Follow-to-Join Question for Recent LPR who came as a derivative family member

[VinnyV88 1]

Hello,

 

I am asking this question for my father-in-law.

 

My FIL, who is a Legal Permanent Resident, petitioned for his wife, who was living in the Dominican Republic, and her daughter was a derivative of that petition.

 

So, now that that process is completed, they arrived in the US a couple of weeks ago, we are wondering what the daughter can do to bring over her young daughter who is 6 years of age.

 

When we were filling out her DS-260, we indicated that the daughter had a child and the plan was for her child to immigrate at a later date.

 

The question is, what do we have to do to initiate this process to allow the child to join her mother here in the US?

 

From what I researched, there is a "follow-to-join" option for them to use, though I'm not sure how to exactly start the process at this point.

 

I look forward to hearing back from anyone who can shed some light on this, as she misses her child dearly and I want to help them reunite as quickly as possible.

 

Thank you,

Vincent

[Boiler 45,783]

The daughter need to file a I 130

[Chancy 6,243]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:38 PM, VinnyV88 said:

From what I researched, there is a "follow-to-join" option for them to use, though I'm not sure how to exactly start the process at this point.

 

FTJ is not available to the grandchild.  FTJ is an option only for spouse and minor children of the principal beneficiary of a petition, not children of derivative beneficiaries.

 

As mentioned above, the daughter must file a new I-130 petition for her 6-yo daughter.  In addition, she may want to file I-131 for a re-entry permit, so she can return to the DR without losing her LPR status, to wait out her daughter's F2A process.

 

[VinnyV88 1]

Thank you for your responses, much appreciated!

 

At least we know now what the correct path is.