Marrying a resident of Nigeria? Ways to get a Green Card for the New Spouse

What direction to go and locations to get if you should be a U.S. resident or resident marrying someone from Nigeria

If you’re marrying somebody from Nigeria, and intend to sponsor your brand-new spouse for the U.S. green card (lawful permanent residence), listed here is some important appropriate and information that is practical.

(Warning: this can be a basic breakdown of exactly how the method works for a lot of people. Your circumstances may include complications or be eligible for a exceptions; see a lawyer for the full analysis.)

Immigration Eligibility According To Engagement or Wedding

First, a small back ground on U.S. immigration legislation. Marriage up to a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident provides foreign-born people a primary road to U.S. immigration. As opposed to popular rumor, nevertheless, the internationwide nationwide will not instantly or immediately get the directly to immigrate, nor U.S. citizenship .

If you’re a U.S. resident, your brand-new partner becomes your “immediate general,” and may also get a green card the moment the two of you allow it to be through the application form process. This could simply take 6 months to a 12 months, and sometimes even much longer.

If you should be not yet married as well as your fiancй(e) continues to be in Nigeria, you’ll, if you’re a U.S. citizen, petition for the fiancй(e) to enter the U.S. for a K-1 visa to get hitched into the U.S.—and in that case your brand new partner can use for an eco-friendly card (“adjust status,” utilizing Form I-485 ) if desired. You may want to decide to get hitched first in Nigeria or any other country, then make an application for a visa that is immigrant which to go into the united states of america. (This visa may be the equivalent of a green card. The real card will show up some weeks after your fiancй(e)’s entry to your united states of america.)

If you should be a lawful permanent resident, your brand-new partner becomes a “preference relative,” in category F2A, and that can get permanent residence within the U.S. only after an immigrant visa or green card only after area for the permanent resident in category F2A becomes available according to your partner’s ” concern date. ” yearly restrictions from the quantity of people who is able to be permanent residents in each category and from each nation create this hold off, which luckily, as of late 2018, is all about couple of years for people form Nigeria.

Permanent residents cannot petition for fiancй(e)s.

Breakdown of getting a Green Card According to wedding

The applying procedure for the card that is green on marriage involves numerous actions, such as publishing types and papers and attending an interview with U.S. immigration authorities. The goal of all this work is to show:

• the status associated with U.S. petitioner ( being a citizen or permanent resident)
• that a legitimate wedding has taken place (or will happen, when it comes to a visa that is fiancй
• that the marriage is real (not just a sham to have an eco-friendly card), and
• that the immigrant just isn’t inadmissible into the U.S. for medical, unlawful, economic, or other reasons. (See Inadmissibility: When the U.S. could Keep You Out for details.)

Procedurally, you might do have more than one choice as to where you use, as described below.

Procedures Whenever Trying To Get a K-1 Fiancй Visa

You two have held an informal ceremony that does not count as an official marriage in the location where it was held—you can apply for this temporary (90-day) visa with which your fiancй(e) can enter the U.S. and hold the wedding if you and your intended (who lives outside the U.S.) have not yet married—or.

The U.S. citizen starts this technique by filing a petition on Form I-129F with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration solutions (USCIS). After USCIS approves this petition, it will probably organize to move the full situation to your U.S. consulate in Lagos. Your fiancй(e) will submit an application for A k-1 visa through the consulate. publishing forms and documents and attending a job interview having a consular official. You, the petitioner, are permitted to go to this meeting, though it isn’t needed.

After your wedding within the U.S., your brand-new partner can put on to USCIS for the card that is green through called modification of status (the main type which is why may be the I-485 ) . The two of you will go to a green card meeting at a regional USCIS workplace.

Procedures for in the future From Nigeria for an Immigrant Visa

In the event that you as well as your wife or husband have previously hitched, as well as your partner is in Nigeria, you would begin the green-card application process by filing Form I-130 with USCIS, to show that the both of you are actually hitched and therefore you’re a truly U.S. resident or permanent resident. (See planning A i-130 visa petition for the Immigrating Spouse of U.S. Citizen or Preparing an I-130 Visa Petition when it comes to Immigrating Spouse of the U.S. Permanent Resident .)

After USCIS approves the I-130, partners of U.S. citizens can carry on with visa processing.

Partners of U.S. permanent residents will strike a wait at this time. They’re going to need certainly to wait more or less two years (based on level of need within their category) for the visa in order to become offered to them (an ongoing concern date ). The very good news is that by the time you will get approval associated with I-130, some, if you don’t all, associated with eight months could have passed away. USCIS will forward your file to your NVC, that may inform you when it is time and energy to apply.

Next, your foreign-born partner is certainly going through consular processing for the immigrant visa. This means your spouse submits paperwork to, and attends a job interview at, a U.S. consulate in Lagos. (The U.S. petitioner may go to, it is not necessary to.)

Upon approval, your partner goes into the U.S. on an immigrant visa, of which time she or he becomes a lawful resident that is permanent. Presuming you have compensated the $165 card that is green cost, the green card comes when you look at the mail many weeks later on.

Where in Nigeria the Interview Should Be Held

Even though the U.S. presently has two consulates in Nigeria, located in Abuja and Lagos, all immigrant visa choices are designed during the consulate in Lagos. (Fiancй visas, which theoretically aren’t immigrant visas, are prepared as though these were immigrant visas, therefore the only spot to get one is in Lagos.)

The NVC will let you understand as soon as your instance file is used in Lagos and instruct yoo on about what to complete next. Partners and fiancй(e)s can find instructions at also www.ustraveldocs.com/ng.

When your spouse occurs become surviving in a nation aside from Nigeria, the consulate there would probably function as the anyone to manage the situation.

Procedures When Your Partner Is Already into the U.S.

When your spouse stumbled on the U.S. legitimately (such as for example on a fiancй or pupil visa or being a tourist), she or he can be entitled to use to modify status . The primary kind for that is USCIS Form I-485. Both of you will go to an meeting at certainly one of USCIS’s field offices.

Details about USCIS places or solution facilities are obtainable at its site.uscis.gov that is,www. (Just be sure your partner didn’t commit visa fraudulence utilizing the nonimmigrant visa specifically to go into the U.S. and use for the card that is green. See Risks of Entering the U.S. as being a Tourist, Then trying to get Marriage- Based Green Card for details.)

If you are a U.S. citizen, no matter whether is in appropriate status in the U.S. whenever you apply. However, if you’re a resident that is permanent your partner must certanly be in appropriate status.

There is certainly an added major consideration for partners of permanent residents desperate to adjust status: you must reach the front of the waiting list we mentioned earlier before you can apply. Regrettably, may not tell you when your delay is over—but it is possible to figure it away your self. USCIS has an internet page that explains exactly how.

In case your spouse entered the U.S. without assessment or by utilizing a visa that is fake or has ever been deported through the U.S., is more complicated than can deal with. You’ve probably difficulty finding a green card for , though it is really not impossible. See an immigration lawyer for details or when you have any concerns about whether you qualify to regulate status.

Stepping Into a Legally Valid Marriage

Irrespective of where you marry, get yourself a certification that convinces the U.S. immigration authorities it was legitimately recognized when you look at the state or country where it occurred. here are some suggestions on doing that.

Getting Documentation of the Valid Marriage in Nigeria

When you yourself have hitched, or intend to get hitched in Nigeria, you will definitely first want to consider Nigeria’s demands for appropriate wedding to a noncitizen. The consulate might be able to give you some guidance, or even a neighborhood attorney. Nigeria’s Marriage Act is additionally is ldsplanet free available on the internet.