After the U.S. immigrant visa you have applied for is approved, you will receive your passport back, with the visa affixed to one of its pages and a cover letter, which might contain country-specific information or information specific to your visa type. (This is the procedure only if you were interviewed overseas at a U.S. embassy or consulate, not if you adjusted status in the United States.) But you might also be given a sealed immigrant visa packet, unless all your documents were transmitted electronically. (If so, you'll see the notation “IV Docs in CCD” with the visa stamp in your passport.)
You do not ordinarily get your passport and packet on the same day as your U.S. consular interview, but will receive them via DHL or another local delivery service several days after the visa is approved. In certain countries, you might have to pick up the passport of packet in person.
After Receiving Your Visa Packet
If and when you receive the packet, carefully read the cover letter that comes with it. You should also check the visa in your passport, to make sure there are no errors. The cover letter will also contain instructions on how to pay your green card processing fee, which you should pay before you travel to the U.S.
Most importantly, take note of the expiration date on your actual visa, because you must enter the U.S. before this date. Different members of your family might have different expiration dates, so make sure to look at everyone’s visas.
Whatever you do, do not open the packet. It must remain sealed until a U.S. immigration officer opens it at the port of entry, for example at the airport where you land.
What's in Your Visa Packet: Your Immigration File
The immigration packet is usually a sealed manila envelope. Your name and other biographical data will be on the outside. The envelope contains:
- your immigrant visa petition
- copies of your identity documents
- any relationship evidence or other evidence required for your visa type
- your I-864 Affidavit of Support and supporting documents
- your medical exam report (x-rays might be in a separate envelope), and
- waivers (if you received a waiver of ineligibility).
There have been some pilot programs to digitize the entire A-file, in which immigrants did not carry a physical file, but for now most consulates are still using the sealed paper files. Still, your entire paper file will be later be digitally scanned into your electronic immigration file so that it is accessible to U.S. immigration officials everywhere.
Present Your Sealed Visa Packet at a U.S. Port of Entry
Before your visa expiration date, you must travel to the U.S. and present your visa and sealed immigration packet to U.S. immigration officials.
You will take the packet with you when you travel to the United States. Do not put the packet in your checked luggage, because you will usually not have access to your checked luggage until after you pass through immigration.
You can present the packet at an international airport in the U.S. or at a U.S. land border. If you are entering through the U.S./Mexico land border and you were told you have a Class B ineligibility for inactive tuberculosis, check the instruction sheet that comes with your packet, because you can enter only at designated locations.
The immigration officer will keep your packet, which then becomes part of your permanent Alien File, also known as the A-File. Your A-number will be printed on your green card and you will use this number any time you correspond with U.S. immigration authorities in the future, for example, if you later decide to apply for U.S. citizenship. Your A-number should also be annotated on your visa, if you need to reference it before your green card arrives.
Your passport, with the visa and stamp, will serve as your temporary green card. It can take up to a year to receive your green card, so if you move in that time, you must notify USCIS of your address change. Until your green card arrives, you can use your visa and passport stamp to prove your legal right to live and work in the United States.
Contact the U.S. Consulate if Your Packet Is Opened, Damaged, or Lost
You should not open your sealed immigrant visa packet. However, if it somehow gets opened, you can contact the U.S. consulate to arrange for it to be returned and repackaged. The expiration date on your visa will still be the same, so you will need to contact the consulate as soon as possible to ensure you get it returned before your visa expires.
If your packet is damaged, lost, or stolen, the consulate can put together a new packet, but this process can be quite labor intensive and takes some time. You might also have to provide some of the documents again, particularly if the consulate does not have a scanned copy in its files.
The sealed immigrant visa packet contains highly personal information about you and your immigrant visa petitioner, so you should take extraordinary measures to safeguard and conceal it when carrying it in public.