The Doctrine of Dual intent is a concept found in American Immigration law. It was designed in an attempt to square the circle for those aliens entering the United States on a non-immigrant visa with long term intentions of establishing a residence. Pursuant to the American Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) a non-immigrant can be denied access to the United States either at the Embassy level (through visa denial) or at the port of entry in the United States should the competent authorities decide that the applicant is actually intending to immigrate. For instance, many applicants for a US tourist visa are turned down based upon section 214b of the INA which creates a statutory presumption of immigrant intent, those presumed to have immigrant intent cannot be granted a non-immigrant visa. The Dual Intent Doctrine sets a foundation for issuing visas that allows the visa holder to retain both short term non-immigrant intent and long term immigrant intent. A few types of visas which leave room for dual intent are the L1A visa, the L1B visa, and the H1B visa. Both of these employment visas leave legal room for alien to aspire to American Permanent Residence, while also maintaining non-immigrant visa status. In the area of United States Family Immigration, the K1 fiance visa is a classic example of a visa that employs the dual intent doctrine. The bearer of an American fiance visa is permitted to request admission to the USA at a port of entry. Initially, the bearer of a US K1 visa is categorized as a non-immigrant and the visa, once utilized, will remain valid for a period not exceeding ninety days. However, the bearer of the visa is allowed to get married to their American fiance and apply for permanent residence via adjustment of status. In other visa categories, this type of dual intent would be considered a possible basis for denying visa issuance or entry into the USA, but the United States Congress has carved out a special legal niche when it comes to the Fiancee visa.

Tags: American Visa, Dual Intent, K-1 Visa, K1 Visa, Us Embassy Bangkok, US Embassy Thailand, US Immigration, US Visa

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under Estate Planning, General Legal, Lawyer, Legal advise, Probate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.