A US citizen or lawful permanent resident can apply for their spouse to obtain a spousal visa or green card. In some circumstances, it can be advantageous to process the entire spousal visa from within the United States. A knowledgeable immigration attorney can advise you on the spousal visa process and help you determine if processing a spousal visa from within the United States is a good idea for your family.
In general, there are two methods that allow an applicant to process the spousal visa from within the United States. Under the first, the spouse must prove that he or she entered the United States with permission. This usually means that the spouse had obtained another type of visa (i.e. visitor, student, or employment visa) and used it to the enter the United States lawfully. For the second method, the spouse must prove that he or she was the beneficiary or a derivative beneficiary of an application that was filed with US immigration prior to April of 2001. This could be a family or employment-based application.
If a spouse can prove one of these two things, he or she could be eligible to file an application for adjustment of status. This application is used when someone is physically in the United States and wants to change his or her status from one category to another. For example, a spouse in the United States on a visitor visa could submit an application for adjustment of status to change his or her status from visitor to resident in order to obtain a spousal visa.
The adjustment of status application is not as straight forward as it sounds. In order to obtain a spousal visa, the applicant must have the sponsorship and support of his or her US citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse and must prove many factors under the law.
Hiring a trustworthy immigration attorney is imperative to understanding your immigration options in order to obtain a spousal visa. It is also very important to hire an immigration attorney to help you submit the proper forms, applications, fees, and evidence to US immigration so that the spousal visa is processed quickly and correctly.
The immigration attorneys at Vanderwall Immigration have processed many spousal visa applications and can guide you successfully through the immigration process. Call us at 503-206-8414 to set up a consultation to talk about how we can help you obtain a spousal visa.