When an immigrant is married to a U.S. citizen, they may be eligible for immediate relative immigration benefits if they entered the United States lawfully and are eligible for adjustment of status. By this process, the immigrant and their petitioner spouse can file all applications and documents concurrently with USCIS immigration here for the immigrant interview, with interim employment and travel documents. This is a relatively expeditious immigration procedure, with applicable USCIS office processing times available at www.uscis.gov
While forms and some instructions are available for this process at the same website, there is no real viable option for guidance about the forms, procedures and required documents. If time is not important, you can make multiple submissions to USCIS and receive rejections with corrective action on one or more deficiency. Eventually, the applications may be lodged but USCIS does not provide you with advocacy. For example, immigrants commonly only file the I-130 immigrant petition although they may be eligible and qualified to file as well for adjustment of status concurrently with that petition. In addition, when filing the I-485 individual may not file for employment and travel documents concurrently even though these collateral application can be filed at that time without the payment of additional filing fees.
Having competent counsel during this process can save you both time and money. USCIS has now moved to one central filing procedure for all marriage based applications for adjustment of status, permitting our office to represent couples on a national basis. We offer extensive expertise on marriage based cases from our many years of working with immigrant families. We know too that our fees are reasonable for these services as well.
For the spouse of a U.S. citizen not present in the United States, there is a different process that can result in an immigrant interview at the applicable U.S. Embassy or Consulate for an immigrant visa. This procedure too can be delayed by common errors on any of the applicable forms and procedures. Having competent counsel assist you with the consular process and the initial immigrant petition process can avoid many of these delays and common mistakes. We have expertise over both procedures, and can assist you wherever you may live and seek assistance with these benefits.
