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IMPORTANT! |
There are significant changes to the appointment process beginning March 1, 2008. Please view the Appointments section for more information.
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Salvadorans
and citizens of other foreign countries who wish to obtain
permanent resident status in the U.S. generally must
obtain immigrant visas at the U.S. Embassy. Most immigrant
visa applications begin when a family-member who is a
U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident submits a petition
(Form I-130) on behalf of the intending immigrant to
the office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
in the United States that serves the petitioner's place
of residence. Do not attempt to submit the
completed I-130 form to the Consular Section, we cannot
process
this form. It is also possible in some circumstances
for a U.S. employer to petition to obtain permanent resident
status for a foreign national employee. Click here to
learn more about US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Petition Process
A U.S. citizen may petition for her/his spouse, children,
parents or siblings. A legal permanent resident may
petition for her/his spouse and children. Click here
to check on the status of your petition filed with
the DHS. In certain cases, businesses in the United
States may submit immigrant visa petitions to DHS in
the U.S. on behalf of potential employees. Employment-based
visas are numerically limited each year. See link below.
After approving an immigrant petition, DHS sends the
case to the U.S.
Department of State’s National
Visa Center (NVC) for processing. When the NVC has determined
that a case is approaching the time of the interview,
it notifies the applicant and forwards the case to the
Consular Section.
Because U.S. law limits the number of immigrant visas
that may be issued each year in certain categories, there
is a waiting list for certain types of immigrant visas.
Spouses and children of legal permanent residents, as
well as siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens,
are subject to waiting lists. Immigrant visas for the
spouse and minor unmarried children of a U.S. citizen,
and the parents of a U.S. citizen who is 21 years or
older, are not numerically limited; therefore, applicants
who fall into those categories are not subject to waiting
lists.
Priority Dates
Preparing for the Interview
All applicants for immigrant visas must appear in person
at the Consular Section for an interview.(See the appointments section for specific details.) Prior to
the scheduling of an interview, the NVC or the Consular
Section will send a packet of information instructing
the applicant to gather and send to the Consular Section
all of the documents that will be necessary for the interview.
Once the Consular Section has received all of the preliminary
documentation, we will mail you the Appointment
Package for Immigrant Visa Applicants and schedulean
interview.
Prior to the interview, all immigrant visa applicants
must undergo a physical examination by one of the local
doctors authorized by the Embassy to conduct such
examinations.
Only Embassy
authorized doctors may complete this examination. A
list of authorized doctors is included in the Appointment
Package For Immigrant Visa Applicants.
The Affidavit of Support
U.S. immigration law requires the U.S. citizen or permanent
resident petitioner to prove that he or she will
be able to financially support the visa applicant. In
most family-based visa cases, the petitioner must submit
a signed affidavit of support (Form I-864) and a copy of the petitioner’s U.S. federal tax filings
(1040 and W-2) for the latest year. If a petitioner
is unable to demonstrate that he or she can support
the
current
household size plus the immigrant(s), a different U.S.
citizen or resident may submit an additional affidavit
of support as a joint sponsor.
Appointments
Beginning March 1, 2008, all Immigrant Visa applicants will be required to appear at the Embassy in San Salvador for two separate Immigrant Visa appointments. Applicants will be scheduled for a morning appointment to submit the required case documentation, and will automatically be scheduled for a second appointment one week later in the afternoon for an interview with the Consular Official.
Example schedule:
Monday, May 5th, 7:30 am – First appointment for document submission
Monday, May 12th, 12:30 pm (noon) – Second appointment for interview with Consular Official
All applicants, regardless of whether their appointments were scheduled by the National Visa Center or the Visa Information Center, will be required to appear for both appointments in order for their Immigrant Visa case to be processed.
To accommodate U.S. and local holidays and Embassy closings, an applicant’s second appointment may be scheduled two weeks following the first appointment. Applicants may contact the Visa Information Center for details, or check the list of Embassy holidays.
Once we make an appointment we will notify you or your registered agent by mail, or by e-mail if you so choose. You can check on your appointment time, or request changes by calling our regional Visa Information Center.
Immigrant Visa Fees
At the time of the interview, each immigrant visa
applicant must pay a $400 visa processing fee, effective January 1, 2008 .
For applicants whose files have all of the required documents
during the interview and who have a qualifying sponsor
in the U.S., an immigrant
visa will be issued. The visa will be delivered to
the applicant via Cargo Expreso. The cost of this service
is $13.
Additional
Documents Submitted by Courier
All immigrant visa applicants who have been interviewed,
and have been asked to submit additional documentation
to complete their application, will be asked to arrange
two-way courier service with Cargo Expreso: first, to send
the additional documentation to the Embassy, and second,
for the Embassy to either send the approved visa or
inform the applicant that more information is needed.
U.S.
Citizen – Foreign
National Marriages
K-1 Visas
Marriage in the United States: Fiance(e)
Visa. U.S. citizens may file an I-129F petition with
DHS for the
issuance of a K-1 visa to an alien fiance(e). A citizen
exercising this option must remain unmarried until
the arrival of the fiance(e) in the U.S., and the wedding
must take place within three months of the fiance(e)’s
arrival. Also, the alien and U.S. citizen must have
met personally at least once in the two years before
the
petition was filed.
Marriage Abroad: Alien-Spouse
Visa. If a U.S. citizen marries as alien abroad, an I-130
petition must be filed
with DHS after the marriage to begin the immigration
process for the alien spouse. For marriages in El Salvador,
such petitions may be filed with the DHS office in the
Embassy if the U.S. citizen resides in El Salvador; otherwise,
the petition must be filed with the DHS office near the
citizen’s residence in the U.S.
K3 Visas
K3/K4 visas are for the spouse and children under 21
and single of U.S. citizens. If the petitioner or the
beneficiary of a K3/K4 petition is informed by the NVC
that the petition
has already been forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in San
Salvador, and wishes to obtain information about the
processing of the visa, the petitioner/beneficiary should
contact our regional U.S.
Visa Information Center for
information by providing the customer service representative
the number that the NVC has provided for the case. This
number begins with three letters "SNS" followed
by ten digits.
If the K3/K4 visa is in processing and the petitioner/beneficiary
wishes to obtain information about the status of the
processing, he/she must contact our regional U.S. Visa
Information Center.
Child Citizenship Act of 2000 On February 27, 2001 the Child Citizenship Act of 2000
became effective. The aim of this law, which, among
other things, amends Section 320 of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (INA), is to facilitate the automatic
acquisition of U.S. citizenship for both biological
and adopted children of U.S. citizens who are born
abroad and who do not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth.
Adoptions It is a difficult and time consuming process to adopt
a child in El Salvador. The process frequently takes
two years or longer to complete. Check the links below
for information on how to adopt a child in El Salvador
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