Form I-864 and Public Charge

Form I-864 and Public Charge As a U.S. citizen, you should be prepared to prove that you meet the income requirement of a sponsor. When your parent has been scheduled for an immigrant visa interview with a consular officer overseas, or when your parent is about to submit an application for adjustment to permanent resident (Form I-485), you will need to complete an I-864 Affidavit of Support. The USCIS Form I-864 - Affidavit of Support is required for family-sponsored immigration. An affidavit of support is a guarantee to U.S. government that an immigrant will not become a public charge. The affidavit could be offered by the petition sponsor or someone who could provide financial assistance to the immigrant in the event that such help would be necessary. All petitioners, regardless of whether or not they have been working or living in the U.S. since the past three years, must submit a notarized Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, for the beneficiaries of the petitions. The determination of a possible public charge must be made in all cases. A public charge is defined as someone who cannot support him or herself, and may therefore become reliable on the adopted country - the United States. For more information, please see Form I-485 - Form I-864 and Public Charge

The Benefits and Conditions of K-1 Visa

The Benefits and Conditions of K-1 Visa The K-1 fiancée visa is a nonimmigrant visa which allows the fiancé or fiancée of a U.S. citizen to enter into the U.S. and get married to the U.S. citizen. The benefits of the K-1 visa include: 1) The K-1 fiancée visa generally has a shorter processing time compared to marriage-based immigration visa petitions; 2) The alien fiancée/fiancé can apply for a work permit by filing Form I-765 and engage in employment; 3) The children of alien fiancée/fiancé can accompany the alien to the U.S. on the K-2 dependent visa, as long as they are named in the fiancée visa petition. Until the marriage takes place, the alien fiancée/fiancé is considered a non-immigrant. The fiancée/fiancé may enter the United States only one time with a fiancée visa. If the fiancée/fiancé leaves the country before you are married, the fiancée/fiancé may not be allowed back into the United States without a new visa. If the marriage does not take place within 90 days, or the fiancée/fiancé marries someone other than the U.S. citizen filing the petition, the fiancée/fiancé will be required to leave the United States. If the fiancée/fiancé intends to live and work permanently in the United States, the fiancée/fiancé should apply to become a permanent resident after the marriage. If the fiancée/fiancé does not intend to become a permanent resident after the marriage, the new spouse must leave the country within the 90-day original non-immigrant admission. For more information, please see The Benefits and Conditions of K-1 Visa

The Family-Sponsored Immigration

The Family-Sponsored Immigration Family-sponsored immigration is to become a U.S. permanent resident through certain family relations. Normally, a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident would file an immigration petition with the United States Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS). The U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident is called the sponsor. The alien relative for whom the immigration petition is filed is called the beneficiary. A U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident can be the sponsor of a family-sponsored immigration petition. However, the sponsor has to meet certain requirements and legal obligations. The sponsor has to submit a legally binding affidavit of support for the beneficiary to USCIS, in which the sponsor guarantees to maintain the standard of living of the intending immigrant at a level not lower than 125% of the national poverty level. This obligation continues until the beneficiary has become a U.S. citizen, or has worked in the United States for 40 qualifying quarters. Spouses of U.S. citizens are eligible for permanent resident status as "immediate relatives". The process of completing and submitting an immigrant visa application for relatives can be confusing. As a U.S. citizen, you can submit an immigrant application if you have a close family relation, and you can sponsor the following family members: · Husband or wife; · Widow or widower of a U.S. citizen; · Brother or sister (including half-brothers and half-sisters); · Son or daughter (including illegitimate children); · Stepson or stepdaughter; · Stepparent of a U.S. citizen child; · Adopted son or daughter; · Adopted parent; · Father or mother; · Battered or abused spouse or child. For more information, please see Family-sponsored immigration

How to Conduct the PERM Labor Certification Recruitment Process

Question: My company needs to hire a Computer Engineer who is now a F-1 student, and will start the Labor Certification process for his Green Card application after his employment. Please let us know how to conduct the PERM Labor Certification recruitment process? and do we have to also post the job position in the Job Bank of State Labor Department? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has policies for the required PERM Labor Certification recruitment process for employers. The U.S. employers should use newspaper and 3 other forms for additional recruitments. Also, an employer should also post the job position in the Job Bank of its State Labor Department. In the recruitment process, the employer should respond to all applicants and their resumes properly. Also, the employer should have an appropriate candidate screening process and interview process. For more information, please see PERM Labor Certification Recruitment

Extraordinary Ability - EB1 Two-Step Adjudication Process

Question: I am a new Assistant Professor in a major research university of U.S. and I plan to apply for Green Card in both EB1 categories of EB1 Extraordinary Ability and EB1 Outstanding Researcher or Professor, by using your excellent Green Card DIY Application packages. Please let me know what is the "Final Merits Determination" in the EB1 two-step adjudication process? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: For EB1 Extraordinary Ability Green Card application (EB-1A or EB1-EA) and EB1 Outstanding Researcher or Professor Green Card application (EB-1B or EB1-OR), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators are now using the two-step adjudication process, which uses the second step as the Final Merits Determination for each EB-1A and EB-1B green card application. The two-step adjudication process will have a final review of all submitted materials and all evidence to determine if an applicant can meet the overview requirements of "extraordinary" for EB1 Extraordinary Ability application, or if the applicant can meet the overview requirements of "outstanding" for EB1 Outstanding Researcher/Professor application. Therefore, this final review process may result in more Requests For Evidence (RFE), or even a higher rate of possible denial for EB-1A and EB-1B application. For more information, please see Extraordinary Ability - EB1 Two-Step Adjudication Process

Please Help Me to Understand the RFE, and Let Me Know What I Should Do?

Question: As a Post-Doctor, I filled the Green Card petition in EB-1A several months ago, with 11 published papers and more than 35 citations. I received a Request For Additional Evidence notice from USCIS this week asking for more evidence of my "individual accomplishments". The RFE also mentioned that "publications and citations are expected for Post-Doctors", so "not evidence of his or her extraordinary or outstanding ability." I got confused for the RFE notice. Please help me to understand the RFE, and let me know what I should do? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: For Post-Doctor's petition in EB-1A, an USCIS adjudicator often indicates that the publications are expected for Post-Doctors, therefore not the claimed accomplishments, or not evidence of extraordinary ability or outstanding ability. Similarly, an USCIS adjudicator may also minimize the applicant's value of citations as a necessary part of the publications criterion. The USCIS adjudicator may also dismisses the applicant's collaborative research work as not the individual accomplishments. Therefore, in your RFE response, you need to prove your own contributions in the collaborative work, and also prove that your publication and citation records are above your colleagues in your field, and they are indeed the evidence of your extraordinary ability. For more information, please see EB1-Extraordinary Ability - Request For Evidence

File EB1-Extraordinary Ability and National Interest Waiver at the Same Time

Question: I am a medical research scientist and I have several U.S. patents. I want to file EB1-Extraordinary Ability (EB-1A) and National Interest Waiver applications (NIW) at the same time with the help of your DIY packages. If one of my Form I-140 application gets approved, what would happen with the other pending form I-140 petition? do I have to withdraw the pending I-140 application? Answer: If one of your form I-140 application has been approved, you do not need to withdraw the other pending Form I-140 application. You should keep your EB-1A and NIW application intact, until you receive a Green Card after you file adjustment of status application by using Form I-485. The approved I-140 petition cannot be transferred to other, and the I-485 application approval will take one immigrant visa number form the immigrant quota. For more information, please see EB1-Extraordinary Ability - File EB1-Extraordinary Ability and National Interest Waiver at the Same Time