National Visa Center No Longer Requires Original Civil Documents

In an important (and surely welcome by many) announcement, the National Visa Center (NVC) has announced that as of November 12, 2014, they would no longer start requiring and collecting original civil documents in support of immigrant visa (green card) cases.     Most applicants will simply need to submit photocopies of the applicable required civil documents (birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate, etc.) to NVC and bring the originals to the Consulate for the immigrant visa interview.

New Instructions to NVC Applicants Starting November 12, 2014

After NVC applicants (and their petitioners, as applicable) collect the Affidavit of Support form(s), financial evidence, and supporting civil documents, they are instructed to submit all of the documents to NVC.   As of November 12, 2014, applicants at non-electronic processing posts will be instructed to submit photocopies of their civil documents by mail.   NVC will review the copies and, when the case is documentarily complete, will place the copies into the file, which will be sent to the Consular post, increasing the number of cases that are documentarily qualified.  In other words, not requiring original civil documents is likely to allow more people to complete their NVC process faster.

When the appointment is scheduled, NVC will instruct applicants to bring their original documents to the interview for evaluation and final case processing. Original Affidavit of Support forms will still be submitted to NVC for initial evaluation. Applicants at designated electronic processing posts (and only for those posts) will continue to submit their documents via email.

Conclusion

We welcome this announcement from NVC because it is likely to significantly shorten the time it takes to complete an NVC case.   According to NVC, they expect this slight change in the process to reduce customer wait times and improve the customer experience overall.

We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics.  In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments, or if we can be of any assistance with this or related immigration-related issues.

By | Last Updated: November 14th, 2014| Categories: AOS, Articles, News, Visa Processing|

About the Author: Dimo Michailov

Dimo Michailov
Dimo has over 15 years of experience in US immigration including employment-based immigration benefits, corporate compliance and family based immigration. He represents corporate and individual clients in a wide range of cross-border immigration matters including mobility of key foreign executives and managers, specialized knowledge workers, and foreign nationals with extraordinary ability.

The Capitol Immigration Law Group has been serving the business community for over 15 years and is one of the most widely respected immigration law firms focused solely on U.S. employment-based immigration.   Disclaimer:  we make all efforts to provide timely and accurate information; however, the information in this article may become outdated or may not be applicable to a specific set of facts.  It is not to be construed as legal advice.