Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on what you intend to do in the United States, how long you plan to stay, whether anyone will sponsor you, and your education, work history and family ties. Our visa library explains each category, the guided questionnaire suggests categories worth reading about, and the free assessment is where a consultant looks at your actual situation. None of those is a determination of eligibility — only the US government decides that.

No, and nobody honestly can. Visa decisions rest solely with US government authorities — consular officers and USCIS. What we can do is help you understand your options, prepare documentation that is complete and coherent, and avoid the errors that damage otherwise reasonable applications. Anyone who guarantees an approval is telling you something they cannot deliver.

No. The assessment gathers the information a consultant needs in order to advise you. It does not produce a score, a verdict or an eligibility decision, and we deliberately do not show one — an automated conclusion about something this consequential would be misleading. A person reviews your responses and speaks to you about them.

It depends on the category. Employment categories such as H-1B, L-1 and EB-3 require an employer to petition for you. Family categories require a qualifying relative. Some routes need no sponsor at all — the EB-1A, the EB-2 National Interest Waiver, the E-2 and the student categories among them.

A nonimmigrant visa is for a temporary purpose — study, a work assignment, a business trip, tourism — and generally requires you to intend to leave when it ends. An immigrant visa leads to permanent residence. Some categories tolerate holding a temporary status while a permanent process is under way; others do not, and applying incorrectly can cause real problems.

They are organised into preference categories: EB-1 for priority workers, EB-2 for advanced-degree professionals and those with exceptional ability, EB-3 for professionals and skilled workers, and EB-5 for investors. Most require an employer to sponsor you and complete labour certification. Two do not: the EB-1A and the EB-2 National Interest Waiver.

It is a waiver of the job-offer and labour-certification requirements that EB-2 normally imposes, granted where your proposed work has substantial merit and national importance, you are well positioned to advance it, and it benefits the United States to waive the usual sponsorship. It is not a separate visa, and it is not limited to academics.

EB-1 is for people at the top of their field, outstanding researchers and multinational executives, and needs no labour certification. EB-2 is for advanced-degree professionals and those of exceptional ability. EB-3 covers professional, skilled and other workers. The distinction turns on what the role and the evidence support, and visa availability differs substantially between them.

A US employer petitions for you to fill a specialty occupation — a role normally requiring a specific bachelor’s degree. Because demand usually exceeds the annual limit, most private-sector petitions must first be selected in an electronic registration. Universities and certain non-profit and research employers are typically exempt from that limit.

It lets a business move an existing employee from a foreign office to a related US office. The two entities must have a genuine qualifying relationship, and you must normally have worked for the group abroad for at least one continuous year within the preceding three. L-1A covers managers and executives; L-1B covers specialised knowledge.

Mainly the E-2 and the EB-5. The E-2 is a temporary category open only to nationals of treaty countries, with no fixed investment figure — the test is proportional to the cost of the business. The EB-5 leads to permanent residence, is open to any nationality, has statutory investment thresholds and requires the creation of at least ten qualifying jobs.

In most categories a spouse and unmarried children under 21 may apply as dependants. What they may do once there varies considerably: some dependants may work, some may only study, and some may do neither. It is worth checking the specifics for your category early, because it often affects which route makes sense.

With admission. You apply to institutions approved to enrol international students; once admitted, the school issues a Form I-20, you pay the SEVIS fee and apply for the visa. Funding evidence and your ties to home are central to the interview, so it is worth preparing those properly rather than assembling them the week before.

Complete the Initial Assessment. It takes most people under ten minutes and covers your goal, background, history and circumstances. A consultant reads every response personally — nothing is decided automatically.

You receive a confirmation with a reference number. A consultant then reviews your responses and may contact you for clarification. If a route is worth pursuing, we explain it and invite you to the Detailed Application through a secure link. If we do not think a route is realistic, we tell you that too.

Know your own application thoroughly, bring the documents in an order you can navigate under pressure, and answer what is actually asked — briefly, honestly and consistently with what you submitted. Interviews are usually short. Most avoidable problems come from vague answers, or from an answer that contradicts the paperwork.

Petitions filed with USCIS have a receipt number you can check on the USCIS website, and consular cases can be checked through the Department of State’s status tool. We also keep you informed of what we know at each stage — you should never have to guess where things stand.

It varies with the visa type, government workload, the consular post, whether a petition is required, administrative processing, requests for evidence and your own circumstances. Government processing periods change frequently, which is why we do not publish timeframes — a number on a web page would be out of date and you might plan around it. We will tell you what currently affects your specific route.

It depends on the category, but most cases involve a valid passport, evidence of your education and employment, financial documentation, and civil documents such as birth and marriage certificates. Each visa page lists the documents that category commonly requires, and we give you a checklist specific to your case once a route is identified.

Documents not in English generally require a complete English translation, with a certification from the translator that it is accurate and that they are competent to translate. We tell you which of your documents need this and what form the certification should take.

That is common and it is not by itself a bad sign. USCIS may issue a Request for Evidence, and a consular officer may ask for further documentation. There is a deadline, and responses must address precisely what was asked. We help you understand the request and organise a complete reply.

Yes. Your responses are stored on our own systems under our Privacy Policy and are accessible only to the consultants handling your case. Sensitive disclosures — refusal history, criminal history, background declarations — are encrypted and are excluded from list views and exports by default. We collect only what we need, which is why the initial assessment asks for financial information in bands rather than exact figures.

No. We are an independent immigration consultancy providing administrative and document-preparation assistance. We are not a law firm, we do not provide legal representation, and nothing on this site is legal advice. We are also not affiliated with the US government in any way. If your situation needs licensed legal representation, we will say so.