Immigration Links
Immigrant Visas
The Basics
You may qualify to immigrate to the United States if you are:
- A spouse or immediate relative of an American citizen or legal permanent resident
- The fiancé of an American citizen
- A prospective employee of a United States company
- Selected through the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery program
All prospective immigrants except for Diversity Visa candidates must have a petition filed on their behalf. The “petitioner” is the person or company who files the petition, and the “beneficiary” is the prospective immigrant. Filing the petition is the first step in the immigrant visa process.
Most immigrant visa petitions must be filed in the United States. Visit www.uscis.gov for more information.
In limited circumstances, U.S. citizens may file petitions in person at U.S. Consulate Dhahran, the U.S. Embassy Riyadh or at the U.S Consulate General Jeddah.
Please note that, while the Consulates General in Dhahran and Jeddah can accept petitions, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh is the only post in Saudi Arabia that handles the other steps of the immigrant visa process.
Public Inquiries
For inquiries concerning preparing for an immigrant visa interview or submitting a waiver request for visa ineligibility please contact the Immigrant Visa Unit at the Embassy by email at: RiyadhIV@state.gov.
In your email, please make sure to include the following:
- Case number;
- Full name and date of birth of the beneficiary; and
- previous email string (if you are following up on previous email correspondence).