Processing of petitions for alien relatives of Citizens and Permanent Residents. Relatives qualifying are: unmarried sons or daughters (over the age of 21) of U.S. citizens, spouses and unmarried children (under age 21) of Permanent Residents, unmarried sons and daughters (over age 21) of Permanent Residents, married sons and daughters of U.S. Citizens, and brothers and sisters of U.S. Citizens.
Whenever there are more qualified applicants for a category than there are available numbers, the category will be considered over subscribed, and immigrant visas will be issued in the chronological order in which the petitions were filed until the numerical limit for the category is reached. The filing date of a petition becomes the applicant’s priority date. Immigrant visas cannot be issued until an applicant’s priority date is reached. In certain heavily over subscribed categories, there may be a waiting period of several years before a priority date is reached. The immediate family members of immigrants qualifying under each of these four preference categories are also permitted to concurrently immigrate, as well.
If the relative’s case is not current, NVC can NOT expedite immigrant visa processing, even in the cases of family emergency. Immigrant visa processing is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended, which controls visa categories, priority dates and the availability of visa numbers. Immigrant visa numbers are made available strictly in the order of priority dates. There is no provision within the law that would allow NVC to waive numerical limitation in any individual case.
While the cases in the preference categories take a long time, there is no provision for them to live in the U.S. while the visa petition is pending. They may be able to get the dual intent non-immigrant visa such as H or L visa, if they independently qualify. However, it would be much harder to get the visitors visa because it would be very difficult to prove the no intention to immigrate when the immigration petition is pending.
When you file for a relative under the categories F1, F2B, F3 or F4; separate petitions are not required for his/her spouse or unmarried children under 21 years of age.
These categories, in order of preference, are as follows:
- Family First Preference (F1)
- Family Second Preference (F2)
- Family Third Preference (F3)
- Family Fourth Preference (F4)
Quota: 65,000 per year.
To qualify under this category, the sponsoring citizen and his or her sibling must both meet (or have met) the definition of “child” in relation to the same parent. Permanent residents can not petition for their brother(s) or sister(s). It is not possible to sponsor other relatives such as an uncle/aunt, nephew/niece, cousin, in-laws, grandparents for a family based green card. You may be able to invite them on a temporary visitor visa. It may be possible for them to come on their own through other means such as H1 visa, employment based green card etc. But that is on their own, not based on your relationship with them.