Adjustment of Immigration Status Lawyer oldd
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Read the following article if you need to know more about how you can adjust your immigration status within the United States.
This information is applicable if you are:
- A foreign spouse of a citizen of the United States of America, currently residing INSIDE the US.
- After entering the country LEGALLY using a valid visa or a Visa Waiver Program. You must also meet all of the following requirements:
- You are the foreign spouse, you must have an unexpired passport from your country of birth/nationality.
- You should be able to prove that you entered the United States legally. This can be done by producing the visa issued by a US consulate prior to your entry, or a white or green I-94 (W) card that was issued at the airport or border.
- Your marriage to your US citizen husband or wife must be valid. What this means, in essence, is that both of them should have been free to marry, that is; you should not be married to anyone else, or your previous marriages should have ended in divorce or the death of the former spouse.
- The foreign spouse and the United States citizen should be currently legally married and should have married for the purpose of joining their lives, and not for purposes of immigration benefits.
- Another condition is that the foreign spouse must not have been convicted of a crime and must not have a history of deportation, removal, and detention by the Department of Homeland Security.
- You can get exemptions in this regard, but this must be carefully discussed with us beforehand.
- The spouse who is a US citizen should have filed taxes with the IRS within the last 3 years and must be in gainful employment and should be earning a salary above the minimum income that has been prescribed by the US Guidelines. of poverty. Be sure to check Form I-864P for current income guidelines as they are always changing.
If any of the following situations apply to you, you will NOT be eligible to apply for adjustment of status while you remain IN THE UNITED STATES:
- If you, the foreign spouse, did not enter the United States LEGALLY, that means; if you entered the country without being inspected, paroled, or admitted by a USCIS officer at the airport or border. The exception is if you meet the requirements of section 245(i) as detailed later in this discussion.
- You, the foreign spouse, entered the United States without a visa while transiting to another country.
- If you, the foreign spouse, are a J1 or J2 visitor who must meet the two-year foreign residence requirement, you have not received a waiver. This type of waiver may be available, but you should check with us beforehand.
- If you, the foreign spouse, entered the country using the K1 fiancé visa, but ended up marrying someone who is not a US citizen who originally filed the K1 visa application.
245 SECTION (i):
This provision of the law allows individuals to remain in the United States while they adjust their status, even if they originally entered the country illegally (without parole, admitted, or inspected by a DHS officer at the airport or border). This applies if:
- You obtained a labor certification or visa application submitted by you before April 30, 2001.
- Your labor certification was approved when it was filed.
- Your visa application was approved when it was filed.
- If your visa application labor certification was filed after January 14, 1998, and on or before April 30, 2001, you were physically present in the US on December 21, 2000.