Ask the Consul

May 2008

Q: I received my visa yesterday and I have a question. Shouldn't the visa be signed and stamped by the consul? I've checked other visas and they are all signed.

U.S. visas are not signed and stamped by the Consul. When you apply to enter the United States after arriving at a U.S. airport, a customs official will stamp your visa with the maximum amount of time you may stay in the U.S. Normally customs officials grant up to a six-month stay with this stamp. However, travelers are expected to keep to their original travel plan and to only remain in the U.S. long enough to accomplish their intended activity as stated to the Consular Officer. Remaining in the U.S. longer than your stated original plans may result in problems when you apply for a visa in the future.

Q: I´m an American citizen traveling in Armenia, and I´ve run out of pages in my passport. Can I get extra pages added to my passport?

Our American Citizen Services unit can provide additional pages free of charge if there is an open endorsement page which we can use (generally found at the very back of the passport), as well as at least one visa page without visas attached to either side. Please bring your passport in so that we can determine how best to assist you during normal ACS hours, Monday through Friday, from 1:30 - 4:30 pm.

In the event your passport is too full for additional pages, you can apply for a new passport at the Consular Section, even if your current passport is still valid. We normally receive new passports from Washington about a week after we approve your application in Yerevan. You keep your current passport until we receive your new passport.

Q: While browsing on the Internet I have received several congratulatory messages that I have won the opportunity to apply for a green card to the United States. The internet banner ad then takes me to a website that asks for an application fee. Please let me know if this is legal or not.

The website you visited belongs to a private company that fills out green card applications for a fee. This company does not give out green cards. Only the U.S. government grants immigrant visas (what you need to get a green card).

As mentioned in past Ask the Consul posts, while such private services are not illegal, you actually do not need to pay any money to enter the green card (Diversity Visa) lottery. Every October-December there is the opportunity for Armenian citizens to complete their information and enter the lottery free of charge at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/. For more information on the Green Card (Diversity Visa) Lottery, including instructions in Armenian on how to apply, please see our website http://armenia.usembassy.gov/diversity_visa.html.

Q: I am an Iranian citizen living in Iran. I will receive my I-20 form next week for study at Penn State University, and I would like to apply for a student visa. May I schedule an appointment for a student visa in Yerevan?

Iranian citizens residing in Iran usually apply for visas at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey or at the U.S. Consulate-General in Dubai, U.A.E. These two locations have Farsi speaking staff with local knowledge of Iran who can best judge an applicant's ties to Iran - a key factor in determining eligibility for a student visa. There should be no need for you to apply for a visa in Armenia; you should apply in Ankara or Dubai. Both embassies have special programs for expedited appointments for student applicants.

If you do choose to apply for a visa here in Armenia, please carefully read the information 'Applicants not Ordinarily Resident in Armenia' at: http://yerevan.usembassy.gov/consular/nonimmigrant.php

The email address for our offices in Dubai is dubaivisaenquiry@state.gov. To e-mail the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, please visit http://www.usemb-ankara.org.tr/questniv.htm. You should inquire there about a special expedited appointment for students. Further information on the application process and how to schedule an interview is available on these embassy's websites at http://turkey.usembassy.gov/ or http://dubai.usconsulate.gov/.

Q: My wife and my 9-month-old daughter are planning to visit relatives in Los Angeles. Does the Embassy need the passport of my daughter for a visa or can she travel with my wife on the same passport?

Each person wishing to travel to the United States must apply separately for a U.S. visa and present his or her own valid passport in order to receive a visa. Therefore, your 9-month-old daughter will need to have her own passport. Children cannot travel on their parents´ passports or visas. Children, under the age of 16, traveling to the United States alone, should come to their visa interview with their parents or with written permission from their parents to travel to the United States. In the case of children traveling with relatives to the United States, written permission from the child´s parents or a personal appearance by the parents granting permission is still required. At the time of interview, all visa applicants between 14 and 79 years of age will be fingerprinted..

Q: I'm an American and I was recently married in Armenia. What do I need to do to bring my spouse back to the United States with me?

First off, congratulations on your recent nuptials! How you proceed from here depends on how long you have been living in Armenia. If you have been living in Armenia for less than six months and/or do not have a residency permit for Armenia, you will have to file a petition for your spouse to emigrate to the U.S. with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in the United States. Unfortunately, this means your spouse will not be able to immediately join you in the United States and will have to wait until your petition is approved. At that point, he or she will have to come in for a visa interview at the Embassy. You will find complete instructions for how to file a petition for your spouse with on USCIS website.

If you have been living in Armenia for over six months AND have a residency permit or dual citizenship (Armenia and U.S.A.), you can file the petition for your spouse at the Embassy here in Yerevan. Please note that if you have been living in Armenia but do not have a residency permit, you cannot file your petition here. Also, while short absences of a few days to a week are permissible, long periods away from the country will mean that you have to either wait until you've been in Armenia for six months or file your petition in the United States.

To file at the Embassy, you should first come to the American Citizen Services section on any work day from 1:30 - 4:30 pm and pick up the required petition forms. Once you and your spouse have completed the forms, you can return to the Embassy any Thursday from 2 - 5 pm to file your petition with the Immigrant Visa section. You will then have a petition interview with a consular officer and should expect to provide proof that your relationship with your spouse is bona fide. This is usually done by presenting evidence such as photographs showing you and your spouse together over a period of time, in addition to your civil documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates, and, if appropriate, divorce certificates).

If your petition is approved, the Immigrant Visa section is required by law to run a so-called "Adam Walsh check" on the American petitioner. This is a background check that makes sure the petitioner is not the subject of any outstanding police investigations and does not have a police record back in the U.S. that would make him or her ineligible to file a petition. Usually this check comes back in about two weeks, at which point we ask the Armenian citizen to return for a visa interview. The American Citizen petitioner does not need to attend the visa interview, but is welcome to be present if he or she so chooses. If the visa is approved and no documents are missing, a visa will be issued five days later.

Once an immigrant visa has been issued, however, all Armenian citizens are required to deregister with OVIR before they are allowed to leave the country. This is a law of the Government of Armenia, and not a U.S. Government requirement. The deregistration process normally takes between six to eight weeks.

All told, if you are eligible to file your petition here with the Embassy in Armenia, you should expect a four- or five-month wait before your spouse will be able to return with you to the United States. If you need to file with USCIS in the United States, the process will take about one year.