WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that it is now issuing employment and travel authorization on a single card for certain applicants filing an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Form I-485. This new card represents a significant improvement from the current practice of issuing paper Advance Parole documents.

The card looks similar to the current Employment Authorization Document (EAD) but will include text that reads, “Serves as I-512 Advance Parole.” A card with this text will serve as both an employment authorization and Advance Parole document. The new card is also more secure and more durable than the current paper Advance Parole document.

For those who are unfamiliar with the K-1 visa process, the adjustment of status occurs after a foreign fiancee arrives in America, marries the American petitioner, and files to have their status regularized to that of Lawful Permanent Resident. The card that is given to the foreign spouse is often colloquially referred to as a “Green Card”. Prior to adjustment of status, if a foreign fiancee leaves the USA, then they will need to obtain an advance parole travel document in order to keep their visa status alive and thereby permit reentry to the USA. Failure to obtain advance parole could result in a foreign fiancee losing his or her visa upon departure from the USA and thereby compelling them to go through the whole process anew.

An employment authorization document permits foreign fiancees in the United States on a K-1 visa to work prior to being approved for Green Card status. In many instances, couples opt not to apply for employment authorization and simply await the foreign fiance’s adjustment to Lawful Permanent Residence.

Once a foreign fiance is adjusted to lawful permanent residence, he or she may still be required to eventually apply for a lift of conditions. Those in the USA as a lawful permanent resident based upon marriage are placed in conditional status for the first two years of their presence in the USA if the couple was married less than 2 years at the time they acquired lawful permanent residence.

The above analysis could be utilized for K3 visa purposes as well. However, as the K-3 visa is currently being issued in very rare instances due to administrative closure policies at the National Visa Center, this blogger only mentions this issue as an aside.

For related information please see: K-1 Visa Thailand.

Those seeking services such as the issuance of a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, US Passport, or additional visa pages for a previously issued US Passport are well advised to contact an American Citizen Services Section of the nearest US Embassy or US Consulate with appropriate Consular jurisdiction. It should be noted that in many cases it is possible for one to set an appointment with American Citizen Services in advance. In many cases, setting such an appointment in advance can greatly streamline the processing of requests brought before the Post.

Generally, visa applicant seeking non-immigrant visas such as the B-2 visa (US Tourist Visa), B-1 visa (US Business Visa), F-1 visa (US Student Visa), J-1 visa (Cultural Exchange) are required to process their application through a Non-Immigrant Visa (NIV) Unit abroad. Those seeking non-immigrant visas are generally scrutinized pursuant to section 214(b) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act.

Those seeking US family visas for loved ones from Indonesia are likely to process their request through an Immigrant Visa Unit. However, it should be noted that most immigrant visa applications are only processed after the initial adjudication and approval of an immigration petition at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). For spouses the CR-1 and the IR-1 visa categories have seen increasing popularity since the administrative closure of many K-3 visa applications. For application processing purposes the K-1 visa, although a US fiance visa classified as a non-immigrant travel document, is treated in much the same way as its immigrant visa counterpart.

The Investor visa category commonly referred to as the EB-5 visa requires the applicant to initially process an immigration petition through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). This is also generally true for L-1 visa seekers. In some cases, those seeking an E-2 visa do not need to process an immigration petition if the applicant is not within the jurisdiction of the United States (as defined in the US Immigration and Nationality Act).

For those wishing to visit the official homepage of the US Embassy in Jakarta please click HERE.

Those seeking information related to recent developments in Indonesia please see: EB-5 Visa Indonesia, US Visa Indonesia, or K1 Visa Indonesia.