Q: My mother in the United States (US) has just filed an immigrant visa (IV) petition for me to join her. When will I have my visa interview? Where can I find more information about the process?

A: Immigrating to the US is an important and complex decision, and we understand that you have questions about what to do next. The website of the US Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, travel.state.gov is a great resource for IV applicants and their petitioners, and we encourage you to look at the information available there.

The immigration process begins when your sponsoring family member files an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).When USCIS approves the immigrant visa petition, USCIS forwards the petition to the State Department’s National Visa Center (NVC) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for immigrant visa preprocessing at the correct time. (Immediate relative categories do not have yearly numerical limits. However, family preference and employmentbased immigrant categories have numerical limits each year, therefore, lengthy wait times can be involved before processing begins.)

If a visa is available for your petition (or if the Department of State believes that one will be available in the next several months), the NVC will send you, the beneficiary, a letter or email directing you to begin visa pre-processing with the NVC. NVC will begin preprocessing your case by asking you to first choose an agent and then submit the appropriate fees. After the appropriate fees are paid, the NVC will request that you submit the necessary immigrant visa documents, including the Affidavit of Support, application forms, civil documents, and more. If visas are not available for your visa category, the NVC will notify you that the NVC received your petition and will hold it until a visa becomes available.

After you have paid the necessary fees and submitted the required documents to the NVC, they will review your file for completeness. Once your case becomes qualified for an interview, NVC will work with the US Embassy to schedule an appointment for you. NVC schedules appointments one month in advance. The embassy tells NVC what dates they are holding interviews, and NVC fills these appointments in a first-in, first-out manner. Most appointments are set within 60 days of NVC’s receipt of all requested documentation. However, we cannot predict when an interview appointment will be available.

An interview appointment letter is sent to you (the applicant), as well as your petitioner (sponsor), and your agent/attorney (if applicable) to notify you and them of the date, time, and location of the interview once the embassy has an appointment available. There may be a wait of several months for an interview date to become available.Once your interview appointment is scheduled, NVC sends the immigrant visa petition, visa application, and all related forms and documents which were submitted to NVC to the US Embassy in Kingston. We look forward to meeting you at your IV interview.

Immigrant visa applicants currently working with the NVC to complete their IV applications should make sure NVC has a working e-mail address for at least one party on their case. (A case party is the petitioner, beneficiary, or agent/attorney.) If you have not previously given NVC an e-mail address where you can be contacted, please call 1-603-334-0700 to provide your e-mail information. When you call, have your case number, petitioner’s full name, and the beneficiary’s full name and date of birth available. NVC will then be able to e-mail you information and instructions rather than send them via traditional mail, which means you will receive items like NVC’s responses to submitted documents and notice of your visa interview appointment more quickly.

Reminder:

Your appointment time is your arrival time, NOT your interview time. Do not show up earlier than your appointment time.

You can find more information about how to travel to the US on our website, www. kingston.usembassy.gov and the website of our authorised service provider at www.usvisa-info.com. Keep on top of embassy news on our Facebook page, www. facebook.com/pages/USEmbassy- Jamaica, and by following @USEmbassyJA on Twitter. We also answer general visa questions on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Send your questions to: editorial@ jamaicaobserver.com and we will forward them to the embassy.