Immigrant Visas
Application Procedures
This webpage provides information on the visa process for a family-sponsored immigrant visa.
The process is substantially similar for other types of immigrant visas, except that the prospective employer initiates the process for an employment-based visa,
and the applicant himself/herself initiates the process with the diversity visa by following the application rules of the diversity visa program.
Diversity visa applicants are advised to read the U.S. Department of State's warning
about the diversity visa program to ensure that they are not victims of fraud.
Immigrant Visa Petition
The first step in the process to obtain an immigrant visa is for a U.S. citizen (or Legal Permanent Resident) to file a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
on Form I-130 (or I-129F in the case of a fiancé) requesting that his/her relative be permitted to immigrate to the United States. In most cases, Form I-130 (or I-129F) must be filed at a USCIS office in the United States that has jurisdiction over the petitioner's place of residence. However, any American citizen who has lived in Estonia for at least six months, and has an Estonian resident permit (“elamisluba”), can file Form I-130 for his/her spouse, parent or child at the U.S. Embassy's Consular Section. Please read our instructions for filing Form I-130 at the U.S. Embassy.
Approval of Petition
Once the petition is approved by USCIS, the case is then immediately transferred to the National Visa Center which begins the visa process if the beneficiary is an “immediate relative” (spouse, fiancé, parent, unmarried child of an American citizen), and then the case is transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn for final processing. For other numerically limited categories, the case will only be transferred to the National Visa Center when visa numbers become available. Different numerically-limited categories have different wait times. More information is available on the U.S. Department of State's main travel website.
(If Form I-130 is filed at the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn, as described above, the immigrant visa process can commence immediately without any processing by the National Visa Center).
Final Processing
If the petition is approved, the Embassy will instruct the prospective immigrant to collect a number of documents in order to allow the consul to determine his/her identity (e.g., birth certificate, passport, etc.) and whether there is some circumstance listed in U.S. immigration law that precludes the individual from immigrating (such as certain infectious diseases, certain criminal violations, inability of the petitioner to financially support the immigrant, etc.) Applicants are advised not take any action to collect documents, however, until instructed to do so, as documents obtained too soon in the process may expire before the visa can be issued.
Once the Consular Section is sure that the applicant has gathered all necessary documents, the last step will be an interview with a consul at the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn. The applicant will be fingerprinted electronically
and will be interviewed by the consul. If the visa is granted, the immigrant visa will be pasted into the applicant's passport, and the applicant will also be provided with a packet of documents to be presented to the immigration inspector upon arrival in the United States. The immigration inspector at the port of entry in the United States will provide information about issuance of the alien resident card (“green card”) to the immigrant.