Getting Started with Visas and Immigration

Permits, visas, citizenship, identification, expats, imigrants - for folks who have never lived outside of their home country, this can be a confusing soup of ideas. But let's break it down.

Documents you need to exit the US

In general, you will need a Passport to leave the country but there are some exceptions. So make sure your passport is up to date an will not expire for at least six months as many countries require a passport valid for that length of time.

If you are entering Canada, you need either a passport, passport card, or Nexus card.

Most importantly, you need to determine what kind of visa you will have that lets you stay in your destination for an extended period of time. See What_are_my_options? for an overview of visa types and the Country list for the raw list of countries and requirements.

Documents needed for visas

Every country has different requirements for what documents you need to present as part of your visa application process. It is therefore important to carefully read what the visa's particular requirements are listed on this site and on official consulate sites.

Typically, a visa may require one or more of the following:

• Passport valid for at least 6 months
• A criminal background check (aka police clearance certificate). Some countries require a check performed within the last 3-6 months.
• An official school transcript or diploma (for work or study visas)
• Passport-sized photo

Important: Many countries will require Apostilles of certain documents and some may require a Translation of each as well.

Documentation for family members

If you have a partner or spouse joining you, you will need an official copy of your marriage license. Some countries may recognize cohabiting/domestic partnerships and will require other proof.

If you have children joining you, you will need official copies of their birth or adoption certificates to show they are your children.

If your vital records have different names for you or family members who have had their names changed, you will need official copies of court orders establishing the name change so that the person applying can be linked to their passport and vital records.

See Birth_Certificates_and_Vital_Records for details on how to get these records.

Are you an immigrant or an expat?

There is some nuance in the usage of the terms "immigrant" and "expat". By definition:

• An expat is someone who lives out of the country (or countries) they are citizens of for an extended period, aiming for a temporary stay.
• An immigrant is someone who aims for a permanent stay in a different country, which may result in citizenship of that country.
  • Immigrants may also have citizenship in more than one country.

Specific examples:

• If you plan to live in Canada for 2 years and return to the United States, you are an expat.
• If you plan to start the DAFT process as a pathway to citizenship in the Netherlands, you are an immigrant.

That said, the way the words are used in practice may differ significantly, and in some communities with racist overtones. It is very common, for example, for some groups of white immigrants to refer to themselves as "expats" rather than immigrants, because immigrants are viewed as non-white.

When you are reading for more information that pertains to your specific situation you can still find very valuable information regarding exit strategies in a variety of online forums dedicated to leaving the United States in particular. It is recommended to look at forums using both terms, even if you self-identify only with one, as they are often used loosely or subjective and there can be plenty of good advice and real stories that you can learn from as you fine tune your own exit strategy/strategies.

Documentation to always have on your person

When you are in a foreign country, you need to have your passport with you when you are out and about. If you are stopped by police they will ask to see your identification and this is the only document that will be recognized.

If you have a work or residence permit/visa in the country, you may be issued an identity card which you can present instead.

Documentation to always keep with you abroad

If you have emigrated, or want the option to emigrate as a backup plan, you will need to keep additional documents with you. We recommend having the copies in multiple, so that if you lose one you haven't lost the only copy that you have. These documents include:

• A certified copy of your birth certificate
• Your driver's license or state ID
• Your residence or work permit, if you have one
• If you have legally changed your name, the court order indicating your legal name change
• Any documentation of your legal or medical change of gender
• Any marriage or divorce certificates (as applies)

It is important to have certified copies and as many as possible Apostilled.

Occasionally when you present your documents the receiving agency only needs a copy that they then make, returning the original to you. Sometimes they need to retain the original. As part of whatever application process they should tell you which is the case, and if not then ask. Between this, and having some documents with apostilled and non-apostilled copies, it is good to have 3-5 copies in total. An example pattern would be to have 5 birth certificates, 2 apostilled and 3 not. Once you get down to one document in any category (e.g. only one non-apositlled birth certificate), you should plan to request more.

How do I request copies of vital records?

All documents and their certified copies are issued by their state of origin. So if, for example, you were born in Hoboken, NJ but married in Albany, NY, then your birth certificate would be issued by the New Jersey Department of Health and your marriage certificate would be issued by the New York State Department of Health.

When you request your records always request certified copies. The biggest expense tends to be requesting the first copy, the subsequent copies (on the same request) are significantly cheaper. As indicated, it is wise to have multiple copies so that you can 1 ) have multiple copies that are both apostilled and non-apostilled for same document, 2 ) so you have more copies available in case one needs to be submitted as part of an application process and 3 ) so that there is a copy with you at all times and the ability to store others separately as needed.

When you request a copy of your records you cannot always request them apostilled. Some states will forward documents for apostille to the appropriate office as one transaction, or as two separate transactions (e.g. including two money orders for two government offices and filling out two government forms). Some states permit VitalChek, the most common private vendor for expedited vital records requests, to perform this forwarding. Some state permit neither.

It is important to request these documents as soon as possible. Many states have multi-month waiting periods to get copies as they are inundated with requests, and since the apostille request is a second request, that only compounds the timeline until you have all of your documents.

Note also there are many private services that will offer to expedite processing of apostilles for a fee, generally in states that also offer walk-in services. If time is of the essence, such services may be useful.

Additionally, some jurisdictions will have additional requirements. New York City, for example, requires a Letter of Exemplification and an authentication from the New York County (Manhattan) Clerk's office prior to submission for apostille. Please review each jurisdiction's requirements.

What if I'm already out of the country?

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If you are already out of the country by the time you need to request these documents, or there is a possibility that you might be by the time they arrive, you should have the documents either mailed to a secure mailing address or a trusted person. For a trusted person, make sure they are someone that you trust without question, you're giving them access to your legal documents.

For secure mailing addresses, you can look into services that will send documents to your new address overseas or set up something like a PO Box that a trusted person can check for you. If you're using a service, call the service to verify that they can forward that type of mail. Many types of legal documents cannot be forwarded. This also means if you register an address change to forward your mail, like you would with a normal move, the regular postal service will not forward these documents (nor your tax documents, as an aside).

Types of Identification

There are different forms of identification that you will need to not only exit the United States but also to re-enter if you need to later.

Driver's License or State ID

Driver's licenses and State IDs are issued through your state of residence. You can usually acquire these by appointment at your local DMV office.

REAL ID

A REAL ID is required for any air travel from or within the United States. A Passport or Global Entry card is considered to be "REAL ID compliant" but drivers licenses and state IDs must be REAL ID compliant to be accepted. There are extra documentation requirements for obtaining a state ID/license that is REAL ID compliant. It is intended to prove legal residence in the US according to the REAL ID Act of 2005, as well as provide for data sharing and standardization.

Foreign countries will only accept Passports as valid forms of identification.

It’s worth noting that Washington State is also peculiar in that it is the only state/jurisdiction in the United States where it is impossible to get a REAL ID compliant driver’s license without it simultaneously being an Enhanced ID. This may make it difficult for a non-citizen resident of Washington State to obtain REAL ID compliant documentation from Washington State.

Enhanced Drivers License

According to the Department of Homeland Security and the judgement of our contributors, an enhanced drivers license (EDL) can only be used to re-enter the US into Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, or Washington. They are only available to residents of those states.

EDLs are considered a form of REAL ID that you can use for domestic air travel.

Details: EDLs only explicitly allow travel from the neighboring country, back into US States or Territories ( Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, but NOT Samoa for some reason). As of the time of this writing, they have been generally delisted as acceptable documents to travel to Canada from Canadian CBSA websites, except as potential proof of citizenship (rather than as an explicitly allowlisted travel document). New York State, Michigan, Vermont, and Washington State in particular also only explicitly denote their EDLs as valid US return documents, not US exit documents. Only Minnesota denotes EDLs as a valid exit document as well. Considering 4 of the 5 states that actually issue EDLs have written about this particular caveat, it’s likely that Minnesota is providing advice that is less likely to be honored at the border or by other legal authorities. Thus, use an EDL to leave the USA at your own risk.

Passport

Passports are the form of identification that shows you are a United States citizen and will show your:

• Legal name
• Citizenship
• Place of birth
• Date of birth

If you already have a passport and have traveled out of the country, there will be stamps in your passport to reflect this travel.

Every person in your family that plans to leave the United States will need a passport. This not only means a spouse or blood relatives that might travel with you, but also if you are a parent or guardian and your children will be traveling with you, they should all have passports regardless of their age. (To be explicit: yes, even infants.)

Be sure your passport is not "damaged." According to the US Department of State, "damage includes stains from a liquid, a significant tear, unofficial markings on the data page, missing visa pages (torn out), or a hole punch. Normal 'wear and tear' such as folded pages or a small bend do not count as damage."

You obtain a passport by submitting an application. As of the time of this writing, the application consists of:

• Your current legal name
• Your prior legal name(s)
  • This means not only legal name changes by court order but also by marriage or divorce
• Your current physical address
• Your social security number
• Your email address
• Your primary phone number (this can be a cell number)
• A passport photo
  • These have specific requirements for face in frame and background. You can have a passport photo taken at a variety of locations, including some pharmacy / convenience stores and USPS.

Passport applications can be submitted online or by mail.

Other Types of documentation

The majority of the documents in this section are all considered Vital Records and are issued through each state's Department of Health. Each state has different queue lengths for the various types of requests, so it is important to see what the current wait time is for new requests for any records you need.

You should have apostilled and non-apostilled copies of all forms of documentation that apply to you.

As mentioned in the above section, we're seeing reports that some places are requiring that apostilles are less than 6 months old. We're also vaguely seeing reports that certified copies of birth certificates and other forms of documentation should be "recent" with a vague cutoff of a few years. The implication here is that you may need newer documents, even if you already have these and they do not expire (unlike drivers licenses and passports). We will continue to research and update here as we learn more.

Birth certificate

The most basic form of documentation used for many immigration processes is a birth certificate. Birth certificates are requested through the Department of Health in your state of birth. When you are requesting your birth certificate, you need to have a copy of a valid form of photographic identification, most commonly your driver's license or state ID. In addition, you also frequently need to know your full place of birth: city, county, and state and your birth date.

While birth certificates are not needed for all types of visas, they are typically required as part of family reunification visas, non-work visas, and citizenship applications in other countries.

Important Note: If you are the parent or guardian of children and they will be with you, you should have copies of their birth certificates as well. Same as all of your own documentation, you will need multiple copies and need both apostilled and non-apostilled copies.

More information: Birth_Certificates_and_Vital_Records

Marriage and divorce certificates

Marriage and divorce certificates are issued through the Department of Health for the state that you were married and/or divorced in. If you have been married and/or divorced, you will need these records primarily to do either or both of the following:

• If you are currently married, have your spouse with you on a partner visa so you aren't separated during an immigration process (where one is successful and the other is not)
• If you are divorced, to show that a prior marriage is no longer valid

If you have been married and/or divorced multiple times, you will need to have multiple copies of each and, yes, apostilled and non-apostilled copies of each. If the marriages or divorces happened in different states, you will need to contact the

Court order of name change

If you have had your name legally changed, you will need to have a copy of the court order for your legal name change. Legal records of name changes are court orders, which is different from the other forms of documentation in this section. Most commonly, you will need to request the court order from the County Court of the county in the state where you legally changed your name.

You should have apostilled and non-apostilled copies of the court order to change your name.

Background Check

Some places will require an FBI background check, as well as background checks for any countries you’ve lived in (typically going back the last 7-10 years). You can order an FBI background check from the DOJ, get fingerprints done at a post office (no REAL ID required as of February 2025) and then get the background check apostilled in person or by mail at the state department in Washington, DC. If you cannot get to Washington, DC, use of a channeler service is recommended to expedite the process with the state department.

Asking for your social security number on the background check is recommended, and will only display the last 4 of your social. In addition, your gender marker is not displayed on the background check, and it is unlikely that requesting apostille from the state department will affect your current passport.

More info: Police_Clearance_Certificates

Proof of change of gender

Unlike name changes, in the United States there is not a general "court order of gender change" or equivalent. While some states do have judicial gender change orders, typically as part of a name change order, many do not. Depending on what document, and what state the issuing body is in, there will be different requirements for what you need to change your gender marker on each piece of documentation.

If you have all of your documentation in sync, you do not need to do anything extra here. There is no secondary documentation you need.

We are currently researching guidance for what happens for those that are, or were, in the process of updating their gender markers prior to leaving the United States and will post guidance as we have it.