U.S citizen living outside the U.S

[Allanmyself 0]

Hello,  My child who is a U.S. citizen is living with my sister abroad be i do not have help here. Is there a Visa category that we can try to bring my sister here into the U.S. faster? My child is so attached with my sister that doesn't want to leave her to come and join me. Please advice.

 

Allan

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

Sibling category unfortunately is the slowest there is, around 15 years for most countries, longer for some. There is no way to speed it up unless she is able to independently get another visa.

[SteveInBostonI130 3,483]

The only quick immigration visa is the DV, which depends entirely on luck. The odds of her getting one is not good, but she might as well try.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi,

 

Sorry, there is no visa that would allow your sister to immigrate to the US quickly.

 

If you are a US citizen, it would take 15-20 years for you to petition for your sister.

 

There is no avenue to immigrate to the US through a US citizen nephew.  

 

What country is your sister from?

[ultrasoul 51]

10 hours ago, Allanmyself said:

Hello,  My child who is a U.S. citizen is living with my sister abroad be i do not have help here. Is there a Visa category that we can try to bring my sister here into the U.S. faster? My child is so attached with my sister that doesn't want to leave her to come and join me. Please advice.

 

Allan

@Allanmyself Agreed with the points made above.

 

Immigration is NEVER a fast process. Suggest you do some online reading/ self-educating on the 2 key time periods: A) the availability of visa wait (dictated by preference category, with some preferences stretch to over 20+ years) PLUS B) the administrative processing wait (bare minimum 1 year from start to finish).

 

Suggest you first read these resources to be self-informed-

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/explainer-how-us-legal-immigration-system-works

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/immigration-wait-times-quotas-have-doubled-green-card-backlogs-are-long

 

You didn't disclose anything about yourself so it makes it hard to help you.

 

In the short-term, the best solution is to have your sister apply for a B1/ B2 visa which allows her to visit the US for a 6 month duration of time in a 12 month period. She cannot stay or immigrate here long term.

If you are not a USC, there is nothing you can do to help with the long-term immigration issue.

 

Assuming you are a USC and if your sister is married, you can petition her for an F4 preference (sibling of USC) but the F4 availability of visa wait is currently at least 14 years (which can increase due to retrogression) if she is  NOT born in Philippines, India, China, or Mexico, the latter countries have significantly longer wait)

 

If you are USC and your sister is unmarried, it is better if you first sponsor your parent(s) thru IR-5 category which has NO availability visa wait (part A wait in my note above; please also self-learn from other posts in this forum thru the search functionality). After your parent(s) becomes an LPR, they can then petition your sister in the F2A (under 21 unmarried child of LPR) or F2B preference category (over 21 unmarried child of LPR), both of which have a shorter availability of visa wait (currently 6+ year wait) compared to 14+ year wait of the F4 preference (sibling of USC).

 

@SteveInBoston is correct that diversity (DV) green card lottery is another avenue to pursue especially with the DV-2022 program being open for entries now to November 10. However, my suggestion is to use DV as a supplement to a family based petition. For reference, the DV-2020 program only offered 54,650 immigrant visas for the 14,722,798 entries which is less than third of a percent chance of winning. Even if your sister gets picked by some miracle in the DV-2022 results drawing in May 2021, her winning number must be low enough before the allotted 55K visas are completely issued and the date she will actually set foot in America as a DV-2022 winner is after going to be after October 2022. 

 

Not to mention that if the current president wins the re-election and chooses to carryover the visa ban, being one of the miraculous winning DV-2022 entry means nothing. Just ask many DV-2020 winners who could not complete their immigrant visa processing in time due to the presidential visa ban (despite getting last minute relief that came too late). Hopefully by 2022 the economy would have improved from a post-COVID recovery thus negating the "justification" for a continued visa ban.

Edited October 9, 2020 by ultrasoul

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

1 hour ago, ultrasoul said:

the date she will actually set foot in America as a DV-2022 winner is after going to be after October 2022

Just a correction on this. DV2022 selectees will interview (in case number order) between October  2021 and September 2022, and can come to the US as soon as they have a visa (assuming no more ban of course). So many if not most will in fact enter before October 2022.
Anyway this topic is moot without even knowing if OP’s sister is born in an eligible country or if she is otherwise eligible for DV. but certainly, it is an option if so. Chances are small, but someone has to win. (I did!) 

Edited October 9, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

what are the odds of anyone actually getting a DV lottery ? i thought it was over subscribed like 50 times 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

52 minutes ago, James120383 said:

what are the odds of anyone actually getting a DV lottery ? i thought it was over subscribed like 50 times 

In a normal year, I think it’s around 1/2 %.  There are slight differences among regions.