Family Based Immigration In the United States

<Family Based Immigration>

 

1. Adjustment in the United States (Form I-485)

-Section 245(i)

-Allows adjustment of status for beneficiaries (or in some cases derivatives) of an I-130 petition filed on or before April 30, 2001, to seek adjustment here in the US and is granted a waiver of the inspected and admitted requirement by paying a $1000.00 penalty.   Must still meet all the admissibility requirements

-If I-130 application was filed Between 01/14/1998 and 04/30/2001; must show physical presence in the US on December 21, 2000.

-Filing Fee: $ 2225.00

-Consular Processing

-Done at a U.S. consulate located in the in country of the applicants domicile

-Fees: $445.00 + $165.00 for card to be issued.

 

2. Marriage Based Petitions

(1)What is considered a lawful marriage?

“the validity of the marriage is ordinarily judged by the law of the place where it occurred.”

-What’s included: Must foreign marriages / Common Law marriages

-What’s excluded: Most proxy marriages outside long held religious rights of marriage ( i.e. arranged marriages)/Polygamous marriages / lose interfamily marriages (kissin cousins)

-

(2)What about Fiancés?

-K-1 visa

-Must show intent to marry and prior relationship

-Granted 90 day visa to enter the US and marry.

 

(3)Same Sex Marriages:

-Up until the US v. Windsor decision in June 2013 , same sex marriages were not recognized as lawful for immigration purposes.

-Prior to 1990 homosexuality was grounds for exclusion from the United States.

 

<Bowers v. Hardwick> (1986)

-SCOTUS upholds a Georgia statute criminalizing homosexual sodomy b.c. it was found to be the belief of the majority of the electorate in GA that homosexual sodomy is immoral and unacceptable.

 

<Lawrence v. Texas> (2003)

-February 23, 2011 AG Holder announces the government would no longer defend the constitutionality of DOMA.  Although this should have been a huge reaching declaration, because DOMA was still valid law, USCIS continued to deny same sex marriage applications.

 

 

Fredrik Lee & Kim Immigration Firm In South Korea

Email:office@flkim.com