy overseas. They can simply apply for an adjustment of status while in the US.
The primary benefit of seeking out the adjustment of status application (I-485), is that it means the alien has already reached the last step toward acquiring a green card. Once that application is approved, the alien has gained the status of permanent resident in the US. Additionally, there are two other significant benefits that come to the hopeful immigrant while waiting for the I-485 application to be processed. The first is that the alien is allowed to apply simultaneously for advance parole and the second is that the alien is also able to immediately apply to receive a work permit.
There are certain situations under which a person is not eligible to apply for adjustment of status. If any of the following situations occur, a US immigration attorney should be consulted: the loss of previous status, the attempted use of falsified documents to enter the US, the act of having been in the US unlawfully or the instance of having been deported.
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Today's Tip On US Immigration
Since it is a part of the United States federal government, many immigrants tend to be intimidated with the processes and interactions that they must have with the United States Immigration and Naturalization agency.
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