The next step in getting your visa is to process your EB-1 petition with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This includes submitting supporting documents, proof of sufficient income, and evidence that you have enough living space to accommodate yourself while here.
It can also include proving that you will be attending an appropriate school for your profession. Schools are not required to accept international students so this can pose some difficulties. If you cannot prove that an educational institution accepts non-EU citizens, then you must find another one!
There are several ways to prepare for your trip interview. You do not need to visit the embassy or USCIS at all, but if you did, there are best times to do it. Check out our article about ideal time to visit a new country to get more tips.
The next step in getting your green card is applying for employment under the European Union (EU) Working Visas or other visas that are known as Employment Based Immigrations, more commonly referred to as EB-1 visas.
Under this category of immigration, you will need to prove that your career can make an exceptional contribution to the field of science or technology and that there are insufficient numbers of qualified individuals available within America or the EU country for these positions to be filled by hiring abroad.
Your employer must have a job offer in hand before filing for the visa, so it’s important to start looking immediately!
It is also essential to ensure that your application is authentic and not faked. Immigration officials may question whether you overstated your qualifications, or if someone else claimed responsibility for your achievements. Make sure to keep solid proof documents and receipts around.
As mentioned earlier, to apply for an employment based immigrant visa like the E-B-1 VISA, you will need to have at least two years of full time work experience in your field. These can be within or outside the United States!
Your employer must also verify that they will give you advanced notice about the job position and that there are adequate opportunities available in your area and abroad for you to find career development as part of your job.
This process can take anywhere from a few weeks to months depending on how quickly your recruiter’s office is able to review your documents and speak with their colleagues about your qualifications.
In fact, it is very common for employers to put off submitting the application until all of the paperwork has been completed because they want to make sure everything fits. This is totally fine too since immigration laws do not require applicants to submit applications immediately upon meeting the requirements.
General tips: remember that if your English isn’t quite up to par, this may slow down the processing of your visa slightly.
After receiving confirmation that you have enough money to come back home, you can begin looking forward to visiting USA as a tourist. Unfortunately, however, there is one major step that must be done before you can travel.
That being said, the next thing you need to do is process your EB-1 visa! This takes around two weeks depending on how quickly your department processes applications. Two weeks may seem like a long time, but it’s worth noting that this processing time is not just for the US government, but also for your country of origin.
The cost for processing your application varies depending on several factors, such as whether you are being considered for employment in a job or career that requires advanced education or professional certification, what country you are applying from, how many members of your family will be traveling with you, if you have dependents, and so on.
The total cost to process an EB-1 visa can range anywhere from $2,000 to over $20,000, even before taking into account the costs associated with living outside of America while you wait for approval. In fact, it is very common to spend more than $10,000 on just the initial application!
Given all these additional expenses, it is important to know about the possible delays related to receiving your decision. Because of this, there are some time frames within which you must apply for the visa so that you have enough time to recoup your investment.
After receiving your application, it is sent to an officer for review. This process can take anywhere from one week to months depending on many things — like how busy our officers become during high use days.
Given that most people visit America for the first time in their lives during summer, winter, spring, or fall, these times of year will have lower visa approval rates than say, July through September, when more tourists travel.
And while there’s no way of knowing exactly how long it takes to process each individual visa case, we do know that longer processing times may be due to limited resources (like staff) at the embassy.
It is important to remember that even though you may feel impatient waiting for response, everything possible is done to ensure that applicants who put in the effort to apply for permission to live in the United States receive it as quickly as possible.
It is important to stay up-to-date with all of your application materials as you wait for the officer to review them.
You should make sure that you do not forget anything, whether it be documents or interviews.
By being prepared, you give yourself more time to focus on other things while you are waiting for the next stage in your immigration process.
After receiving your application, USCIS will send you a questionnaire about yourself and your family. This can take up to six months to complete, so be prepared for that!
Next, they’ll review your education records and determine if you qualify as internationally educated or self-sponsored. If you do not qualify under either of these two categories, then you must prove that your degree or proficiency is unique and cannot be learned at another location.
This can take several more months, even years depending on how much evidence you have. Make sure you are well prepared when you start gathering proof materials.
After this, their team members work together to evaluate your English language ability. Because of this, some people may need access to both spoken and written English. You should make sure you are able to speak enough to hold a conversation but also write a few paragraphs in English.
Next comes employment verification which includes proving you currently live within US borders and documents confirming your relationship to your children. All of this has to happen within one year of applying for the visa.
Once all of this is verified, their staff works hard to get your visa processed within around twelve months.
Even though there is an eight month wait for your conditional resident status, that does not mean you have to wait eight months before moving forward with your plans! If it has been more than six months since we received the application materials, then it is time to make moves towards applying for the visa.
It will still take us some time to process your application, but we can give you a sense of whether or not your application was accepted by reviewing our decisions here. This article goes into detail about what to do if your applications are denied and how to appeal these denials.
We also write reviews about each applicant’s case so you know what to expect from yourself. It is very important to stay organized and track your applications using reliable resources. Make sure to check in once a week to see if there has been any progress and don’t forget to save your files regularly.
If one day you wake up and nothing has happened, call us at We Help Millions to discuss your options.
