If you have an immediate family member in Ethiopia who you want to bring to the U.S then Ethiopia F4 visa is right for you. Those visa is an immigrant visa that is sponsored under a green card holder. The following blog answers all your queries that you have regarding F4 visas for Ethiopians.
WHO NEEDS F4 VISA?
If you want to bring someone from Ethiopia to the US you would require an F4 visa for the immigrant. And you must remember in order to apply for this you need to be a US citizen, a green card holder. As this vosa will be sponsored under your name.
You will file a petition for the F4 visa on behalf of the Ethiopian citizen and will follow all the steps USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) ask you to be the sponsor.
READ ALSO: ETHIOPIA VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR ANGOLA NATIONALS
PROCEDURE
F4 visas are for brothers and sisters of US citizens and the following is the F4 visa process that applicants can follow:
- Inorder to get your F4 visa you will need to submit a petition for the immigrant relative.This can be done online or you can also fill the paper and mail it in the traditional way.
- Now most of the petitions are filed in US.But if you are filing the petition outside US then you can either fill te petition online at the official Immgiration website or can mail your form to the following address
USCIS
Attn: I-130
P.O. Box 650264
Dallas, TX 75265
- Next step is your petition approval. Your petition needs to be approved before you can proceed to the National Visa Center.
- Once you have completed these steps, further instructions will be given to you by NVC.
- After you have submitted your petition and paid your visa fee, then the NVC will review and verify it. If your petition makes it through, then you will be called by NVC for an interview.
- The NVC will be in touch with the Addis Ababa U.S embassy to schedule your interview.
- At the end of your interview, the officer in charge will let you know whether your visa was approved or rejected. If approved, your visa will take around 60 days to completely get processed.
READ ALSO: ETHIOPIA VISA DOCUMENTS REQUIREMENTS
WHAT IS THE PRIORITY DATE FOR YOUR ETHIOPIA F4 VISA?
Now each Ethiopian applicant has its own priority date which shows their visa status.
Your priority date can be found out by the date USCIS first accepted your FORM I-130 petition submitted by your US green card holder family petitioner.
The next thing for you to do is search for your visa status in the F4 visa bulletin. This bulletin is filled with priority dates that helps you know about the visa waiting periods and when the visas will be given out.
Your priority date, country and preference decides how long it will take for your visa to be approved. If there is more demand for a visa in a particular country than the available visa, then the DOS will issue a cut off date and if your priority date is earlier than the cut off date shown then the visa is available to you.
If the Bulletin shows U in your preferred category then that means visa in your preferred category is temporarily unavailable.
If the bulletin shows C then it indicates your F4 visa current date. Its time for you to move ahead and get in touch with NVC for further instructions. Don't just sit and wait for authorities to reach you out.
VISA RETROGRESSION
Sometimes the cutoff date in the bulletin that shows current in one month won't be shown as current in the next. Even sometimes the cut off date will be moved to an earlier date, this is called visa retrogression. This happens because of more demand for visas than the available visas.
In this case the visas are expected to run out soon. On Oct 1 the new fiscal year begins and even if it is unlikely there is a chance for the cut off dates to be revised and get back to the same dates as they were before retrogression.
READ ALSO: ETHIOPIA VISA APPLICATION FORM
IN CONCLUSION
Tourist visa online helps you in your requirement of information about visas and also help you to apply for visa online. After being provided the documents and required fee we can easily take up your whole visa work on behalf of you.
Further we are always ready to help you out any time regarding your visa. If you aim to learn more or have queries related to the Ethiopia F4 visa priority dates, then you can get in touch with us.
