Bringing my mother to USA

[sadragon23 0]

Hello all,

My wife is in the process of getting her US citizenship. Her interview is on June, 30 2009. She want to sponsor her parents to live with us in USA. I know she will have to file a I-130 for her parents. But my real question is, after my wife sponsor her parents to the USA, will they have the green card right always? How long will they have to wait until they can sponsor my wife's brothers to live in the USA? I know LPR can sponsor an unmarried son or daughter to USA. Thank you in advance.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hello all,

My wife is in the process of getting her US citizenship. Her interview is on June, 30 2009. She want to sponsor her parents to live with us in USA. I know she will have to file a I-130 for her parents. But my real question is, after my wife sponsor her parents to the USA, will they have the green card right always? How long will they have to wait until they can sponsor my wife's brothers to live in the USA? I know LPR can sponsor an unmarried son or daughter to USA. Thank you in advance.

Once your wife's parents enters the US as immigrants, they automatically become green card holders. It may take a few weeks to issue.

Your in-laws can petition for any unmarried children that they may have after receiving their green cards. There is no way to predict how long it will take; we can only look at how long people who are just getting their visas have been waiting. For Cambodians; an LPR petition for an unmarried child under 21 years old in the F2a family preference category takes 5 years (currently those applying before Dec. 22, 2004 are eligible for visas) while an LPR petition for an unmarried child 21 years or older in the F2b family preference category takes 8 years (currently those applying before April 15, 2001 are eligible for visas).

Age for a visa is determined at the time a visa becomes available and not at the time the petition is filed for the F2a and F2b categories. So a child who is 18 years old right now will initially be in the F2a category. There is no way that the child will get a visa as an F2a because he/she will age out of that category before a visa becomes available. A child who ages out when he/she turns 21 years old will move to the F2b category. It's a safe bet that anyone who is 17 years old or older will not be in the F2a category when a visa becomes available.

If a child gets married while in the F2a or F2b category, the application automatically will be denied as an LPR cannot petition for a married child. There is no way to revive it.

If the petitioning parent becomes a US citizen (after at least 5 years as an LPR), any unmarried child at that time who has been petitioned for will have a visa available to them. Anyone over 21 years old will move to the F1 category which is currently taking 7 years. Children with petitions who gets married before the parent becomes a citizen cannot get visas (see paragraph above). A child can get married after the petitioning parent becomes a citizen would be converted to the F3 category (US citizen petitioning for a married child) and can bring a spouse and any unmarried children of the child with them to the US - the total wait has been 9 years).

See the Visa Bulletin for how long people have been waiting; http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin...letin_1360.html

Hope this helped.

Edited June 14, 2009 by aaron2020