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Immigration Visa
What are the categories of immigrants that the U.S. Government allows? What happens when an Indian applies for a visa in order to stay indefinitely in the United States?
Foreign nationals come under a "numerical limitation." It is no longer called a "quota" . There used to be a quota for each country based on the percentage of that country's nationals in the U.S. population at a given time.
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The law changed in 1968, allowing a ceiling of 20,000 immigrant visas per country per year. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizen are not included in this limit-parents, husbands, wives, and children (natural or adopted, under the age of 21)- nor are U. S. residents returning home, or other special categories. All others come under the limitation and are divided into seven preference categories, plus the "non-performance category."
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The first, second, fourth and fifth preferences are all based on relationships. The two big categories in India are the second and fifth preferences. The second preference is usually the spouse of permanent U.S. resident, A "green card holder" who is not a U.S. citizen and lives there on an immigrant visa. When the marriage season arrives, many green card holders come to India to marry and take their spouses back
to the United States with them. Unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents also fall into the second preference category. The fifth preference includes the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens
In both cases, the sponsoring relative must file a petition on behalf of the relative living in India. The petition can be filed and approved either in the United States, at an office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or in India, at a U.S. Consular Office.
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There is another important thing. A person applying for an immigrant visa must show that he/she will have enough funds available and will not become a public charge (that is, will not have to receive welfare payments). Usually this evidence is provide in the form of a notarized affidavit of support accompanied by evidence of income in the U.S. These documents are submitted by the American citizen or green card holder who has filed the petition.
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What about a person who is offered a job in the United States?
In such a case, the employer in the United States applies to the Department of Labor (or the State Employment Service) and has to satisfy that office that the job cannot be filled locally on the basis of Labor Certificate, the person is then placed in a non-preference category. Again, this just puts the applicant on the books. The employer then may apply to the Immigration Service and ask for a preference status for the person -the third or the sixth, depending on the skill level of the job. Professional skills are usually classed as third preference-this is for people like doctors and engineers. Other specialized skills are placed in the sixth preference category.
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One preference not mentioned is the seventh. This is for refugees, like the Afghan refugees, many of whom have recently been admitted to the United States.
The non-performance category includes all others who can show that they are not going to enter the labor market. A green card holder may have parents or children too old or too young to take jobs. Also, persons who wish only to invest in the United States can apply for registration.
But that does not get the applicant a visa?
It gives a place in the queue, a "priority date." An applicant with all the required documents-birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate, medical clearance, passport--could get the visa quickly, if a visa number were available. Unfortunately, non-performance visa numbers have not been available since September 1978. Immigration through this category is, therefore, unlikely for the foreseeable future.
An immigrant visa applicant should not ask for an appointment, i.e. send back the "checklist cover sheet," until all the documents are actually in hand. An applicant might assume that the documents will come through before the appointment, but this does not always happen. Many of the applicants come from a long distance; they have made the trip for nothing. The appointment is wasted; because we turn down the application and take another look at it only when all the papers have come. It doubles work for the applicant and for the authorities.
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