Getting a Green Card Through a Family Member
The seemingly complicated path to a green card through a family member can be intimidating to someone who is just starting out. Navigating through the maze of paperwork, requirements, and rules can be challenging to say the least. So what do you do if you are a parent or other relative of a family member residing in the United States and you wish to come to the United States to live and work?
The first thing to understand is that if you wish to become a permanent legal resident of the United States through a relationship with a family member, that family member must already be a citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
If that condition is met, you can then begin the process of applying for what is known as a green card, i.e, permanent resident status in the United States.
The first step in the process is having the relative or sponsor file an immigrant visa petition or, to be more exact, an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative, for you. The relative filing this petition must also include proof that the two of you are, in fact, related.
Once this is done the U.S. State Department will check to see if there is a visa number available for you. If there is a visa number available you can apply to have that number assigned to you. The State Department maintains a status board for these visa numbers on their Visa Bulletin site, http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4558.html
If a number does become available to you and you are already in the United States, you are eligible to apply for that number and become a lawful permanent status by filing form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. If you happen to be outside the United States when a visa number becomes available you must go to U.S. consulate in your country to process your application.
The relative who is sponsoring you must also prove that he or she is capable of supporting you financially. The sponsoring relative would not need to show an incredible amount of wealth, only that he or she is at least 125% above the established poverty line at the time of the application. The sponsor would file Form I-485, Affidavit of Support to prove that supporting you would not be a problem.
So which relatives can be sponsored to come and live as a lawful permanent resident of the United States? Well, it depends on what the status is of the sponsoring relative.
If the sponsoring relative is a U.S. citizen, the following relatives can be petitioned to immigrate to the United States:
a) Husband or wife
b) Children
c) Brother or sister, if the sponsor is at least 21 years old
d) Parent, if the sponsor is at least 21 years old
If the sponsoring relative is not a U.S. citizen, but is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S, the following relatives can be sponsored”
a) Husband or wife
b) Unmarried son or daughter (any age)
And as with most things in life there are preferences as to which immigrants get priority when it comes to issuing green cards. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, which includes parents, spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21, are given special preference and are exempt from having to wait around for a visa number to become available once the visa petition is filed and approved by the USCIS. Since they are an immediate relative of the sponsor and are considered in a preferred category, their visa number will be automatically available to them as soon as the petition is approved. relatives in the remaining categories must wait for an immigrant visa number to become available according to the following preferences:
Other relatives, outside this category of immediate relatives, have to wait for a visa number to become available. And these remaining categories are further ranked on the basis of preference. There are four preference categories for these relatives hoping to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the United States:
Preference #1
Adult children (over 21) of U.S. citizens who are unmarried.
Preference #2
Applicants of U.S. lawful permanent residents, their unmarried non-adult (under 21) children, and the unmarried children of lawful permanent residents.
Preference #3
Married children of U.S. Citizens.
Preference #4
Brothers and sisters of adult(over 21) U.S. Citizens.
As you can see, the fastest and easiest path to obtaining lawful permanent resident status in the United States, i.e. getting a green card, is marrying a U.S. citizen. And because of this, the USCIS investigates all marriages where a green card might possibly be the prime motive for the couple getting married.
