Anyone went through the process to take a spouse to America recently. Is it difficult to do on your own or hire an attorney? What are the expected expenses please?
Do you want to take her to America without intending to immigrate? That will be a tough sell. Be sure to get congressmen and senators involved after the first "no", wait for them to respond to your letters with affirmation, then go for the second try. If you expect to get the visa and buy tickets beforehand, you've wasted money. So many people have taken their spouses to America on visit visas, entered the US, and then adjusted status or had them run away, that the burden of proof is a very difficult mountain to climb. I'm telling you that from personal experience, but feel free to disregard it as it is your journey. If you want a resident visa for her, you're almost sure to get one, eventually. Once you've proved you're married with an I-130 and I-130a, established you're fiscally responsible with an affidavit of support and years of tax returns, you wait about 9 to 12 months and you'll be afforded the opportunity to apply for residency via the DS-260. The DS-260 will be viewed in about 7 months and they'll start making sure you've sent them all of the documents that they want. Once they have everything, they will send it to the US Embassy in Manila, which has a very high caseload, for further processing, medical, and your wife's interview. If all the right letters were capitalized on the form and there were no blanks or obvious misunderstandings of the English language, the embassy will make an appointment for her to come for an interview. Don't miss it or try to reschedule it, or you might have to wait months again for a new appointment. Remember for the interview that the point of the immigrant visa is to enter the US and live there and she should be fine. If successful, they'll take her passport and return it in a week or two with a temporary resident visa stamped into it. Afterwards, enter the US every 6 months or less to avoid questions, between 6 months and a year if you lie well or have a good reason to not be in the US for that long, and beyond 1 year only if approved in advance through some form sent to some office. Yeah, I'm a tad bitter over the whole thing since it takes so long, but I haven't used an attorney and my wife now has her resident card. We applied in June of 2020. If you don't intend to ever live in the US, get that first no for the visit visa, write your congressmen and senators explaining your intent, remind them you're a veteran that fought for your country, and you may be successful on your second attempt for the visit visa. Or, you might apply and be accepted with no problems whatsoever and have a lovely stay in the US, just don't bet on it.
You can do this on your own or hire a service... on your own roughly 1500.00 spread over a year, service is much higher and is upfront for some of the fee and all of their charges... be prepared to wait lang... visajourney.com will answer most of your questions
