Same sex spouses of US citizens and Green Card holders are now eligible for immigration benefits. US citizens can get their spouses and fiancé(e)s visas and bring them to the United States. Similar to the other US citizens who bring their heterosexual fiancé(e)s to the United States and get married to them here, US citizens can bring their same sex fiancé(e)s to the country by getting them fiancé(e) visas. They can then get married to their fiancé(e)s in America.
To get a fiancé(e) a non-immigrant visa, a US citizen must file Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e). The foreign national who enters into America with a K-1 visa, can get married to the US citizen who sponsored him or her. The sponsor must get married to the beneficiary within 90 days. If not, the K-1 fiancé(e) will have to return to his/her home country.
We need to remember that these K-1 fiancé(e) visas are good only for a 90 day period. The US citizens will have to get married to their fiancé(e)s who hold these visas prior to the expiration of these visas. Once the K-1 visa holders get married to the US citizens who sponsored them, they can file Form I-485 for adjustment of status and become permanent residents of the United States.
Likewise, US citizens can get their same sex foreign spouses immigrant visas. They can help them to become permanent residents and get them US Green Cards. To sponsor them for lawful status in America, they need to file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative.
Petitions the US citizens and permanent residents file for their same sex partners will not be denied by USCIS. Overseas consular offices will adjudicate immigrant visa applications after the USCIS approves and forwards Form I-130 filed by the US citizens and Green Card holders on behalf of their spouses.
Foreign nationals applying for the Diversity Visa lottery program can now list the names of their same sex partners in their applications. Same sex spouses of the applicants will become eligible for follow-to-join benefits.
Applicants of the 2013 and 2014 lotterys can include their same sex spouses in the entries they had submitted or add spouses they married after the registration. These spouses are eligible for follow-to-join benefits but entrants of the 2013 lottery need to apply for the benefit before 30th September 2013 and 2014 lottery entrants before 30th September 2014.
USCIS will no more deny fiancé(e) visa applications that the US citizens file for their same sex fiancé(e)s. USCIS will consider the law that is in effect in the place where the marriage took place and determine whether the marriage is valid for immigration purposes. This also applies to the marriages performed in foreign countries.