Marriage And Migration For Foreign Citizens

There are many U.S. citizens who are married to foreigners. They find the migration process a problem after marriage. After marriage Citizens of the U.S. arent aware that immigration regulations could become a big problem for their spouses to enter into the U.S. In the past times, the immigration process used to take around two years to get completed. But with K3 visa program, there is some relief to the couples who are married outside the boundaries of the U.S.

Immigration process to the U.S. is a lengthy process. Each year, there are around 400,000 US citizens who marry foreigners and file immigration petitions for their spouses. Foreigners who are married to U.S. citizens are known as the immediate relatives of the U.S. citizens.

The first thing required to enter the U.S. is to appeal for the marriage based visa at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) center. The USCIS service center usually asks for proofs to establish whether the marriage is legal or not.

As per the rules of the U.S. government, a foreigner married to a U.S. citizen can become a Green card holder. Thus, many individual get married to U.S. citizens hoping to obtain a Green card so there are anti-social elements that pretend to be married but are not. This incidence is called as marriage fraud which is strictly punishable by the immigration laws in the U.S.

There is a somewhat different procedure for filing for immigration to get the U.S. citizenship, depending on whether the marriage occurs in U.S. or outside the country. Lets briefly discuss both aspects.

Marriage inside the U.S.:

The U.S. citizens spouse should apply for the immigration visa under the form I-130 at the USCIS service center. Then the service center verifies that the marriage is bona fide or malafide under the immigration laws. The petition filled for the visa includes photographs of both husband and wife, Biographical forms, and proof of citizenship of petitioner, a copy of marriage certificate and many more legal documents require to be attached to the visa from.

Once the foreigner spouse gets the immigration visa and enters the U.S., an application for adjustment of status under the form I-485 must be filed. This is actually an application to get the Green card. Both the citizen and non-citizen spouse have to be physically present at the interview conducted by USCIS. The interview seeks to make sure that the marriage is legal and all legal forms are completely and correctly filled by them.

Marriage outside the U.S.:

Migration process for this case is quite similar to the earlier one except that before according to the rules for migration, the foreigner spouse had to stay back in the family, until a Green card is secured. However, now the rule has been modified. The new rule allows the spouse to enter the U.S. on a temporary basis and complete the Green card paperwork over there only.

Therefore, it can be concluded that there are two cases of migration process that ought to be followed for getting legal right to migrate and obtain Green card to the U.S. as a marriage citizen. A citizen of the U.S. and the non-citizen spouse must undergo this lengthy process of immigration together. So its best to start early!