As a U.S. citizen who is at least 21 years old, you may apply for a green card for your parents. If your parents entered the U.S. legally with a visa, they may be eligible to apply for a green card through adjustment of status inside the U.S. Applying for adjustment of status for your parents in the U.S. requires several steps.
You must satisfy certain requirements before you can file for special immigrant juvenile status and adjustment of status at the same time.
With the I-601A provisional waiver, you will not have to depart the U.S. while your application is pending. If your I-601A is approved, you will be able to leave the U.S. and attend an immigrant visa interview abroad. At that stage, you will have peace of mind knowing that you have the approved waiver in your hands, and you will be able to return to the U.S. to be reunited with your family soon.
If you are outside of the United States, you may apply at a U.S. consulate abroad for an immigrant visa in order to come to the United States and be admitted as a permanent resident. This process is called consular processing. If you are already inside the United States and you entered the U.S. legally (with a visa), you might be able to apply for permanent resident status without having to return to your home country to complete processing. This process is called adjustment of status.
If your immigration application is missing important information or documents, USCIS will not immediately deny your application. Instead, USCIS will first mail you a Request for Evidence (RFE). The purpose of the RFE is to notify you of the defect in your application and give you an opportunity to correct the problem. If you timely respond to the RFE and provide all the information or documents that USCIS requests, USCIS will continue to process your application. If you do not, then USCIS can deny your application.
The Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”) allows a noncitizen who has been abused by a family member to file a petition to adjust status without the knowledge of the abusive family member. The process for applying for VAWA for a person who currently resides in the U.S. consists of several steps.
If, at the time you enter the U.S. on a tourist visa, you intend to immigrate to the U.S., you may be ineligible to receive a green card. However, if, at the time you enter the U.S. on a tourist visa, you fully intended to timely depart from the U.S. and decided to immigrate only after entering the U.S., you may be eligible to receive a green card.
Under the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”), you may be eligible to obtain a green card if you are a victim of abuse. As a VAWA self-petitioner, you generally have three options regarding applying for a green card: you may either (1) apply for a green card at the same time you file your VAWA petition, (2) apply for a green card while your VAWA petition is pending, or (3) apply for a green card after your VAWA petition is approved.
U.S. immigration law defines several scenarios that will make someone ineligible to receive a green card. These scenarios include certain criminal activity, fraud or misrepresentation, and illegal entry into the U.S. However, a VAWA self-petitioner may obtain a green card even if he or she entered the U.S. illegally.
When you submit any application to USCIS, you must provide your actual physical address. During the application process, you may not move your application from one state to another just to increase the processing speed of your application.