Visa Information

Once again we would like to publish some questions which we receive daily from our customers. These questions are answered by our counselors of the visa department. All our counselors have a long experience with immigration law and dispose of a great knowledge in the recent visa - regulations.

Please note that the given answers cannot automatically be referred to your own situation. The answers cannot replace a personal counseling and no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information.

Please let us know how we can assist you. We will react to your personal counseling wishes as flexible as possible.

Please click here and enter your questions and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

YOUR QUESTION:
Our daughter has a J-1 visa and goes to High School in the U.S. at the moment. She would like to prolong her stay in order to make her High School diploma. Everything has been organized with the school, the accommodation and the financing. Unfortunately we did not manage to receive the DS-2019 / I-20 yet in order to apply for the extension of her visa. Can you help us with that process?

OUR ANSWER:
Please note that the extension of status as well as the change of status to an F-1 visa is combined to the extension of the I-20 / Ds 2019 form. Since your daughter already has a valid J-1 visa, the new forms have to be filled out by her US High School or the exchange organisation. Unfortunately we are not allowed to fill out those forms for you, because this can only be done by authorized exchange organisations or High Schools, who are registered by the I-20 educational establishments.

YOUR QUESTION:
Since August 2009 I am in the US with a L1A visa, which has been approved for 3 years.
In September 2010 I am getting married to my long-time girlfriend, who will come to me to the U.S. in January 2011. If I am informed correctly, she would need the L2 visa. Normally you apply for that visa while applying for the L1A visa, but by the time I applied for my visa, I was not married. Can you please be so kind and let me know how we can apply for the visa for my future wife? Will she then also be allowed to work in the U.S.?
Furthermore, do you know how I can transcribe my L1A visa to a green card? Is that even possible or do I have to wait until the L1A visa expires?

OUR ANSWER:
It is no problem that you were not married by the time you applied for your visa. As soon as you are married, your wife can apply for the L-2 visa. She needs to make a personal interview appointment at the U.S. consulate in Berlin, Munich or Frankfurt /Main. Please keep in mind to bring the copy of your marriage certificate (and other documents) to the appointment.

Once your wife entered the U.S. with the L-2 visa, she can apply for the Employment Authorization Document at the U.S. immigration office. Unfortunately it is not possible to apply for the working permit up-front. It will take approximately 2-3 months until your wife will receive this document. Only then she can start working.

Please note that it is not possible for you to apply for the green card yourself. The application has to be made by your work employer. Depending on your personal qualifications and your place of work, you could receive an employment-based green card (EB-1, EB-2, EB-3). The application should be done while your L-1 visa is still valid.

YOUR QUESTION:
Once again we would like to spend our vacations in the U.S.. We are planning to enter the U.S. in September 2010. We now realized that our passports are only valid until January 2011. Will it be a problem that our passports will expire then? Do we need new passports?

OUR ANSWER:
If you both have the German nationality, your passports only have to be valid for the entire time of your U.S. visit. There are other nationalities, where the conditions are differently and the passports need to be valid at least another 6 months.
Germany belongs to the so called "six-months-club", and travellers, who have the German nationality, do not need passports which are valid for another 6 months (after their stay in the United States). As long as your passports are valid for the time you will be in the U.S., there should be no problem.

YOUR QUESTION:
We have a small problem. Our son filled out the form DS-160 for the B-2 visa. When he sent the document, he received the information to print out the confirmation including the barcode. When he tried to print the information, our printer broke down.
It was also mentioned that the confirmation could be send to a personal e-mail address, when no printer is available, and our son decided to take that option instead. But the internet connection broke down. We now do not have the barcode number, neither the print out with the pictures. Do you think it would be enough to give the barcode number to the consulate?

Is it possible to fill out the form a second time in order to print the confirmation afterwards? If so, what do we have to answer by the question "did you already apply for a visa before"? Before April 7th, 2010, we had not applied for a visa.

OUR ANSWER:
There is no need to worry. We recommend filling out the DS 160 again and then print the barcode sheet. It happens quite frequently that applicants have to make changes and therefore have to fill out the DS 160 again. This is absolutely no problem for the application process. Of course you should not do that a hundred times, but in your case, there should be no problem.

Your son will need to present the barcode sheet at the interview appointment, so he basically does not have another option than filling out the form again.
Please answer "no", if you are asked if you already applied for a visa before. By sending the form you are not applying for a visa yet.