If you're at the National Visa Center phase of your case, there's a whole new list
of documents that you'll need to collect and a very common question is, "What documents do I need?
Is there a standard list?" The answer is it really depends
on the country where your interview will occur. It also depends on the specifics of your case.
If you are just beginning your immigration journey or if you haven't
gotten to this phase in your case, I'd like to provide an overview
of what the National Visa Center really is and when it comes into play. For individuals
who are going through the spouse visa process, here at Immigration for Couples that is what
we are dedicated to doing is helping couples so I will just focus on spouse visas. There are
other cases where the National Visa Center plays a role but in spouse visa cases, that is when a
United States citizen is petitioning their spouse who lives in another country for their spouse to
be able to receive a green card and enter the United States. In that first step, you file a
petition with immigration to show immigration that you have a real relationship. Once that petition is
approved, the next step is a consular or embassy interview at a US embassy or consulate abroad.
That's why this process is called a spouse visa or consular processing is another name
that it is called. The National Visa Center's role is essentially
to collect copies of all of your required documents to make sure
that you have everything that is needed so when you go to your US embassy or consular interview,
immigration knows you have all of the required documents. To go on to the question
of what documents are required, again the answer is it really will depend on your immigration history
and the specifics of your case and the country where your interview will occur.
Once your I-130 application or petition is approved, you'll receive a notice
from the National Visa Center called an NVC case creation notice and it will give you instructions
to begin completing your online application in collecting the required documents. But if you'd
like to know what documents are required and if you want to work ahead, you can go to the
National Visa Center website. Look for National Visa Center prepare for your interview or
NVC prepare for your interview and you'll be able to find a general list of the required documents
if you're wanting to work ahead. A few examples of what it means by it depends
is maybe if you've been previously married,
you would need a divorce certificate or perhaps a death certificate
to show that that prior relationship had ended. That would be a unique circumstance
or a document that might not be needed in all cases if that's not applicable. Another
thing to pay attention to is if you have lived in multiple countries. One of the requirements is
any country where you have lived for more than six months after the age of 16,
you would have to obtain a police clearance certificate. There's a detailed chart
and I can make another video on that but that would be something that has to be based on
your particular situation, determine what places that you have lived, what other countries you
have lived, and what police clearance letters you would need. That's just another example but
a good way to start and to work ahead and to know what documents are needed would be going
to the National Visa Center website and seeing prepare for your interview or the required civil
documents and then you can go through that list to begin working ahead and preparing for the
documents that would be needed for your specific case. That is a general overview of how
you can determine what documents you will need for your particular case type.