Who is eligible to apply for a spouse visa?

First and foremost, it’s a spouse visa so you have to be married to a United States citizen or a lawful permanent resident in order to have someone to petition for you. You also have to have a bona fide marriage which means that you have to show immigration that you have married this individual for reasons of love and not just to receive an immigration benefit.

Additionally, you have to be admissible to the United States. There’s the Immigration and Nationality Act that has a very long list of problems that an individual can have in immigration. You can’t have any of those issues.

The last point is not so much a requirement as much as it’s a norm. Typically, this immigrant spouse would be living outside of the United States. They would be in another country. They’re the ones who are usually applying for a spouse visa.

There are some limited circumstances in which an individual might actually be currently living in the United States on a student visa or a tourist visa. But in general, the spouse would be living abroad.

The spouse visa is also called an IR1, a CR1, or consular processing. Couples use them interchangeably and all these are referring to the same process.

If you have interest in learning more about eligibility in the process, please check out our free checklist from our website and our free resource center where we go into even more detail regarding the spouse visa and other options that are available to couples.

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