If you’re sponsoring a family member, or you’re the beneficiary of an approved I-130, I-140, or similar petition and you live outside the United States, your case doesn’t go straight to a US embassy. It first passes through the National Visa Center (NVC), a US Department of State office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that exists purely to process paperwork before any consulate touches your file. The NVC stage is where many cases quietly stall for months — usually over a fee paid in the wrong order, a form submitted before the Welcome Letter arrives, or a civil document missing a certified translation. This guide walks through exactly what NVC does, in order, so you know what to expect and when.
Step 1: Petition approval and transfer to NVC
Once USCIS approves the underlying petition — most commonly Form I-130 (family-sponsored) or Form I-140 (employment-based) — USCIS forwards the approved petition to the National Visa Center. This transfer itself typically takes a few weeks. You don’t need to do anything at this stage; NVC will contact you once the case is in its system.
Step 2: Case creation and the Welcome Letter
NVC opens an immigrant visa case, assigns it a unique case number (format like ABC2026123456), an
invoice ID number, and a beneficiary ID number. It then sends a Welcome Letter — by mail or,
increasingly, email — with these numbers and instructions for creating a Consular Electronic
Application Center (CEAC) account at ceac.state.gov, which is the online portal for everything that
follows (travel.state.gov — The Immigrant Visa Process).
Step 3: Pay your fees — in the right order
NVC fee payment is sequential, not simultaneous, and paying out of order is one of the most common self-inflicted delays. For most family-based cases there are two separate fees:
- Immigrant Visa Application Processing Fee — $325 per applicant. This is the fee for processing the DS-260 itself.
- Affidavit of Support Review Fee — $120. Required for most family-sponsored and some employment-based cases where a US sponsor files Form I-864.
NVC’s own guidance is to pay the Affidavit of Support fee before submitting Form I-864, and the IV Application fee before starting the DS-260, since the system checks for a matching paid invoice (travel.state.gov — Pay Fees; travel.state.gov — NVC Fee Payment FAQs). Employment-based cases generally pay only the IV application fee, since there’s no US household sponsor filing an Affidavit of Support. Confirm the exact current fee amounts on the official page before paying — State Department fees are adjusted periodically.
Step 4: Complete the DS-260 online
The DS-260 is the Immigrant Visa Electronic Application, completed entirely through your CEAC account — there is no paper version. It asks for:
- Full biographic details, address and employment history going back years
- Family history, including every spouse, child, and prior marriage
- Prior US travel and any immigration violations
- Security and background questions (criminal history, affiliations, health)
Each family member included in the case — including children — completes and submits their own DS-260, and it’s signed electronically under penalty of perjury. Small inconsistencies between the DS-260 and your underlying petition (a misspelled name, a different address) are a common source of Requests for Information later, so cross-check against your I-130/I-140 approval notice before submitting.
Step 5: Submit the Affidavit of Support (family cases)
If a US citizen or permanent resident is sponsoring you, they file Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, through CEAC, with supporting evidence: recent federal tax transcripts or returns, an employer letter, and recent pay stubs. The sponsor must show income at or above 125% of the US federal poverty line for their household size (100% for active-duty military sponsoring a spouse or child); if they fall short, a joint sponsor can file a separate I-864 to make up the difference.
Step 6: Upload civil and financial documents
Through the same CEAC portal, you upload scanned civil documents — birth certificate, marriage certificate (and divorce/death certificates for any prior marriages), police certificates from every country you’ve lived in for 6+ months since age 16, and military records if applicable. Any document not in English needs a certified translation. This is the step where country-specific sourcing matters most: police certificate processes, document formats, and apostille/legalization requirements vary enormously by country — see our police clearance certificate guide and apostille and document legalization guide for the specifics.
Step 7: “Documentarily complete” and interview scheduling
Once NVC has accepted all fees, the DS-260, the Affidavit of Support (if required), and every requested civil document, it marks the case documentarily complete. From there, two things need to align before an interview is scheduled: the case must be documentarily complete, and a visa number must be available for your category under the monthly Visa Bulletin. For immediate relative categories (spouse, parent, or minor child of a US citizen) numbers are always current; for other family and most employment categories, you may wait behind your priority date even after documents are complete. Once both conditions are met, NVC transfers the case to the appropriate US embassy or consulate, which schedules the actual immigrant visa interview.
How this differs from adjustment of status
If you’re already lawfully present in the US and eligible, you may be able to finish the process domestically with USCIS instead — see our adjustment of status vs consular processing guide for how the two tracks compare on cost, timeline, and travel restrictions during the wait.
A practical note on sequencing mistakes
The most common ways applicants lose weeks at NVC: submitting the DS-260 before paying the matching fee (the system won’t accept it), uploading documents before the case has a CEAC login active, and assuming “documentarily complete” means an interview date is imminent when visa-bulletin movement is actually the bottleneck. Check your case status regularly through your CEAC account rather than waiting for NVC to email you — proactive applicants generally move through each step faster.
This process can run for months even when every step is done correctly, and getting a document detail wrong can add more months on top. Join the VisaMet waitlist for AI-assisted document screening that checks your DS-260 answers and civil documents for consistency before you submit — a mismatch caught early is far cheaper than one caught by NVC six weeks later.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your specific case requirements and current fee amounts with USCIS, the National Visa Center, or a qualified immigration attorney.