Hi, my name is Jacob Sapochnick and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California.
In this video, I wanted to break down the steps of what it takes to legalize an illegal
spouse.
We have a lot of clients who are calling us, emailing us that are currently married or
intending to marry an immigrant that crossed the border illegally, whether it was recently
or years back.
And now they're wondering whether the marriage to that illegal person can allow them to get
legal rights in the United States.
Now, this is a process that is very complicated and will depend on many factors.
Whether the immigrant came here recently, or whether they came here many years ago,
whether they came here as a minor, came here as an adult person, whether they crossed the
border illegally, whether they were smuggled in here.
Those questions, a lot of concerns that we have when we interview those clients.
But essentially, if a person entered the United States illegally after April 2001, when was
the last time where they were able to do something to legalize themselves, and there was not
a petition ever filed for the person.
Since they came illegally, the process to legalize a person that is currently married
to a US citizen who entered illegally has a few steps and I'm going to try to outline
those steps on the board.
The first step, of course, is to get married.
Once the US citizen is married to the foreign national that is currently illegal, an I-130
application has to be filed.
I-130 marriage petition.
So, I-130.
Now, the I-130 petition is based on marriage to a US citizen.
The petition is identifying the relationship with all the information, biographic information
as to where the person is currently residing, where the US citizen currently working.
That petition will be pending roughly for 45 months with the USCIS.
Now, the I-130 is filed with the US Immigration Service in the United States.
It's the USCIS, finally, which takes about four months to process.
Once this petition is approved, the US Immigration Service will forward that petition to the
National Visa Center.
The National Visa Center is a buffer agency between the US Immigration and the US Embassies.
So, this is the NVC, that's another, I would say, three or four months process.
Now, the National Visa Center is designed to accept information from US citizens.
At that point, they will ask for financial information like tax returns, affidavit of
support, any other original documents like birth certificates, and they're going to be
preparing the case for an interview at the US Embassy.
At that point, there are more fees to be paid to the National Visa Center.
The I-130 itself is about $420 at this point.
There are more fees to pay the National Visa Centers, at this stage, another $400, $480.
Once the National Visa Center has completed its processing, the case can be forwarded
to the US Embassy in Ciudad Juarez, if you are Mexican or any other embassy in the world
where the foreign national is from.
So, this is the last step.
It's the US Embassy.
Now, once the case moves to the US Embassy, it's going to take probably another three
to four months before an interview date can be set.
I would say, another four months.
So, this is basically where the foreign national who is currently in the US illegally will
have to decide whether they're going to leave the US and face the US Embassy in their home
country for an interview.
So, what's going to happen is that once the person decides to leave, the risk is that
they're going to be barred for at least 10 years because they spend more than a year
illegally in the US, in most of these cases.
And what's going to happen is once they get to the US Embassy and they face their interview,
in most of these cases, they get denied.
And the reason they get denied is because they overstayed their visa and they left the
US.
At that point, the bar has been triggered.
Now, once they are denied, they have an option to file for a waiver and typically it's called
the 601 Waiver.
And so what that waiver does, it allows us to show if there's an extreme hardship to
the US citizen spouse and we can demonstrate the hardship, legally speaking, to putting
together a package, the US national is able to demonstrate the hardship, their suffering.
If the case is approved, the 601 Waiver is approved, the foreign national will be sent
back to the US Embassy to collect their visa and then there'll be able to come back to
the US with their visa and get the green card.
So, this whole process, in most countries, once you leave and go back to the embassy
may take more than a year even two years depending on where you're from.
The only place right now where it's pretty fast is Mexico where those waivers can be
adjudicated in the question of a month or so after their appointment.
The bottom line is that this is the only way that currently, we are now in 2011, the end
of 2011 beginning of 2012, this is the only way a person who came here illegally can legalize
themselves.
Now, we're hoping that the law will change, we're hoping there's going to be some more
new legislation coming up, but as of today, this is the only way, the only steps.
First, file the I-130 then the case goes to the National Visa Center and then to the US
Embassy and then the decision to leave the country has to be made.
It's very important to make sure the forms and applications are done correctly every
single step of the process, and especially at this point where the case has to go through
a waiver process.
It is important to consult an experienced attorney who knows how to handle waivers.
The bottom line is that it is doable.
It is possible to legalize yourself, even if you're illegal right now, came to the US
illegally, married to a US citizen spouse.
Before you do anything, consult with an attorney and make sure that they know how the waiver
process works.
If you have any other questions, feel free to visit our website or our Facebook page
for more updates.
Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this video.