American citizens marry China citizens, can China citizens immigrate to the United States?

American citizens or permanent residents have the right to apply for immigration to the United States for their foreign spouses. When applying for relative immigration, the most important requirement is to prove the relative relationship between the applicant and American relatives, as well as the economic situation of American citizens or permanent residents. However, in immigration law, there are still differences when American citizens or permanent residents apply for a green card for their spouses. Here we analyze the differences one by one.

(1) Permanent residents apply for immigration for their foreign spouses.

When American permanent residents apply for immigration for their foreign spouses, they must go through the following steps before their foreign spouses can legally live and work in the United States.

First, the applicant must apply for relative immigration for his foreign spouse. After the relative's application for immigration is approved, the Immigration Bureau will give the foreign spouse a priority date.

Second, the waiting period. The immigration schedule of spouses of permanent residents in the United States belongs to the category of relative immigration schedule 2A, and the State Council publishes the immigration schedule every month. At present, the list of spouses of permanent residents in the State Council in 2003 1 month is 1997 10.22, that is, permanent residents apply for immigration for their foreign spouses before 1997 10.22. You can apply for I-485 status adjustment for your foreign spouse in the United States. If this person is not in the United States, his foreign spouse will be informed to go to the local American embassy or consulate to complete the necessary procedures for immigrant visa.

Because there is a time limit for permanent residents to apply for a green card for foreign spouses, it will take about five or six years at present. If foreign spouses want to wait for a green card in the United States, they must always maintain their legal non-immigrant status while waiting for a green card, otherwise they cannot apply for adjusting their status in the United States when scheduling.

Due to the serious backlog of relative immigration visas during the trial, and the spouse and minor children of green card holders (family immigration category 2A) could not legally obtain any other visas to come to the United States before the scheduled date, in order to enable their foreign spouses to come to the United States to reunite with their families while waiting for immigration, former US President Bill Clinton signed a "Legal Immigration and Family Equality Act" (LIFE) on June 65438+February 2/Kloc-0, 2000. A "V" visa has been added for overseas spouses and underage unmarried children of permanent residents, allowing spouses of permanent residents married overseas and their underage unmarried children to enter the United States while waiting for a green card, and allowing them to apply for a work permit in the United States until they obtain legal status.

However, the V visa mentioned above does not apply to the foreign spouse of every permanent resident. Only those who meet the following conditions can apply for a new V visa:

1。 The application for relative immigration was before the life bill was passed: that is, on or before February 2000, 65438+2 1, the green card holder had applied for relative immigration for his spouse or unmarried children, and anyone could apply in the United States or abroad.

2。 The waiting period for immigration has been more than three years: this immigration application must have been submitted to the immigration office for at least three years and is waiting for the immigration office to hear it, or the spouse and minor children of the green card holder have been waiting for the green card for more than three years. That is to say, permanent residents applied for immigration for their foreign spouses on June 5438+February 2 1 2000. If they waited for more than three years on February 2 1 2003, they could apply for a V visa for their foreign spouses to reunite with the United States.