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Clients often ask whether to qualify for an immigrant visa (i.e., a green card) they must intend to establish a residence in the U.S. or move there permanently. For example, a father may wish to apply for an immigrant visa through the EB-5 investor category so that his child can get an immigrant visa to study in the U.S.

The answer is that an applicant will qualify for an immigrant visa regardless of whether he or she intends to establish a residence in the U.S. or move permanently to the U.S.

A green card holder has the “privilege of residing permanently” in the U.S.  INA § 101(a)(20) (emphasis added).  But an immigrant visa applicant is not required to prove an intention to establish a residence in the U.S. or to move to the U.S. permanently. An “immigrant” is simply defined as “every alien except an alien who is within one of the” defined nonimmigrant visa classes. INA § 101(a)(15). Moreover, under 22 C.F.R. § 42.81, the only grounds for refusal of an immigrant visa are INA § 212(a) or INA § 221(g). Neither of those subsections incorporates a requirement that an immigrant visa applicant must intend to establish a residence in the U.S. or move to the U.S. permanently.

As a matter of public policy, it makes sense that Congress doesn’t require immigrant visa applicants to prove an intention to establish a residence in the U.S. or reside permanently in the U.S. First, many immigrant visa  applicants have never been to the U.S. It would be absurd to require them to prove beforehand that they have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of living in a country that they have never been to and formed a clear intent to live there permanently. Second, if consular officers were required to determine immigrant visa  applicants’ intent, the officers would need to rely on objective evidence of intent, such as steps that applicants have taken to sever ties to their home countries. But it could be tragic and costly for an applicant to sever those ties (such as selling a home and quitting a job) if the applicant is subsequently refused an immigrant visa  by the Consulate or refused admission to the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection. The INA does not require such irrational behavior.

It’s critical to realize that although an immigrant visa will be approved regardless of whether the applicant intends to move to the U.S., still a person who gets a green card but doesn’t move to the U.S. will later be at risk of losing it due to abandonment. In short, a green card holder has the privilege of residing permanently in the U.S. but loses that privilege if he or she instead resides abroad. This is a topic for another day.

If you are familiar with the process of applying for an immigrant visa at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, you know that  it can take months for the National Visa Center (NVC) to mail a case to the Consulate. The delay occur because China’s Customs office drags their feet in releasing the Consulate’s mail. NVC has now begun a pilot program to eliminate that delay by sending cases electronically to the Consulate.

As background, a petitioner residing in the U.S. files the Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stateside office. Upon approval, USCIS forwards the case to NVC. The NVC does administrative processing of the file (including collecting the fees and case documents from the petitioner and applicant), then sends the file to the Consulate for interview.

The NVC pilot program to send cases electronically to the Consulate is only available to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens over the age of 21 years, including the following visa categories:

• IR-1: Spouse of U.S. citizen
• IR-2: Child of U.S. citizen
• CR-1: Conditional Spouse of U.S. citizen (i.e., married less than 2 years ago)
• CR-2: Conditional Child of U.S. citizen
• IR-5: Parent of U.S. citizen

An applicant who wishes to participate in the pilot program must send an email to NVC to opt in. Then, the applicant will receive instructions on how to submit documents to NVC by email in PDF format. NVC will forward the electronic documents to the Consulate. Later, the applicant will bring the original documents to the interview.

For persons who opt to use electronic processing, the case number will be changed by NVC so that it starts with “GZO” instead of the original “GUZ” case number.

I haven’t seen any estimates from the government, but my best estimate is that the pilot program will shave an average of 3 months off immigrant visa processing, so that the entire process (from filing the I-130 to obtaining the immigrant visa) will be 9-15 months instead of the previous 12-18 months. Most often, the critical variable for determining whether the case will take closer to 9 or 15 months will be how long USCIS takes to process the I-130.

Our firm is well prepared for the switch to electronic processing because we already do electronic processing for various kinds of cases with the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Labor.

Further information is available on the Consulate’s website and on the NVC’s following webpages:

* Important Notice to Immigrant Visa Applicants Concerning Electronic Processing Requirements
* NVC Immigrant Visa Electronically Processing
* Electronic Processing Participation (how to opt in)

USCIS has announced that applicants may experience up to an eight-week delay in the delivery of their permanent resident cards while USCIS upgrades its card production equipment.

If you have recently been admitted to the U.S. as an immigrant, you will still be able to travel and seek employment in the U.S. Your immigrant visa stamped by USCIS at the time of admission is valid evidence of lawful permanent resident (LPR) status for one year from the date of admission.