What is the National Visa Center?
Immigrant visa petitions are generally processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), but depending on where/when you apply for your immigrant visa, the National Visa Center (NVC) may play a vital role in processing your petition. This is especially the case for immigrants planning on using Consular Processing to receive an immigrant visa to enter the U.S. as a Lawful Permanent Resident. Using this method, you will already be approved for your Green Card before you even enter the U.S., but you will be relying on the NVC throughout the process.
What does the National Visa Center do?
In order to begin the process of immigrating to the U.S. from your home country, you must be the beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition filed with USCIS by a qualifying U.S. sponsor, usually a family member or an employer. After USCIS approves the petition, they will send it to the NVC for further processing. Be aware that just because your petition has been approved, it does not mean that you will ultimately be able to immigrate to the U.S. and receive your Green Card There are many other qualifying factors that are considered before this happens, both by the NVC and the consulate where your interview will take place.
Once the NVC receives your petition from USCIS, they will contact you to proceed and give you detailed instructions for the next steps that you will need to take. If you are immigrating to be with an immediate relative who is a U.S. citizen (child, spouse, or parent), the NVC will contact you as soon as they receive your approved petition from USCIS. If you are not an immediate relative, then you are in a preference category that is subject to annual quotas. In that case, you will have to wait until your Priority Date (petition filing date) becomes “current.” This will occur when your Priority Date matches the most recent Cut-Off date published in the Monthly Visa Bulletin. Once your Priority Date is current, then the NVC will begin processing your case.
No matter which circumstance you fall into, the NVC will collect additional fees to process your case, including an Immigrant Visa fee and an Affidavit of Support fee. The NVC will also collect additional documentation (such as identity documents, criminal background clearances, and income tax returns from your sponsor) before completing the processing of your case and forwarding it to your consulate for the scheduling of an interview. Even after your case has been forwarded to your consulate, the NVC will continue to facilitate the processing of your case and can receive supplemental documentation in support of your immigrant visa application.
Why do I have to deal with the National Visa Center?
Although the NVC may seem like just a middleman when going through Consular Processing, the NVC plays an important role in coordinating the processing between you (the immigrant), USCIS, and the U.S. Consulate in your home country. Although all of these federal administrative agencies are connected through the U.S. immigration process, the NVC needs to act as an intermediary to make sure that you have provided all of the information and documents that the Consulate needs to finalize and process your application. In this way, the NVC makes sure that everyone is on “the same page.”
If you are seeking an Immigrant Visa in the U.S. and want more information on the process of receiving your Visa, call U.S. Immigration Lawyer Sean D. Hummel to schedule a consultation..
