Citizenship and Visa Preference Status

[Second Chance 1]

When my wife Petitioned her son back in January 2010, she had recently obtained her Green Card. His visa preference was F2B, as an unmarried son of a permanent resident. That status had a 12 year waiting period for the Philippines at that time, and an F1 Preference had a 17 year waiting period (from the Visa Bulletin Jan. 1, 2010. Crazy as it was, a Green Card holder had preference over a Citizen.

A month ago my wife obtained Citizenship through Naturalization. I checked the Visa Bulletin for November 2014 and was surprised to see that F1 now is eleven months ahead of F2B. Prior to this I had been told that she could fill out a form with Immigration after obtaining Citizenship that asks to keep her old Preference status for the purposes of her Son's petition.

Now it seems to me that we shouldn't ask to keep the old status. Am I right? Do we have to contact USCIS to ask that her old F2B be changed to F1, or will they automatically do that she became a Citizen?

[Ian H. 207]

I haven't followed the bulletins every month so I don't know which one is more advantageous. I believe you do have the option of opting out and remaining under F2B, but I can't say for sure if it's better.

I have seen the F2B move a little more favorably than the F1, then again it depends on the country, because for non oversubscribed countries the F2B is ahead. You can try going back through previous years bulletins to see which one has a better trend overall.

Because other than the movement of the PD's there is no real difference between F1 and F2B since for both preferences you must remain unmarried.