Visa issuance trends in March of 2021. The case type that we’re specifically seeing this change in is with spouse visas. A lot of people refer to them as CR1 or IR1. Anybody who is married to a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident and lives abroad, when you’re completing a spouse visa process, you will be issued a visa. This occurs at the very end of the process after you have your US embassy or consular interview.

It’s put in your passport and that’s essentially proof that you have been approved to be able to enter the United States as a lawful permanent resident. Typically, those visas have a validity of six months. It’s not mandatory to issue it for six months but they’re typically issued for that amount of time.

The trend we’re seeing is that not everybody is receiving six months validity. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’re seeing some individuals are receiving their visa that only has validity for three to five months. It really just varies because in immigration, it’s hard to predict exactly how each step in the case will go. Everything is different for every case.

When you receive your visa, make sure the date of birth, name, and everything else is spelled correctly. Also, check and pay close attention to the validity of your visa. It’ll have an issuance date and an expiration date. You have to enter the United States before the expiration date to complete the process of receiving your green card here in the US. If you don’t enter before that expiration date, you would have to start your case over and nobody wants to have to do that after a long journey.