If you are an US citizen or a Green Card holder, you will have the right to ask for your foreign born family members to join you in the US. But the process is not a simple one, and most importantly, it doesn’t happen overnight. Especially if you are not immediate relatives, the process will take years. Below are a few tips for sponsoring a spouse or fiancé for green card or visa application.

If you are either a permanent resident of a citizen and you are married or engaged to a citizen of another country, that person is legally eligible for a green card. But this is not an instant process.   Your spouse or fiancé will have to go through a multi-step application process. As a resident, you are the one to initiate this, by submitting a petition. Your spouse will not be allowed to enter the US until the petition or application you submitted will be approved.

Note that legally, as a green card holder, and not an US citizen, you cannot bring the fiancé to the United States, until the moment you are married. The idea is that you have to be prepared for a long wait and a rather difficult process.  Every type of visa application involves several stages, including application forms, a medical examination, fingerprinting, and various approvals.

There are a few legal missteps that you are not allowed to take under any situation: if your fiancé used a tourist or temporary visa to the US to get in the country only to be married to you, the person can be liable for visa fraud. Seek immediate immigrant attorney help in this case, as this may further result in denied green card application.

There are different legal requirements for fiancé and marriage visas, so here are a few tips.

–          In order to qualify for a fiancé visa, the immigrant person should prove intention of marrying an US citizen. They have to have met the citizen within the last two years and be legally allowed to get married.

–          Proof will be required in many cases, such as phone bills, love letter copies and contracts for a wedding ceremony. Copies of plane tickets and hotel bills also have to be provided.

–           To be eligible for an immigrant visa, or green card, based on marriage, the immigrant must be legally married. The country where the legal reunion took place is not relevant. The marriage will have to be proven to be a real thing, not a green card scam.

Many application forms are requested in such cases and help from an immigration attorney will be needed, so do not allow yourself proper legal representation.