Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Windsor decision last year, immigration benefits are now open to engaged and married couples regardless of sexual orientation. This applies to benefits sought by people who are already in the United States, as well as people who are waiting in their home countries for visas to travel to the U.S. And attitudes towards same-sex marriage are provoking nuanced questions for the government about visa processing.
The Department of State has already clarified that spouses of U.S. citizens who are applying for immigrant visas can request to be interviewed in “safe” third country locations if they are afraid of disclosing their sexual orientation in their home countries. In October 9, 2014 liaison notes, the Department of State has made a similar accommodation for fiancés of U.S. citizens. Normally, the U.S. citizen fiancé’s name is printed on the K-1 fiancé visa itself. Department of State now offers that applicants may “request an alternative annotation on the immigrant visa foil, for example a first initial and last name only. Such a request should be made before an adjudication takes place in order to allow a consular officer time to consider the request based on safety concerns.” The Department of State also offers to allow applicants to have a U.S. consulate in a safe third country request a K-1 visa file from the consulate in the applicant’s home country when circumstances warrant a change of venue. This kind of accommodation is not possible for the little-used K-3 visa category, however, because the immigration statute itself requires K-3 visa applicants to be interviewed in the country where they were married.