When you are a beneficiary of a U.S. immigrant petition and a visa number becomes available, the immigrant visa processing starts. Initially, the National Visa Center (NVC) will send you a letter called “Choice of Address and Agent” letter. You will have to mail this back to the NVC along with the requested information.

This letter serves as your notification of the following:

You are appointing an individual, usually the petitioner, attorney, or agent, to act as your agent or attorney to receive mail about your immigrant visa application. You will have to give the name, telephone number, email address, and mailing address of the person you appoint. This contact information you provide will be used by the U.S. Department of State for future mailings concerning your immigrant visa application –forms and instructions; OR

You are not appointing anyone else to receive correspondence on your behalf. Instead, you wish to receive such mailings yourself. In this case, you will have to provide your name, telephone number, email address, and mailing address. Your contact information will be used by the U.S. Department of State for future mailings concerning your immigrant visa application –forms and instructions; OR

You have already legally migrated to the United States and received your greencard or legal permanent resident status from a specific USCIS office; OR

You no longer wish to apply for an immigrant visa. In this case, your petition will be cancelled.

After filling out the requested information and checking the requisite box, you will have to sign and date the form and mail it back to NVC. The reported burden time to accomplish this form is approximately 10 minutes.

In filling out the Choice of Address and Agent form, it is important that all information you provide is correct and accurate. Once this form is submitted to the NVC, it will be used as basis as to where all future communications will be directed to. In the event that you have entered a wrong data, your mail will be lost and that is the worst thing that can happen to you in this stage of the processing.

Sending out this form will begin the immigrant visa processing. All mails that come thereafter are important. You should take into great consideration who you choose to appoint. For starters, the agent you named in the form must be informed of your intention and that he should agree to be appointed. Also, he must be notified once the form is mailed out and it is prudent that a copy of what has been submitted is given to him. The agent should expect to receive a letter from the NVC informing him that he has been appointed. It is urgent that the agent keeps you updated of all correspondence received by him on your behalf.

Atty. Michael Templo is an attorney admitted to practice law in New York State and Federal Courts and is a partner at Templo & Templo http://www.templolaw.com with offices in New York, USA and Makati City, Philippines. Atty. Templo specializes in US Immigration matters. Atty. Mike Templo is also a host for the weekly show “Crossing Borders” which airs every Thursday at 10:30PM on ANC and 2:30PM on TFC crossingborderstv.multiply.com. The discussion above is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional. For your comments and questions, Atty. Templo can be reached at info@templolaw.com or log on to www.templolaw.com.