Installment
Sixty-Five
The Guyanese diaspora has established itself as a vibrant immigrant community in the United States as well as other countries. The U.S. Embassy in Georgetown is committed to working with Guyanese nationals living in Guyana who wish to migrate to the United States in accordance with U.S. immigration laws and regulations. In fact, the U.S. Embassy in Guyana devotes considerable consular resources to adjudicating and processing immigrant visas due to high demand by Guyanese nationals wishing to join U.S. citizen family members already in the United States.
The consular staff seeks to maintain a high level of service, and strives to decrease processing times for qualified applicants. A recent internal study has revealed several ways in which visa applicants often inadvertently increase the amount of time required to process their immigrant visa applications. This edition of Ask the Consul will address several items that immigrant visa applicants should carefully consider before coming to the Embassy for their scheduled visa interview.
Q: Wait – how can I increase the amount of time required to process my immigrant visa? Isn’t that out of my hands?
Yes…and no. The majority of the time you will wait between when your petition is filed and your visa is issued is out of your control. The timing will be dependent on what visa class you are applying for, current immigration law, U.S. Department of State and local Embassy resources and other factors, including but not limited to worldwide demand for immigrant visas. The Department of State website provides a wealth of information on this topic at the following address: http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/permanently.html
There are, however, two opportunities where you can help to speed up the process and decrease your wait time. The first is when your relatives are submitting documents related to the petition with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Before your relative files a petition on your behalf, verify that all of the information on the petition is correct, including spelling of names, dates of birth, dates of marriage, etc.
The second opportunity for you to minimize your wait time happens when you come to the Embassy for your appointment with a consular officer. When your interview date is approaching, check your passport to ensure it has at least six months of validity remaining, and that the passport itself is not damaged in any way. If your passport is damaged or about to expire, you should apply for a new one or get it extended in advance of your interview.
In short, if you plan and prepare carefully you will be helping to avoid unnecessary delay. Those applicants who are well prepared and qualified are frequently able to collect their visas on the day following their visa interview. Poorly prepared applicants, however, may wait several months or even more than a year depending on how many times the Embassy staff has to ask for more or correct information from them. In addition, poorly prepared applicants delay visa issuance for others because of the extra work required of Embassy staff.
Q: I understand the consular officer will want to see my birth and marriage certificates issued here in Guyana as part of my application. Will my original, older documents be sufficient?
The Embassy requires birth, marriage and death certificates issued in Guyana to be no more than two years old at the time of your interview. This includes any such documents that may be required to adjudicate your case, even if a document is referring to your petitioner who was born or married in Guyana but now lives in the United States. In addition, you should also bring, if possible, the original civil documents that were issued, even though they may be more than two years old. Presenting outdated civil documents is one of the most frequent reasons for a delay in immigrant visa issuance. Applicants who have otherwise satisfied every other requirement commonly overlook this simple rule, and wind up waiting days or weeks longer than they would have to as a result. Applicants can plan ahead for this by getting newly issued civil birth or marriage certificates prior to their visa appointment.
Q: My U.S. citizen spouse/fiancée has petitioned for me to join them in the U.S. Do they need to be present for the visa interview with the consular officer?
The Embassy strongly recommends that your spouse or fiancée travel to Guyana to attend the visa interview with you for IR-1, CR-1, K-1 and K-3 visa classes. This is simply because the consular officer needs to understand the nature of your relationship with your spouse or fiancée. While sometimes the officer is able to make a determination without speaking to the petitioner, the presence of your spouse or fiancée will often be the best way to ensure a speedy visa decision.
Q: Is the support of my petitioner sufficient to meet the financial support guidelines, or do I need a joint sponsor?
This is another extremely common cause of delay in immigrant visa applications. U.S. immigration law requires that new immigrants have a financial sponsor until they become citizens. This sponsor can be their petitioner, but only if the petitioner meets certain income guidelines. If the petitioner does not meet the guidelines, one or more joint sponsors must be found that have sufficient income to sponsor the immigrant. This is a complex part of an immigrant visa application. Prior to your interview at the Embassy, you should refer to the following link for comprehensive instructions: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864.pdf Time you spend carefully studying financial support guidelines now may save you weeks or months when your visa interview comes.
Q: A family member is about to petition for me to join him in the U.S. Where can I find more information on the application process?
In addition to the information provided on the main U.S. Department of State website listed above, you should also look at country-specific information provided on the U.S. Embassy, Georgetown website: http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/immigrant_visas.html Finally, if you have more questions, we suggest you contact a reputable, experienced immigration attorney. The consular staff understands that no matter how long you have waited for your U.S. immigrant visa, it probably feels like an eternity to you. By being prepared you will assist the consular staff in the expeditious processing of your immigrant visa application.
“Ask the Consul” is a periodic column from the U.S. Embassy answering questions about U.S. immigration law and visa issues. If you have a general question about visa policy please email it to us at AskGeorge@state.gov. We select questions and publish the answers in Stabroek News and on our website at http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/guyana/ask_con.html. For more information about visas please see http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov or http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/.
Other than the questions we select, we DO NOT respond to questions sent to Ask the Consul. Please contact the visa inquiries unit (email visageorge@state.gov or call 225-7965 between 8 am- 12 pm and 1 pm- 4 pm Monday through Friday) if you have questions about a specific case.
