Wife's Son Has Waited Eleven Years

[wizzard166 0]

My wife is from the Philippines, so our group is one of three that gets hurt by rediculously long time periods to get an available visa.  Over ten years ago our Priority date was January 13, 2010, for the approved Petition to bring her Unmarried Son over the age 21 to our country.  Now the Visa Bulletin shows that F2B (for children of Permanent Residents) has a May 1, 2009 Priority Date and F1 (for children of Citizens) has an April 1, 2009 Priority Date.  This spread is only one month; however, ten years ago (and for a long time) being a Permanent Resident (F2B) was much better than being a Citizen ((F1).  It used to be that the wait time was over one year worse if you were a Citizen; thus, we made the decision to leave my wife's status on the original Petition as being a Permanent Resident.  In 2014 my wife Maria was awarded Citizenship, but we elected not to ask USCIS to change her status on the original Petition (why wait longer for her Son to get here)

 

Now the time is rapidly approaching when both categories will show our Priority Date for her Son is Available.  Can any of you enlighten us on what we do when the Priority Date shows that Jan 13, 2010 is now being worked.  Do we have to see that and then purposely ask the National Visa Center to activate his request for a Visa?, or will the NVC pull his file on their own (almost twleve years later) and activate it and contact us or him or both?

 

Assuming that the NVC will take action and notify her Son or my Wife, what is the next step?  I went through all of this when I successfully got Maria here through a Fiance Visa, but I forgot what we have to do.  Is there another form we have to fill out and submit.  Do we go through again submitting Financial Affidavits and other things?  Is it just a matter of the NVC sending a notice to his local US Embassy, and the Son calling to get an appointment for an Interview?

 

Another issue is that my wife and I moved to a different house in December 2015, but we never contacted any of the agencies (USCIS or NVC) to change our address.  Her Son just moved into a new house in the Philippines two days ago, so I guess we need to alert one of them about his address change too.  I don't know which government agency to contact about the two address changes, or how to go about notifying them.  I tried calling the NVC on Friday, but they never answer the phone.  I reached USCIS Call Center, and asked them, but they were not too sure.  All they could tell me was the Petition was in the NVC, so I likely had to contact them.

 

Thank you in advance for whatever help you can be with these questions.

[Unlockable 7,314]

It is not ridiculous if you look at the reason it takes so long. The reason being is her son is considered an adult who can live his own life. He can get married and have kids if he wants to and go to college or start a business. there is no need to put him before under-aged children or spouses.  

 

The US system is designed to treat those who need to be with their immediate family first. That means husbands, wives, and little kids who still need their parents get put in front of the queue no matter how many people apply (hence the reason for priority dates because they get first priority). So all of the parents and adult siblings have to wait in back of the line. It is only fair because if it was any other way then it may take 7, 8. or 9 years before a wife and child that is 5 years old to reunite with their husband and father.

 

But aside from all of the logistics, you also have to realize that America is one of few countries in the would that allow people to apply for extended members of their family like parents, adult children, and siblings. Think about that for a minute, if it you were in another country you she may not even be able to apply for him at all. So yes the line (wait) is long because this is one of the few countries that give your sin-in-law that option. I don't even know if the Philippines offer family residency for siblings and such like the US do.

 

Hopefully, that helps explain why it takes so long. I'm not saying it should take long, but I now understand why. And not only that, there is a push from a few members of our government to remove certain family categories of immigration including siblings. And I even saw a proposal to have a cutoff age of ALL children to be the age of 30. Which means no matter who is in the US, if they are over 30 they can not be petitioned. So it is better to have this option now with the long wait than not have the option at all.

 

 

[NikLR 13,227]

1) you should update your address with the USCIS for the petition

2) Unlockable said everything else. 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

One small thing to add to unlockable’s post, US law limits not only the number of F-category family applicants per year but also the % of immigrants that can come from any one country in each fiscal year, to 7% of total immigrants. The Philippines (and Mexico and india) have more people waiting than visas available it to on a country quota basis, so it hits the limit each year, which is why the wait is longer than other countries.