Integrity Legal

Those who read this blog with any frequency may have noticed that the administration routinely posts the estimated processing times from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) as a courtesy to the public-at-large. To quote directly from the official website of the USCIS, USCIS.gov:

Readers may recall that the processing times noted above only pertain to the USCIS processing portion of the overall US visa process. Therefore, readers should not mistake the processing times noted above for the time it takes to actually acquire a visa. After a visa petition has been adjudicated by the officers at the USCIS, if approved, the case file is forwarded to the National Visa Center where it is then sent on to the US Embassy, American Institute, or US Consulate with appropriate Consular jurisdiction. This phase of the process is referred to as Consular Processing. Consular Processing can sometimes be quite quick while, in some cases, the process can be rather cumbersome if the facts of the case are extremely complex.

For related information please see: K1 Visa Thailand.

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It recently came to this blogger’s attention that officials within the government of Myanmar have asked representatives from the United States of America to discontinue calling the Union of Myanmar “Burma”. In order to provide more perspective it may be best to quote directly from a recent posting on MonstersandCritics.com:

Yangon – A senior US diplomat who visited Myanmar last week was asked to stop calling the country Burma if Washington wishes to promote bilateral relations with the new government, media reports said Sunday. The suggestion was made in the course of talks between US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Yun and Myanmar Foreign Minister Wanna Maung Lwin on Wednesday, according to a transcript of the meeting made available to the Myanmar Times newspaper…

The administration of this web log strongly encourages readers to click on the hyperlinks noted above to learn more on this developing story.

Those who follow relations between the United States of America and the Union of Myanmar may be interested to note that Myanmar’s foreign Minister recently noted the need for “Goodwill” between the two nations. To quote directly from a story recently published on the official website of The Straits Times, StraitsTimes.com:

YANGON – MYANMAR has told the United States it will not accept preconditions to improve relations, saying sanctions imposed by Washington remain the biggest obstacle to better ties, a report said on Sunday. ‘We would like to urge the US to build mutual trust in the first place and only then will we be able to frankly discuss ways of promoting the relationship between the two countries,’ Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin was quoted as saying by the weekly Myanmar Times. The minister was speaking on Wednesday to Joseph Yun, deputy US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since the advent of a nominally civilian government…

Again, the administration of this web log asks readers to click upon the hyperlinks above to learn more about this developing story.

It is this blogger’s personal opinion that relations between the United States of America and the Union of Myanmar are likely to improve in the future, but as meetings have only recently been initiated it seems likely that there may be some diplomatic “hiccups” in the early phases. It should be noted that the mere fact that these two nations are having these discussions is a positive development as US-Myanmar relations have been strained in recent decades. Meanwhile, the Union of Myanmar remains a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an organization which seems to be of increasing importance in economic matters pertaining to Southeast Asia.

How the discussions between Myanmar and the United States will ultimately unfold remains to be seen, but for now it is at least nice to see both sides talking.

For related information please see: US Visa Myanmar.

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The following information was quoted directly from the official website of the United States Embassy in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar):

* American Holidays falling on Saturday will be observed the preceding Friday. Holidays falling on Sunday will be observed on the following Monday.

** Burmese Holidays falling on either Saturday or Sunday will be observed only on the respective day. The Embassy will be OPEN the preceding Friday and the following Monday when Burmese holidays are celebrated on either Saturday or Sunday.

For Idd, Deepavali, Karen New Year, Peasants’ Day and Full Moon day of Tabaung, Embassy will observe a liberal leave policy.

Those wishing to visit the official homepage of the American Embassy in Burma please click HERE.

Those Americans seeking services such as 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 (ACS) Section at a US Consulate or US Embassy abroad. Those wishing to receive services from an ACS Section abroad may find it beneficial to make an appointment online to visit the post. Setting an appointment in advance can greatly streamline the processing of requests put before ACS.

Those seeking a temporary visa such as a B-2 visa (US Visitor Visa), B-1 visa (US Business Visa), J-1 visa (US Exchange Visitor Visa), F-1 visa (US Student Visa) are likely to process their visa application through a Non-Immigrant Visa (NIV) Unit at a US Embassy abroad. It should be noted that non-immigrant visa applications are scrutinized pursuant to section 214(b) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act.

Those seeking American family visa benefits such as the CR-1 visa or the IR-1 visa are likely to see their visa application processed through an Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit at a US Post abroad. It should be noted that the K-1 visa, a non-immigrant US fiance visa, is generally treated in much the same manner as immigrant visas. In the past, the same could have been said for the K-3 visa, but since the National Visa Center’s promulgation of the “administrative closure” policy far fewer K-3 visa applications are processed abroad compared to the past.

Those seeking an EB-5 visa or an L-1 visa are likely to be required to process an immigration petition at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in the USA prior to processing a visa application abroad.

For related information please see: US Visa Burma.

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A common question on the lips of many American Citizens with a Burmese husband or wife is: “Can I get my Burmese husband (or wife) a US K3 marriage visa?” In the past, this question would likely have received an unqualified: yes. However, recent changes to the K3 visa process have resulted in the effective end of broad K-3 marriage visa issuance due to the American State Department’s National Visa Center and their policy of “administrative closure” for many K3 visa applications.

To understand the K3 visa process one must first understand why the K3 visa was invented. It was designed to act as a sort of expedited travel document for spouses of American Citizens at a time when the backlog for adjudication of classic Immigrant spouse visa petitions at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) was running quite high. In fact, there was a time when bi-national Burmese-American couples could wait as long as 3 years just to see their I-130 petition adjudicated (this does not take into account National Visa Center processing and Consular Processing of pending visa applications). Due to the aforementioned backlog, Congress and the US President enacted the so-called “Life Act” which, among other things, created the K-3 visa category. The K3 visa petition sort of “piggybacks” onto an underlying spouse visa petition and can only be filed after an initial Immigrant visa petition is filed.

In 2010, the National Visa Center announced that they would “administratively close” K3 visa applications when the underlying Immigrant visa petition arrived before, or at the same time as, the K-3 petition. It would seem that this policy is based upon the premise that the K-3′s utility is negated when USCIS has already adjudicated the Immigrant visa petition. Bearing this in mind, it should be noted that the Immigrant spouse visas (also known as the CR1 Visa or the IR1 Visa, depending upon the circumstances of the couple seeking the visa benefits) confer Lawful Permanent Residence upon the visa holder when admitted to the USA at a port of entry. A K3 visa holder is admitted as a non-immigrant, but the entrant retains the option of either adjusting status in the USA or applying for their immigrant visa at a US Embassy or US Consulate abroad. In any case, the K-3 visa, although slightly faster from an initial processing standpoint, does not grant superior benefits to the foreign spouse upon entry compared to the Immigrant visa categories. Therefore, those currently researching American spousal immigration are wise to delve into information regarding the CR1 or IR1 visas.

Fore related information please see: K3 Visa Burma or K1 Visa Burma.

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Posted in Adjustment of Status, CR1 Visa, K3 Visa, National Visa Center, US Embassy Burma, US Embassy Myanmar, US Embassy Rangoon, US Embassy Yangon, US State Department, US Visa, US Visa and Immigration, USCIS | No Comments »