EB4 Visa for Special Immigrants

The applicant must have a permanent employment offer in the US. For example, religious workers must be seeking to enter the U.S to work as ministers in a non-profit religious denomination. Special immigrant juveniles do not need to be employed.

There are additional requirements for each special immigrant category. If you would like to live and work in the US with an EB-4 visa, you get in touch with an immigration attorney to assess your eligibility. You can call us on 0333 305 9375 or contact us online.

To apply for the EB4 visa, you can self-petition, or your US-based employer can submit a petition for you. Please note that not every beneficiary can self-petition; some such as spouses, children, or abusive parents in the U.S. (immigrant juveniles) can do so.

Asides from juveniles, EB4 visa applicants must have a valid permanent job offer from a U.S. based employer within their field of expertise. That employer is to file the petition and must be able to prove that they can pay and financially support the foreign worker (salaried and unsalaried benefits).

There are three steps to applying for the EB4 visa: the petition stage, the application stage, and the visa interview.

At the petition stage, your US employer submits petition for approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The employer must file Form I-360 (Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant) for their foreign employee to receive that approval.

When filing that form, they must submit supporting documents to prove their eligibility to hire and support the foreign employee. Those documents may include tax returns, financial statements, and proof of employment. The category the foreign employee falls into will also determine the documents that the petitioner is to submit when filing the petition.

If the petition is approved, it will be transferred to the National Visa Center (NVC). Then, the beneficiary will receive a welcome notice about the approved petition from the NVC that contains the case number, ID number, invoice ID number, and instructions on what to do next.

When you receive a welcome letter from the NVC, you can proceed to the next stage of the EB4 visa application process, which is applying for the green card through Form DS-260 (Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application) and Form DS-261 (Online Choice of Address and agent).

The DS-261 is a form that tells the Department of State how to communicate with you during the application process. When this form has been processed, the invoices for the attached fees will become available at the NVC’s Consular Electronic Application Center.

Once the payment for the DS-261 has been processed, you can file the online Form DS-260. After submitting the form, you will get a confirmation page which you should print. You should add the confirmation page to your supporting documents and bring them with you to your visa interview.

Your immigrant visa interview is the final step in the EB4 visa application. This interview can occur at the U.S. Embassy in London or any of the U.S. Consulates in the U.K. If you are in the United States, you can interview at your local USCIS office.

The immigration officer may also ask other questions based on the information you provided during the application or as they see fit. The interview is to establish your eligibility and reason for immigrating to the United States.

Suppose the consular officer is satisfied with your responses and documents. In that case, your visa application will be approved, and you will be provided with a sealed packet which you shouldn’t open and should provide to immigration control at the U.S. port of entry.

There are various fees to pay at each step of the process, and the amounts are updated by the USCIS, US Embassy in your home country, and State Department.

When filing Form I-360, the petitioner is to pay $435 unless they are filing under a category not subject to the fees, such as the juvenile category. Those that are exempt file Form I-360 for free.

The beneficiary is to pay the State Department’s application processing fee of $325 and financial support form fee of $120 when filing Form DS-261. There are other fees as well, including the following fees:

• Medical examination fees
• Biometrics fee
• Translation fees (if documents are in a foreign language)

Other fees such as travel expenses and the cost to acquire the required and supporting documents are also involved, and the exact fees for those vary.

Like other employment based visas, there is a limit to the number of EB4 visas processed every year. If your visa is to be processed after the last spot has been filled for the year, it will be processed next year.

Also, for some visa categories, you have to wait for a spot to be open in the visa bulletin to receive a priority date. How long that will take depends on the backlog of applications from your home country and other factors. In addition, the steps also take some time. For example, the NVC can take about three weeks to process the DS-261.

The time it takes to acquire the EB4 visa depends on many factors, including when you applied and how many people applied before you in that year. As many people apply for this visa, it may take months or years before you can get an EB4 visa.