USA Immigrant Visa Application: A Step by Step Guide

 American immigrant visa for Africans

Are you among those who have gone viral or are looking for convincing tips on how to get an immigrant visa to the USA? Are you a citizen of an African country seriously looking for the lowest real way to obtain an immigrant visa to the United States? Or do you intend to obtain clear and distinct knowledge of how to process immigrant visa to the United States? Then you don't have to worry as the post was created to answer all these questions and many more. And your intended question about immigrant visa to the United States may not be answered here, then go to the comment box below and post your questions.

However, it is quite clear why many people seek visas to the United States. Knowing that living or engaging in any promotional activity in the United States is worth it. Checking people's lifestyle, weather conditions, econometrics, and well-improved education system. The United States is also an interesting country to explore and tourism.

Consequently, many individuals, especially those from developing countries, gain the experience of visiting or living in the United States. However, arrival in the country will require a visa process to immigrate to the country. Hence, this visa process is so tedious that you might lose your next step. Therefore, our team of professionals has gathered to provide a detailed guide for that. But before the procedures, you must take the time to understand what an immigrant visa is and why it is important.

What is a visa

A visa is just a piece of document that gives a person an entry permit to a country. And whose duration is individual on a conditional basis based on the agreement to obtain a visa to the country. Therefore, depending on the conditions required for obtaining any visa to travel to any country, there are different types of visas.

However, the different types of visas can generally be categorized into two main categories;

• Immigrant visa
• His non-immigrant visa.

Immigrant visa

The difference between an immigrant visa and a nonimmigrant visa is very simple. Immigrant visas are visas issued to individuals and citizens of other countries who live permanently in the United States.

non-immigrant visa

They are visas issued to individuals or to citizens of other countries intending to visit the United States for a specified period. They may come for various purposes like tourism, commercial purpose, medicine, etc.

Moreover, the resort is well known and has managed to distinguish between immigrant and nonimmigrant visa. You must have noticed why people often seek an immigrant visa because it will give you permanent access to the United States. So, follow our guides in this article to secure your immigrant visa to the United States.

Steps to obtain an American immigrant visa for Africans

Getting an immigrant visa to the US is definitely not easy, but we have clearly put it into 12 steps to make it easy for you. Hence, carefully follow our guidelines in this article to successfully secure a US immigrant visa for yourself in your country of African citizenship.

# 1. Made a petition

This is the first step to obtaining an immigrant visa to the United States for Africans. To do this, prospective practitioners must file a petition. In other words, you must know a person who is a citizen of the United States or an individual legal permanent resident who is residing in the United States. This is a must if you must obtain an immigrant visa. Hence, they will be responsible for submitting the petition form on your behalf to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They can either help you fill out this form online or go to the USCIS office by mail.

Also, this can be done whether the petitioner is inside or outside the United States. The appropriate channels have been established to address this.

However, to learn more about USCIS, access forms, and see detailed instructions, please click here.

Furthermore, after filing and submitting the petition, we proceed to the next step.

Note: Your immigration petition must be approved by USCIS before you can proceed to the next step which is the National Visa Center.

# 2.Nvc processing

After the visa is approved by USCIS, your visa processing is now transferred to the State Department's National Visa Center for pre-processing. In NVC, the first step is to create your own profile / status in their system. Then, a welcome letter will be sent through the email address you provided or by paper mail. Then, using the information in the message, you can log into the NVC Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) to verify your status, receive messages, and manage your case.

Furthermore, through the CEAC, you will be required to update your details. Such as submitting supporting documents, filling out forms, and paying fees to the NVC. Then they will review to make sure you have submitted all the documents and set you up for the immigrant visa interview at the embassy / consulate in your country. However, US law limits the number of immigrant visas available in certain visa categories each year. This simply means that even if USCIS approves an immigrant visa petition, you may not get an immigrant visa number right away. In addition to this, United States law also limits the number of visas available in certain categories by country. For limited categories, availability of immigrant visa numbers depends on the date the petition was submitted and the number of other people waiting for the same visa category. Hence, early petitions are given priority. Hence the day on which your visa was submitted is referred to as the priority date.

Note: However, immigration and US patriotic law provide that if one does not ond to notifications from the NVC within one year, they risk terminating their petition under this section of the law and forfeiting the benefits of that petition, such as priority date. .

# 3. Pay a fee

After receiving your welcome letter from the NVC, the first immediate step to take is to pay the online processing fee. Often these are processing fees to be paid;

Immigrant visa application processing fee

An affidavit of support fees

Hence, to do this, you will need either a bank routing number and a checking or savings account number from a US-based bank.

Hence, to make a payment, simply log in to your CEAC status and click on the Pay Now button below the Support Fee or IV Fee Statement on your Summary page.

Note: You cannot pay the fees at the same time. You are required to pay them one by one. Then you will pay the immigrant visa application processing fee first. Be aware that you will wait up to a week after payment for the NVC to process your fees before moving to the next step. Thus, you will not be able to access the following form if your payment is not processed by the NVC.

# 4.Certificate of support

This is the next step in securing an immigrant visa to the United States. However, this section of the process must also be completed by the petitioner who assisted you with the first stage of processing. There can also be a combined effort to complete this section because it covers your financial support when you arrive in the United States.

Thus, a Certificate of Support is a document that an individual signs to accept the financial responsibility of an applicant who comes to live in the United States. The person who signs this affidavit of support is known as the immigrant's sponsor.

The applicant must fill out the Affidavit of Support form. However, if the petitioner does not have sufficient income, a joint sponsor may be permitted to fill out the form with the petitioner.

A certificate of support is legally mandatory. Hence, the sponsor

The affidavit of support is legally enforceable. The sponsor's financial responsibility usually continues until the applicant becomes either a U.S citizen, or he or she can be credited with 40 eligible quarters of work (typically 10 years) under Social Security Act.

Thus, in conclusion, the petitioner is required to do the following;

Complete the Support Affidavit Form and;

Gather evidence of their finances and other supporting documents

# 5. Financial documents

This stage of visa processing is the completion of the Affidavit of Support form by the applicant. The financial sponsor (s) will need to collect evidence of their funds and documents. Visit the site, documents required to be submitted by the sponsor (s) are displayed there.

Note: Failure of the sponsor (s) to provide evidence of their finances and documents will delay the processing of your case.

# 6. Order online

After your fee has been approved by the NVC and the fee payment status in CEAC is updated to 'paid', it is time to proceed with completing your online application. Thus, you and each of your eligible family members who immigrate with you must complete the immigrant visa application and the alien registration form.

To complete your application for immigrant visa and alien registration, log in to your CEAC status and click "Start Now" under the fourth application on your summary page.

# 7. Civil documents

While completing the online application, you and each family member who immigrates with you are mandated to collect the civil documents required to support your visa application.

Civil documents must be issued by the official issuing authority in your country. Hence, below are some of the documents required to update it for the application;

• Birth certificates

• Adoption Documentation

• Court and prison records

• Marriage certificates

• Documenting the termination of the marriage

• Military records

• The petitioners document

• A copy of the biographical data page valid for the passport

• Police certificates

# 8. Scan documents

Once you have gathered all the necessary documents, you must scan and save them. And make sure to leave them in the specific required formats and sizes.

Note: Unless the National Visa Center (NVC) specifies to do so, please do not mail any documents to the NVC. If you do, you will delay processing your case and risk losing any documents you submit.

# 9. Submit documents

After scanning the required documents, it is time to proceed to the CEAC portal to upload their documents. Go to the "Start Now" buttons below the Statement of Support and Civil Documents.

If you upload any document incorrectly while uploading documents, you will be notified. Duly ensure all documents are in the required format and file size as specified there.

# 10.Preparing for the interview

After the NVC accepts the uploaded document, they will schedule a visa interview appointment. It will be sent to you,

After the National Visa Center (NVC) determines the date of your visa interview, they will send you, the petitioner and your agent / attorney (if applicable) an email indicating the date and time of the appointment.

After you receive the interview letter from the NVC, you must attend the following before the interview date.

1. Scheduling and completing the medical examination appointment: You will need to obtain a medical report. Hence, this medical report exercise should be performed by an embassy approved doctor, who is also known as a team doctor. He will conduct a medical examination and he can either send the medical report to the embassy or issue an envelope attached to the report. If he hands you the report, do not open it and I will take it to the embassy during the interview.
2. Register for courier service / other instructions before the interview
3. Collecting the documents required for the interview: Every visa applicant, regardless of his age, must bring some documents to the interview. Documents such as photographs, the original copy or a certified copy of all civil documents submitted to the NVC.

Hence, if you are sure that all of these are ready, you are in for the interview.

#11. Interview with the applicant

You are now ready to attend the interview. However, make sure you follow the US Embassy or Consulate interview preparation instructions. The applicant is responsible for bringing all original civil documents or a certified copy to the visa interview. Failure to bring all required documents for an interview may result in visa delay or visa rejection. You must bring the following documents to the interview:

• Appointment letter - The letter of the interview appointment you received from the NVC.
• Passport - For each applicant, an unexpired passport is valid for six months after the specified date of entry into the United States
• Photographs - Two identical color photos (s) for each applicant, which should meet general photography requirements.
• DS-260 Confirmation Page
• Supporting Documents - Original or certified copies of all civil documents that you have uploaded to CEAC.

#12. After the interview

Finally, this is the last stage after which you finish the interview. This is the point where your destiny is to be obtained by obtaining an immigrant visa to the United States. And if all goes well, you will definitely get the immigrant visa of your dreams. The immigrant visa will be placed on a page in your passport. It is advisable to review all details on the visa upon receipt for any errors. Such as incorrect name spelling or any other information. Hence, from here you can plan your trip to start living in the United States.

But on the other hand, if you do not obtain the visa, you will be informed of the reasons for the non-compliance with the visa application.

Hence, on the closing note, if you are still having complications in understanding how to obtain an immigrant visa for Africans after going through this article, feel free to ask using the comments box below.