QUESTION
How do I get a visa while on green card waiting list?
Asked on Sep 02nd, 2012 on Immigration - California
More details to this question:
My father, a US citizen, is the petitioner for me and my wife (I am F3). He is not living in US now. Our priority date is 2006. We are both medical graduates (I am a surgeon and my wife is a GP). We are happy with our lives in our home country and we are very successful. Our main and sole purpose of coming to US is to continue our education. Right now, we do not have an intention to immigrate, and hope to return after completion of our study. We know how difficult it is to enter residency programs in US (it is also much too hard in our home country), and have prepared ourselves for this task. It is practically impossible to apply for a residency program from outside of US; one should meet some criteria before applying (publishing a paper and some supervised clinical experience [externship], ...), and all these requires the applicant to actually be on US soil. We have to wait at least 4 years before our priority date becomes current. It will be too late for us to enroll a higher education program then. Since we are both planning to enroll higher education programs in our home country too, it is critical for us to be able to come to US within next few months while we are on green card waiting list. Otherwise, we may forget about it altogether. How can we get a visa (any visa)? What if we apply for a research position? Will that help us to get a visa at consular office?
3 ANSWERS
Immigration Law Attorney serving Long Beach, CA
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Law Offices of Brian D. Lerner
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*H-1B Specialty Occupation Visa* You qualify for what is known as the H-1B Specialty Occupation Visa. You will need to have an employer agree to sponsor you for a job. It does not need to be a full-time position, but it should be related to your degree. Our firm can do the entire petition. Once we begin processing and get it filed, it normally takes about six to nine months to get the approval. Please note that H-1B's are very limited and are only available for small periods of time during the year. Therefore, Premium Processing discussed next should be used. If you want a work permit in an expedited manner, you can take advantage of the Premium Processing program at USCIS. This will allow you to have the expedited answer in less than one month. You will need to add $1,500.00 to the cost below for Premium Processing. There are only a limited number of H-1B's and it must be filed by April 1. However, it is still possible it will not get selected for this years allotment.
Answered on Sep 13th, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Immigration Law Attorney serving Los Angeles, CA
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Law Offices of Alan R. Diamante APLC
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You have choices to make here. It seems that you have spotted the issues. The problem is that you want to leave your options open. You must rely on the residency option or withdraw it but you cannot apply for temporary visas at the same time.
Answered on Sep 13th, 2012 at 1:00 AM
It may be truly difficult for you to obtain a nonimmigrant visa with a I-130 pending. Certain nonimmigrant visas, such as H-1B do allow for immigrant intent, while others, such as J-1 do not.
Answered on Sep 12th, 2012 at 8:09 PM