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Platinum Immigration Services, Dallas, TX (2026)

04/16/2020

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06/02/2019

Family Immigration for US Citizens Living Abroad Since Childhood (Expatriates)

Children born in the USA are US Citizens, even if they haven’t actually lived in the USA since they were young children. Citizens in this circumstance who wish as adults to move to the USA with their spouse and children face far different issues than do US Citizens who have lived all or the bulk of their lives in the USA.

First the “expatriate” citizen must secure a US passport, they often never needed before, particularly if they have also been a citizen of the country they’ve been living in, or have never traveled internationally. Then, although the process to bring their spouse and children as immigrants is essentially the same as any other spouse or child of a US Citizen, there are some key differences.
Often, the biggest hurdle is to meet the requirements of the affidavit of support, including qualifying, usually with liquid assets rather than income, or having a family member or close friend living in the USA, act as a qualified joint sponsor. Current income that will not continue from the same source once in the USA cannot be used to qualify. Another affidavit of support related issue unique to the expatriate citizen is showing sufficient evidence of their intention to establish or re-establish US domicile.

It is not enough to simply declare the desire to reside in the USA, file the necessary forms and pay the required fees, even though, intuitively, it would seem that would be plenty of evidence of intent. In reality, the US Citizen usually need to do things like open a US bank account, file US Federal Income Tax Returns going back at least three years, even if their foreign income was entirely exempt from US taxes. They also need to show evidence they’ve at least started the process of arranging an actual domicile. Usually, this is going to require at least one short trip to the USA, before the affidavit of support stage of the process.

In a situation like this, the expatriate citizen’s children, are not already US Citizens, even though one parent is. The children must also go through the same immigrant visa process, that a US citizen’s step child would go through. However, once these children enter the USA with an immigrant visa and take up permanent resident with their now “resident” citizen parent, they DO become US Citizens automatically, and can simply apply for a US Passport. The immigrant spouse, on the other hand, is granted only Conditional Lawful Permanent Resident status if married less than two years when they enter the USA or full Lawful Permanent resident status if married more than two years at entry.

We seldom hear of expatriate citizens in this situation, even thinking about trying to manage the process themselves, as there are so many additional hoops to jump through, compared to resident citizen cases.

06/21/2018

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Explained Without Political Agenda

Anyone watching the news or listening to the radio, has been hearing the term “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” mentioned in one context or another for several years. Usually Comprehensive Immigration Reform is mentioned in news reports within the context of one of four major political agendas listed below, not in order of importance or frequency, but in an order I find most logical to explain for Platinum Immigration readers.

1. Streamlining existing immigration processes

2. Creating a “Guest Worker Program”

3. Gaining control of US Borders (Primarily the Southern border)

4. Creating and implementing a legal and practical way to deal with persons currently in the illegally, or who have overstayed after legal entry to the USA

We almost always hear or read about “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” as if the term itself is code for “Amnesty” on one side or “Compassionate treatment of, or “Path to Citizenship” for “Undocumented Immigrants”, but there is far more to the kinds of Comprehensive Immigration Reform that have been proposed before the US Congress. Most recently, in April 2013, the US Senate introduced, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration and Modernization Act,” written by the so called “Gang of Eight”, which included four Democrats and Four Republicans from the US Senate. The act did not become law but serves as an example of one bipartisan attempt to address the four general politically charged issues I’ve listed above.

It seems logical to me that sometime during the next few years, a similar Congressional Act, will become law, that will address each of these major issue groups in one way or another. Certainly not everybody concerned will be happy with the overall solution, which will deal with far more than the code/buzz-words, “Amnesty” and “Path to Citizenship”. So, I’ll use my knowledge of the actual immigration issues to explain the four primary areas that will have to be addressed in order to achieve what the various Political Agenda or Interest Groups seek, as Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Streamlining existing immigration processes

Existing US Immigration processes consist primarily of laws and processes in place for foreign citizens to legally “immigrate” to the USA, by first obtaining an immigrant visa to enter the USA, become a “Lawful Permanent Resident” and optionally, eventually become a US Citizen through the Naturalization process. The current USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service), now a part of Department of Homeland Security, was formerly the INS, (Immigration and Naturalization Service). It is important to note, that USCIS has a part in all immigration to the USA, but they DO NOT issue visas of any kind, whether for “immigrants” or “visitors” to the USA.

Visitors, who need visas to visit the USA, apply for and obtain their visas by applying through the Non-Immigrant Visa Units housed in US Consulates or Embassies in their country of citizenship or lawful residence.

Intending immigrants, follow a more complicated process that starts with action from a US Citizen, usually a close or immediate family member (spouse, son, daughter, parent etc.) filing a petition with USCIS, which when approved, opens the door for the foreign relative to apply for a visa that can only be issued by an “Immigrant Visa Unit”, at a US Consulate or Embassy abroad. One does not obtain a visa to enter the USA, from inside the USA, or from any other US Government agency besides the Department of State.

Note: Visa expiration dates do not represent the length of time foreigners are allowed to be in the USA. They represent the last date the visa can be used to enter the USA. A stamp on the passport page near the visa, will indicate the date on which the authorized stay ends.

Methods of streamlining these processes are usually discussed or proposed in terms of shortening the processing time, or increasing the quotas for non-immediate family members, like adult children, brothers and sisters of US Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents, so that their immigration process takes less time.

Note that most proposals that include buzzwords like “back of the line” refer, to getting in line behind all those applying to immigrate to the USA including the relatives of Citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents who have been waiting for their turn based on quotas. Increasing quotas makes the processes shorter for those involved in current legal immigration processes, which would also make the “back of the line” closer.

Creating a “Guest Worker Program”

This really is as simple as it sounds. New laws would create a different visa category for guest workers, that would allow “migrants” to whom the visas are granted, to temporarily enter the USA, to work. Just which occupations would be authorized and how long the “guest worker” would be allowed to stay and work in the authorized occupations, is a subject of debate, each time Comprehensive Immigration Reform is seriously considered by either house of Congress.

Gaining Control of US Borders (Primarily the southern border)

In addition to fences, walls and increasing Border Control personnel, gaining control of the borders can involve several kinds of actions to increase control of who is allowed to obtain a visa to enter the USA. Recent items of discussion include to bar or subject to increased vetting, all US visa holders or those presenting themselves for entry through the Visa Waiver Program (sometimes referred to as ESTA), if they have traveled to any of a list of countries known to spawn or train terrorists, those with dual citizenship in one of those countries, or even possibly those whose familial roots are in one of those countries.

Creating and implementing a legal and practical way to deal with persons currently in the illegally, or who have overstayed after legal entry to the USA

Proposed solutions to this complicated problem have ranged from simply giving all these people who do not have a “serious criminal record” (definitions vary on this) full amnesty and allowing them to “register” to be Lawful Permanent Residents, as was done in the 80’s, to the other extreme of rounding them all up and deporting them.

I’ve seen no evidence either of these extremes is likely to be seriously considered by Congress, but because all recent proposals have fallen short of mass deportation, politicians and pundits alike have made amnesty quite the dirty buzz-word, so much so that the “no amnesty” rhetoric, seems to drown out reporting of the other elements of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, from those with access to broadcast or print who are zealous to avoid another mass amnesty for those to whom they refer as “Illegal Aliens”.

From the other side, those with similar media access who are equally zealous about finding and implementing a practical but “compassionate” way to deal with the same group to whom they refer as “Undocumented Immigrants” tend to drown out, for their readers and listeners all discussion of any of the rest of the reforms that would necessarily come with any attempt at Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

The recent “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” of 2013 proposed reforms to deal with each of the four “agendas” discussed above and more. Specifically, the Act , had it become law, would have set up eligibility criteria for a new category of “legal status” for the current “Undocumented Immigrant” or “Illegal Alien”, as you will. This would be accomplished by the proposed “Registered Provisional Immigrant” program. (RPI)

In short, the RPI program would be available to those without significant criminal records, who would pay any taxes due, an application fee (most likely a few hundred dollars) and a $1,000 “penalty”, that under this particular act, could have been paid in installments, but only after certain border security measures were implemented. RPI’s would not be eligible for “means tested benefits”. For all intents and purposes this refers to welfare and Medicaid, etc. that are government benefits awarded to low income citizens, based on a “means test”. (Income Standard based on household size)

Under the 2013 proposed ACT, an RPI’s path to US Citizenship would take a minimum of thirteen years from the time they were granted RPI status. Specifically, they would be required to maintain RPI status for ten years before applying for Lawful Permanent Resident Status. After holding LPR Status for three years, they would be eligible to apply for Naturalization. (US Citizenship)

In comparison, legal immigrants to the USA are eligible to apply for Naturalization after five years of LPR status or three years, if their LPR status was obtained as a result of marriage to a US Citizen. So, the “undocumented” or “illegal” has a thirteen year path to Citizenship, while the legal immigrant has a path of either three or five years.

Is this “Amnesty”? The reader is welcome to make that judgment for themselves, hopefully with more to go on than, what they might hear or read from agenda driven politicians and media pundits.

12/03/2017

US Immigration Options for Foreign Students Marrying Green Card Holders

We frequently get requests from couples where one is a Foreign Student marrying or married to a Lawful Permanent Resident of the USA (Green Card Holder). Often to the potential client’s great surprise, the US doesn’t have nearly as attractive a process for these immigrants, as is available for the spouse of a US Citizen.

In cases where the Green Card Holder is eligible or nearly eligible to Naturalize, the solution is for the resident, to Naturalize as soon as possible, so that Adjustment of Status for the spouse of a US Citizen becomes an a readily available option.

If the foreign spouse’s authorized stay as a student will end too long before their Lawful Permanent Resident Spouse with a green card, is able to become a US Citizen through Naturalization, then the remaining available option is for Green Card Holder to start an immigrant spouse visa process for their foreign spouse, which can take several years to complete, depending on the foreigner’s home country.

These cases can be upgraded to “immigrant spouse of US Citizen“, when and if the green card holder Naturalizes more than a few months before the immigrant visa for spouse of a green card holder becomes available.

Lawful Permanent Residents often think the benefits of Naturalization are limited to being able to vote, and avoiding the possibility of deportation for criminal activity, but for those green card holders marrying foreigners, Naturalization offers some significant benefits not otherwise applicable.

09/05/2016

How Are Fiancée Visa (Female K-1 Visa) Applicants Vetted?

Professional Immigration Consultant Breaks-down The Fiancee Visa Vetting Process So That We Can Better Understand How A Terrorist Was Given An American Visa.

There’s been quite a bit of news reporting about vetting of K-1 visa applicants, since the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by a US Citizen who brought his wife to the USA using the K-1 visa process. However, the vetting process for the K-1 visa, is essentially the same as for a spouse visa or any other category of US “Immigrant Visa”.

Although the K-1 (or K-2 for child) visas are technically non-immigrant visas, because they allow the K-1 visa holder to adjust status to Lawful Permanent Resident, (to immigrate) after marrying the US Citizen who Petitioned for them, they are handled by the Immigrant Visa Units, at US Consulates or Embassies abroad. As such, they receive the same vetting process as any intending immigrant applying for an immigrant visa.

For K-1 visa (fiancé or fiancée) visa applicant from the vast majority of countries, the “vetting” is limited to submitting an official Police Report from any country in which they have actually resided for more than six months since reaching age 16, plus the questions they answer on their biographical form G-325a, submitted to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and on their DS-160 visa application submitted online, to the Department of State’s Immigrant Visa Unit.

USCIS, does do name checks on both the US Citizen Petitioner and the K-1 visa applicant, through available databases, prior to approving the petition, but in most cases, no information is available in those databases, regarding the foreign visa applicant.
Security Checks

Since shortly after September 11, 2001 however, some K-1 visa applicants who are Citizens or Residents of a list of countries from which the risk of the applicant being a terrorist is high, have been subjected to additional, extensive and expensive security checks, only after their visa interview is complete.

The State Department keeps the exact nature and extent of these additional security checks to themselves, but the often include visits to neighbors and relatives, and other common human intelligence investigation methods, on the ground, in country. Often the K-1 visa applicant waits from several weeks, to several months or sometimes a year or more after their visa interview waiting for this Security Check, so called “Administrative Processing” to be completed.

The State Department, undertakes these security checks for nearly all male visa applicants applying through the Immigrant Visa Unit but a female is less likely to undergo this process. Specifically, a Pakistani woman is quite unlikely to be vetted using this “Administrative Processing” after her visa interview.
The Media’s Take On The Vetting Process And How We Get Our Answer.

If you are reading or listening to news reports, it is important to note that the vetting process described above has been in place since, 2001. It was not put in place by or during the Obama administration or Hillary Clinton, while Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton, and Secretary Carey, under the Obama administration had or have Executive authority over the State Department and Consular Services, and may have implemented changes in the details of or extent to which these security checks have been used, but not in such a way that this immigration professional has noticed.
Was The Female Terrorist Involved In The San Bernardino, CA Attack Fully Vetted?

News organizations may want to dig into details, as to whether the female terrorist involved in the San Bernardino, CA attack was fully vetted in this way. How do we get the answer? One would only need to know the date of the interview, as compared to the date of visa issue to know whether she was vetted through the so called “Administrative Processing” round of security checks. If her visa was issued a few days, rather than a few weeks or months after her interview date, these security checks were not completed, in her case.

Read more at http://fianceandspousevisa.com/blog/

08/17/2016

A Warning To Green Card Holders About Voting

Do not register to vote in any election until you have officially been granted US Citizenship.

Going into this election season, it is very important for our clients to understand that for a Green Card holder, (Lawful Permanent Resident) to register to vote is not only improper, but can have severe consequences in the future.

Even though there are States that have instituted policies that do not require evidence of US Citizenship when registering to vote, the voter registration documents do ask whether the person registering is a US Citizen. Many have simply checked the box and gone ahead and registered, knowing that even if the State Law requires showing government issued identification, their driver license will suffice.

While we do not offer legal advice, the publicly searchable “9 FAM” (Foreign Affairs Manual) is quite clear regarding the potential consequences of falsely claiming US Citizenship. There is no more serious a misrepresentation, based on the consequences, dealt with in 9 FAM. The potential consequence of registering to vote or for any other federal or state benefit afforded only to US Citizens includes Deportation and a LIFETIME BAN from entering the USA.

If any reader who is not a US Citizen, has registered to vote in any official State of Federal election, we advise them to seek competent legal advice as soon as possible, to discuss minimizing or eliminating the risk of any future deportation and ban.

The law is, what the law is. Regardless of whether this particular or any other immigrant related law is being consistently enforced today, that can change at any time.
False claims to US Citizenship are taken very seriously by Customs and Border Patrol Officers. Some years ago, I was traveling with my step daughter, when we encountered a border check station on Interstate 10 in West Texas. My step daughter was quite proud of passing her citizenship test just the day before, and proudly answered yes, when a CBP Officer asked if she was a US Citizen. I quickly corrected her, so the officer would hear me, saying, “You WILL BE a US Citizen after your swearing in ceremony, but you’re aren’t a citizen yet.” Fortunately, the officer was understanding and we were soon on our way without incident.

Many have registered to vote, somewhat “innocently” because of the misrepresentations or ignorance of well meaning officers at the DMV (Driver License Offices) or even a campaign worker.

* * DO NOT REGISTER TO VOTE IN ANY ELECTION UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY GRANTED US CITIZENSHIP * *

06/17/2016

Need Help With Your Affidavit Of Support?

In the decade I’ve been involved consulting in family based immigration to the United States, the affidavit of support, specifically the I-864 form used for immigrant visas or to adjust status, has been the subject of the most confusion, both for my clients and the do it yourself folks that contact me when they realize they don’t understand how to properly complete it.

Sometimes the confusion happens before they even try to start completing the affidavit, but nearly as often, it is when either USCIS or the National Visa Center, have rejected the affidavit they’ve submitted.

The affidavit becomes more complicated when the petitioner/sponsor is self employed, and significantly more complicated if a joint sponsor is needed.

Here are a few common issues that cause problems.
Counting Your Spouse

Unintuitive as it may seem, when completing an affidavit for a spouse, the box that says, “If you are currently married, enter (1) for your spouse.” does not apply.

You do not enter a 1 there, because that would violate an earlier instruction, “NOTE: Do not count any member of your household more than once.”

Since your spouse is already counted as the intending immigrant, entering a 1, would make your family size incorrect on the form.
Self Employment “Revenue” and “Income”

A self employed person’s “current ” income will be the same number as entered in the prior tax return section, and it must be the number from the correct line of the tax return.

Self employed sponsors need to instruct their tax professionals they will not be filing an extension for the year in which they will complete their affidavit of support.

Consular Officers will delay their decision if the interview is after the tax filing deadline and no current tax return is provided.

For the self employed, it isn’t “income” until it appears on the “total income” line of a tax return. Don’t confuse “revenue” with “income”. Income is AFTER business expenses are deducted.
Joint Filing Spouse

When a qualified joint sponsor is married and files joint tax returns with their spouse, the appropriate form and signature from the joint filing spouse is required, whether their income is needed to qualify or even if they don’t have any income.

Do You Need Help?

If you are confused, having trouble with or have had your affidavit rejected by USCIS or the National Visa Center, I can help. This is the only “one off” service I will provide. Otherwise I either manage the process from beginning to end, from the middle to the end, or assisting after an initial soft denial of the visa, where additional documentation is requested.

05/18/2016

Potential USCIS Fee Increase!

The Federal Register Comment Period for a Proposed USCIS Fee Schedule began May 4, 2016. The actual fee increases have not been published yet but the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing a proposed weighted average of fee increases averaging 21%.

USCIS, part of the US Department of Homeland Security is not taxpayer funded. They are required to review all costs and continue their status as funded directly by fee collection. In the past, the service has shown itself to be unable or unwilling to keep costs under control. For example, they proposed and implemented fee increases of approximately 300% in late July, 2007, citing the need to hire a significant number of new employees, in order to shorten processing times.

The service did hire a massive number of new employees, and once they were trained, we started seeing modest to excellent improvement in processing time for petition based immigration processes. Unfortunately, the improvement was short lived, and we have been back to similar processing times to those we saw prior to the 2007 tripling of fees, since only a few months after seeing the improvements. By late 2008, at least for the family based immigration processes for which we offer consulting services, USCIS petition processing times have nearly all gone back to the approximate five month standard.

Fiancé and fiancée petition processing has been a mystery, with most petitions being approved within several weeks, and the remainder taking the previous normal processing time of four to five months. Spouse petition cases have actually been averaging closer to six to eight months, instead of the five month standard USCIS regularly publishes.

In the past three years, we have not been able to point to any concrete reason for either the several month differential in processing time for Fiancé and Fiancée petitions, or for the longest processing times since 2005, for spouse petitions. In general, the Executive Branch’s initiatives have taxed the USCIS processing force from time to time, because those initiatives have received priority over existing processes. However, we have been unable to tie delays directly to those initiatives.

If you are considering starting a process that involves USCIS, (That includes all processes for which Platinum Immigration Services offers Consultancy.) then it would seem wise to avoid delay in getting started, as it appears the fees are sure to increase by approximately twenty percent, with no reason to believe the increased fees with impact processing time.

03/12/2016

Family Immigration for US Citizens Living Abroad Since Childhood (Expatriates)

Children born in the USA are US Citizens, even if they haven’t actually lived in the USA since they were young children. Citizens in this circumstance who wish as adults to move to the USA with their spouse and children face far different issues than do US Citizens who have lived all or the bulk of their lives in the USA.

First the “expatriate” citizen must secure a US passport, they often never needed before, particularly if they have also been a citizen of the country they’ve been living in, or have never traveled internationally. Then, although the process to bring their spouse and children as immigrants is essentially the same as any other spouse or child of a US Citizen, there are some key differences.
Often, the biggest hurdle is to meet the requirements of the affidavit of support, including qualifying, usually with liquid assets rather than income, or having a family member or close friend living in the USA, act as a qualified joint sponsor. Current income that will not continue from the same source once in the USA cannot be used to qualify. Another affidavit of support related issue unique to the expatriate citizen is showing sufficient evidence of their intention to establish or re-establish US domicile.

It is not enough to simply declare the desire to reside in the USA, file the necessary forms and pay the required fees, even though, intuitively, it would seem that would be plenty of evidence of intent. In reality, the US Citizen usually need to do things like open a US bank account, file US Federal Income Tax Returns going back at least three years, even if their foreign income was entirely exempt from US taxes. They also need to show evidence they’ve at least started the process of arranging an actual domicile. Usually, this is going to require at least one short trip to the USA, before the affidavit of support stage of the process.

In a situation like this, the expatriate citizen’s children, are not already US Citizens, even though one parent is. The children must also go through the same immigrant visa process, that a US citizen’s step child would go through. However, once these children enter the USA with an immigrant visa and take up permanent resident with their now “resident” citizen parent, they DO become US Citizens automatically, and can simply apply for a US Passport. The immigrant spouse, on the other hand, is granted only Conditional Lawful Permanent Resident status if married less than two years when they enter the USA or full Lawful Permanent resident status if married more than two years at entry.

We seldom hear of expatriate citizens in this situation, even thinking about trying to manage the process themselves, as there are so many additional hoops to jump through, compared to resident citizen cases.

03/04/2016

What Is Meant By Front-loading The Petition?

Pre-loading or "Front-loading are terms used in many spouse, fiancé, or fiancée visa discussions, that refer to adding relationship evidence to the initial petition filing, that is not specifically required. We often find our potential clients are confused about what kinds of evidence are actually required, but will discuss that in another blog post very soon.

Front-loading, is a good idea in some cases. Lots of it is completely necessary in more complicated cases, but in even more of the cases we see, front-loading the file with extra relationship evidence, just isn’t necessary. The trick is to know both which kind of case yours is, and which kinds, and how much additional evidence to provide when needed.

For example, when the couple meets organically or naturally as a matter of conducting their lives, are both of similar age and background and the foreigner is from a visa waiver program country or other low fraud area of the world, and has spent more than a few days together on more than one occasion, chances are, adding additional relationship evidence beyond documenting time spent together in person and some photos together, is more likely to get in the way, than help.

In the other extreme, if the US Citizen is a female more than a few years older than her fiancé or spouse, and the spouse is coming from a country with a reputation for lots of US immigration fraud, AND where it culturally unusual for a young man’s first marriage to be to an older woman (particularly if she is beyond traditional child bearing years), we always advise very specific and extensive additional evidence of a bona fide relationship. Read more about “reverse age difference” issues here. In such cases, we take extra time to go over just what to provide and how to provide it. In most difficult cases, we assist the US Citizen in writing a concise but comprehensive evolution of relationship letter.

Between the two extremes, here at Platinum Immigration Visa we usually advise and assist the couple in providing examples of how and how frequently they communicate, when they are not together in person. Front-loading, when necessary, is quite a balancing act. We don’t want to bury the government officials with so much paper, they read none of it and it does no good. Our goal is to strike a balance that paints the picture with just enough evidence, that is will actually be read, considered and help the decision go our way.

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