Immigrant Visas

General Information

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  As of January 22, 2007, consular offices abroad were instructed to cease accepting certain immigrant visa petitions because consular officers lacked the means to perform the required criminal background checks on American citizen petitioners, as required by the Adam Walsh Act.  Subsequently, the Department of State and USCIS worked to develop a mechanism whereby USCIS will perform these required "Adam Walsh Act" checks for any petitions accepted abroad by consular officers.

Effective immediately, the U.S. Embassy will accept petitions for immediate relative immigrant classification from American citizens who are resident in Qatar for the preceding six months or longer, including members of the armed forces, as well as true emergency cases, such as life and death or health and safety, and others determined to be in the national interest.  Examples of family emergency include minor children who would be unexpectedly left without a caretaker.  Family reunification or new marriages alone are not emergencies.  Examples of national interest include facilitating the travel of United States military and other USG direct hire employees assigned overseas who are pending transfer on orders and need to petition for immigrant classification of their spouse and minor children at posts overseas.

To demonstrate residency in Qatar, American Citizen petitioners must be able to show that they have held a valid Qatar residence permit and have resided in Qatar continuously for at least six months before filing the petition.  Individuals who are in the country on a temporary status, such as a temporary work contract or tourist, would not be considered to meet the residency standard.

All lawful permanent residents, and American Citizens resident in the United States or with a permanent address in the United States, will file I-130 petitions at the USCIS Service Center having jurisdiction over their place of residence (as indicated on the USCIS website:  http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-130.pdf).

American citizens with further questions on this change who are resident in Qatar should contact the Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy in Doha via telephone at [974] 488-4101, ext. 6118, or via email at IVConsularDoha@state.gov.

USCIS contact information may be found on their webpage at www.uscis.gov.  USCIS can be reached through their National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-800-375-5283 (TTY 1-800-767-1833).  The USCIS Ombudsman may be contacted at cisombudsman@dhs.gov.  Currently, the CIS sub-office in Athens, Greece, has jurisdiction for Qatar as part of the CIS Rome region.  For contact information, please visit:

https://egov.immigration.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=OS

Immigrant visas entitle the recipients to permanent resident status in the United States. Permanent residents, or Green Card holders, may live and work in the U.S. They may also eventually naturalize to become U.S. citizens, if they desire.

Under U.S. law, immigrant visas are generally reserved for the following persons:

• Close relatives of U.S. citizens
• Close relatives of Legal permanent residents
• Those hired to work in jobs that the government has determined cannot be filled by U.S. citizens due to a shortage of Americans with the skills needed to perform these jobs.

Most immigration to the United States is initiated by a close relative or employer in the United States who submits a petition on the applicant's behalf. The petition is usually filed with and adjudicated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) in the U.S.

Certain categories of immigrant visas are numerically limited. This may necessitate a waiting period before the application can be processed. However, spouses of U.S. citizens (and some others) may be processed as soon as the petition is approved and processed by CIS.  When the requisite documentation has been obtained, an immigrant visa interview can be scheduled with a consular officer here at the Embassy.

For more information on Fiancee Visas, please refer to the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly INS) website at http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/Appproc.htm

Inquires should be directed to the Immigrant Visa Unit at the Embassy at +974 488-4101  or emailed to ivconsulardoha@state.gov