Visa for my brother to bring kids here from PI

[Giskat09 2]

Hello,

I am asking for a few questions about my brother who is from the Philippines. He's been her for about 4 years and is a permanant resident here with a visa. He's not a US Citizen at this time but wants to petition his children from the Philippines. He has 6 children all under 18 years old. He wants to bring them here. He doen't know where to start. I'm an American Filipino and don't know too much on the child petition. It's a lot different than my petition with my wife. Is there a filing fee for each of the children he wants to petition? Or is there a one fee to bring all them here. I think he wants to bring them two by two but wants to know the costly rates to bring them here and the exact petitions to fill up. Anything would help at this time with info. Message me and I will work with all you there. I am trying to help my brother, thanks.

God bless.

Israel

[Justine+David 218]

I can't answer all your questions, but here's some info:

Take a look at this website: http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html

It's called the visa bulletin, where you can see how long it takes for certain immigrants to get here, at a minimum.

Your brother would be filing for his kids under the Family-Sponsored Preferences, 2A since they are under 21 and he is a permanent resident. Because they are from the Phillipines, there is a backlog and limitation on the number of immigrants. Looking under the 2A column under the Phillipines, it looks like the Dept.of State is issuing numbers for those before January 1st, 2008. So, at a minimum, it would take two years and a few months once he files.

If he becomes a U.S. citizen, he can file another petition (two petitions can exist at the same time) and be in the 1st preference. However (and please anybody correct me if this is wrong), it looks like the visa bulletin says that in the 1st column under unmarried daughters and sons of citizens for the Phillipines, the DOS is processing applications from March 15, 1995. It looks like it would behoove your brother not to become a U.S. citizen until his children are here since the processing time is 13 years apart...

Which doesn't seem to make sense to me that you would have an earlier chance of getting your kids here if you're a permanent resident vs being a citizen. Can anyone confirm that I am reading this right?

[Boiler 45,468]

Different queues.

I seem to remember that you can avoid upgrading when getting your Citizenship.