Green Card & Visa News » Siblings

Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012.

Tushar Mathur — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:01:00 +0000

“Important Announcement: The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012. The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and U.S. Consulate in Mumbai will become the only acceptance centers in India for Immigrant Visas.
The Immigrant Visa allows an individual to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis, as well as provides the immigrant the opportunity to work towards U.S. citizenship.
Examples of Immigrant Visa based petitions are those that work toward family reunification of parents, children and siblings. These petitions also include Fiancée and the unique employer category, where one’s employer can petition for the individual and their dependents to immigrate to the United States. This change affects only the locations for processing of Immigrant Visas; it does not change the law or policy for visa processing. Applicants currently in the process of petitioning for an Immigrant Visa may contact ChennaiIVU@state.gov for clarification.”

Source: The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai

Family Based Immigration to the United States

Tushar Mathur — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:46:00 +0000

A family based immigration in to the United States is some thing that could be done easily. This is done if you could fulfill the under mentioned terms and conditions. In this kind of immigration the guardian angle happens to be the relative who is either already staying in the United States, or is a lawful permanent resident already in the US.

The above mentioned could be done in 2 ways (this is the IR category).

Some one who is an immediate relative of an US citizen, which is a spouse, widow or an unmarried child who essentially needs to be under the age of 21. This category could also be useful for the parents of an adult US citizen.
People with a returning resident status. This applies to people who have been previously staying in the United States as a permanent resident and now is coming back after a stay in some other nation for a year.

As far as the above mentioned is concerned (limited family based immigration), there are some preferences which are involved in the same. The hierarchy of the preferences are as per the under mentioned.

Preference 1 – Children of people who are already US citizens who are below the age of 21.

Preference 2 – The spouses of the lawful United States citizens with or without their children, who are below the age of 21. However in the case of unmarried daughters there is a relaxation. Daughters even if they are over the age of 21 still they are permissible, as per the said provision.

Preference 3 – Next in the preference grid comes, the number for the children of a United States citizen whose children are married.

Preference 4 – Last but not the least the siblings of a person who has the status of a permanent resident in the United States are also allowed as per the provision.

Be it the IR category or the preference category, the relative in the United States has to first submit a petition related to the immigrant visa. The said petition has to be essentially accompanied by the proof of your relation ship with the citizen who has filed in the petition.

Post the approval is received on the petition that has been filed in by the relative, who is either a citizen or a permanent citizen in the United States, the department of States would be considering to figure out if there is a number that is available to be given to you for the immigration related visa. However this is applicable only if your current residency is out side the United States. In case you are inside the United States then, you could apply for a change in the status. That would involve a form called I – 485.

Visa Bulletin for Oct 2009

Tushar Mathur — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:17:30 +0000

The Visa Bulletin for Oct 2009 has summarized the availability of the number of immigrants during October 2009. As per the same a black and white report would be expected from the consular officers on the qualified applicants. The report is to be send o the United States department of state. I have discussed the same briefly here under and is aimed at benefiting you. Hope the under mentioned would keep you updated on the latest from the United States department of State

The limits for the fiscal year 09, has been fixed as per the provisions of the INA Act (Sec 201). As per the said Immigration and Nationality Act (Sec 201), the annual minimum family sponsored preference limit is 226,000. However as per the same act the Upper limit for the preferred immigrants has been set to a maximum of 7% of the total applications received from the country for the employment based preference and the annual family sponsored preference. However, only 2% has been allotted for the dependent area limit.

The Sec 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, defines the preference of the family sponsored preferences as per the under mentioned.

First – The preference would be given to the unmarried children for the citizens and the number stands at 23,400 plus what ever is the surplus from the numbers allotted to the 4^th preference.

Second – The send in the line would be the spouses and children along with the unmarried children of the permanent residents of the United States.

Third – Third in the line comes the children of citizens who are married in different countries and are have been staying there. The upper limit for this category has been fixed at 23400 plus the surplus of the first two preferences.

Fourth – Siblings of adult United State citizens, and the upper limit of this preference e has been capped at 65,000. This category would also include the surplus of the previous 3 preferences.

There has been mentioned some preferences for the employment based immigrations as well.

1. 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level would be allowed as the first preference.

2. People in profession who holds advanced degree. This category has been capped at the maximum of 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level.

3. The third category is for the skilled workers and the professionals. Again capped at 28.6% of the world wide employment based preference level.

4. This category is for the special immigrants being capped at 7.1% of the total world wide level.