Important News regarding Immigrant Visas

Statue of Liberty

Effective October 1, 2011, Embassies Copenhagen and Oslo will no longer process immigrant visa (IV) or diversity visa (DV) applications.  These Embassies will neither schedule nor conduct IV or DV interviews after October 1.  As of October 1, 2011, all immigrant and diversity visa interviews and adjudications for residents of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden will take place at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Embassies Copenhagen and Oslo will continue to process all cases currently underway until December 31, 2011.  After December 31, all pending immigrant and diversity visa cases will be transferred to Embassy Stockholm.

Embassies Copenhagen and Oslo will continue to offer some immigration-related services.  For more complete information, please visit the appropriate Embassy website.

Please note this change only affects immigrant visa processing.  Embassies Oslo and Copenhagen will continue to process nonimmigrant visas for business, tourism, education, and other purposes. 

Embassies Copenhagen and Oslo will continue to provide the full range of services to American citizens, including the issuance of U.S. passports, issuance of reports of birth abroad for children born in Denmark and Norway to American citizen parents, provision of emergency services to American citizens, performance of notarial services, and assistance in voting by absentee ballot in U.S. elections.

What is an Immigrant Visa?

An immigrant visa entitles you to take up permanent residence in the U.S.  It means you are going to make the U.S. your principal place of residence for the foreseeable future.  An immigrant visa is required of anyone who wishes to enter the United States to reside there permanently, whether or not that person plans to seek employment in the U.S. 

 If you are going to the U.S. on a temporary work assignment or to study, even if such stay is for several years, you should not seek an immigrant visa.  Please consult the non-immigrant visa webpage.

Categories of Immigrant Visas

U.S. immigration law provides for the issuance of immigrant visas in four general categories:

   1. Immediate Relatives

   2. Family Based Immigrants

   3. Employment Based Immigrants

   4. Diversity Visa ("Green Card") Lottery Winners

Most types of immigrant visa petitions must be filed in the U.S. with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

For further information please click on the following headline to your left: "I-130 Petition Filing on Behalf of a Spouse (husband or Wife), Minor Child, or Parent of a U.S. Citizen".

For detailed information regarding all categories of immigrant visas, please consult the Bureau of Consular Affairs and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services websites.  An abbreviated explanation regarding each immigrant visa category can be found by clicking on the appropriate headline to your left.

The Visa Bulletin

(The world wide waiting list for immigrant visa categories with numerical limitations)

Applicants registered for immigration in the family and employment-based preference categories are subject to the annual numerical limitation on immigrants admitted into the U.S. and are required to wait for the availability of a visa number before final action can be taken on the application. Immigrant visas will be adjudicated in chronological order until the numerical limit for the category is reached.  The filing date of a petition becomes the applicant's priority date.  Immigrant visas cannot be issued until an applicant's priority date is reached.  Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) sets an annual minimum family-sponsored preference limit of 226,000.  The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000.

In certain heavily oversubscribed categories, there may be a waiting period of several years before a priority date is reached.  For the latest priority dates, please check the Visa Bulletin