The term “immigration services” refers to assistance provided by various agencies and professionals, either government or private, in immigration matters. These departments are concerned with regulating entry into the United States.
The central immigration services department ‘United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),’ is the legal agency operated by the U.S. government to handle and process various immigration applications, forms, and requests. Moreover, this agency is responsible for issuing and managing visa problems.
Immigration Services
The list of issues that are handled and served by Immigration services are listed below:
- Visa Application
- Adjustment or status change of immigrants
- Deportation hearings
- Petition for family members
- Naturalization
- Citizenship issues
- Immigration and employment matters
- Other concerns and issues regarding immigration
All the immigration services are discussed in detail below:
1. Visa Application
A Visa Application is the first step that an individual takes for immigration to the United States. Whether they want to settle there, work, study, or travel for a short time, they need a visa to enter the United States. Therefore, they have to apply for a U.S. visa to fulfill their dreams.
Following are the four different types of Visa applications:
- Permanent visa
- Student visa
- Family-based petition visa
- Employment-based petition visa
Following are the guidelines to smoothly process the visa application:
- Always use the official form to apply for a visa application.
- Consult with immigration professionals to avoid trouble.
- Must fulfill all the requirements set by USCIS for visa application.
- Submit all your documents, photographs, legal documents, bank accounts details, birth certificates, medical exam records, and other required documents with the application.
- Provide exactly what they will ask for, nothing more or less.
- For immigration medical exams, visit this site: https://immigrationmedical.us to get all the required detail.
2. Change or Adjustment of Status
Change or adjustment of status application is applied to foreign nationals who already live in the United States and fulfill all the requirements of green card holders and U.S. citizenship. For this, an applicant is required to file an I-485 application along with specific documents such as; Medical exam certificate, photographs, green card detail, bank account details, and the required amount of fees. Status adjustment is broadly categorized into two forms;
3. The Green Card Holder or Lawful Permanent Resident
A green card is a permanent residence card that allows non-U.S. citizens to stay in their country permanently and legally. Anyone who wants to stay in the U.S. for their job, study, business, refuges, or any other purpose, this card will allow them to live and work anywhere in the U.S. legally. Moreover, one of the most significant benefits of this card is that the green card holder will become eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship after his/her three years stay in the U.S.
4. U.S. Citizenship or Naturalization
If you have lived in the United States for almost three years as a lawful permanent resident and married to a U.S. citizen, then you are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship (N-400), which is named the naturalization process. While, if you are not married to a U.S. citizen, you have to wait five years to apply for naturalization.
a. Deportation Hearings
Deportation is the process of removing a person from the United States who has illegally entered the U.S., overstayed the U.S. from his visa, or violated the state’s laws.
Before the deportation of an immigrant, the government ensures the necessity of deportation and gives an opportunity to the immigrant to prove that all allegations made against him are false. USCIS pursues and supervises this whole process of deportation, its related hearing, decision, and implementation.
b. Petition for Family Members
In family-based immigration, a beneficiary and petitioner are two family members. A beneficiary is a person who wants to get a green card, and the petitioner is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident who can sponsor his/her foreign family member to get a green card.
Any foreign citizen who wants to live permanently in the United States requires an immigrant visa. So, suppose a person wants to apply for an immigrant visa as a foreign citizen. In that case, he needs to have an immediate relative at least 21 years old and have U.S. citizenship or a green card to sponsor his visa.
Form I-130 is known as a ‘petition for Alien relatives’ that must be filled in case of an immediate relative or any other family preference categories. This process takes 5 to 9 months for a close relative (parent, sibling, spouse, or child of a U.S. citizen), while it takes years for other family members. Overall, the immigration services for family-based categories are held under USCIS.
c. Naturalization and other citizenship issues
If you have completed three years of marriage with a U.S. citizen as a Lawful permanent resident, in that case, you are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship (N-400), which is known as a naturalization process.
On the other hand, people without marriage (with U.S. citizens) will have to wait for five years to apply for the naturalization process. However, careful planning is necessary to fulfill all the required formalities and documentation for the naturalization process.
Immigration services also hold other immigration issues such as dual citizenship (means a person is a citizen of the U.S. and any other country simultaneously), citizenship without a birth certificate, etc.
d. Immigration and Employment matters
I-765 is the application form filed by immigrants who want to enter the U.S. for employment or other investment purposes. It seems clear that the U.S. is one of the fastest-growing economies across the globe. So, they need people who help uplift their economy towards the heights of success.
They hire those people who have extraordinary abilities in science, arts, business, education, athletics, or any other field. They also welcome investors who are equally helpful in accelerating the fast-paced economy. In this regard, USCIS serves all employment-based applicants for a better future in the United States.
e. Other Concerns and Issues regarding Immigration
USCIS also deals with all kinds of problems and issues regarding immigration in the U.S. These issues include your biographic information, scheduling and taking your interviews, eligibility verification, green card replacement, travel documentation, and many other problems.
Reference List
- https://www.findlaw.com/immigration/deportation-removal/deportation-basics.html retrieved on March 16, 2022.
- https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/what-are-immigration-services.html#:~:text=The%20term%20%22immigration%20services%22%20refers,by%20various%20agencies%20and%20professionals.&text=This%20is%20a%20government%20operated,applications%2C%20forms%2C%20and%20requests retrieved on March 16, 2022.
- https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/visa-application-lawyers.html retrieved on March 16, 2022.
- https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/ adjustment of status lawyers retrieved on March 16, 2022.
- https://www.uscis.gov/forms/all-forms retrieved on March 16, 2022