Petioning parent, parent petioning daughter

[Walley 0]

Hello All,

I was looking at immigration timelines and still a little bit confused after I've read the links in this forum. Granting, I am petitioning my dad, how long will it take (rough estimate) from filing I-130 to getting a green card? Also, I have an 18 yo sister who will be left alone if he comes to the US. Can he petition my sister if he becomes an LPR?

Please enlighten me and thank you very much in advance for all your informative inputs.

Cheers,

Walley

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Figure anywhere between 8 months to a year before your dad gets his visa. He'll get a green card within a few weeks of entering the US with his visa.

He can petition for your sister as an LPR, provided she isn't married. The day the petition is accepted by USCIS will be her priority date. Any visa your sister would be eligible for would have annual numerical limits, which means your sister will have to wait until a visa number is available for her. Department of State publishes a monthly bulletin that gives the current cutoff date for each family preference visa category. When her priority date is before the cutoff date for her visa category then her priority date is said to be "current", and she'll be able to apply for a visa.

You can see the current visa bulletins here:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html

Initially, she'll be eligible for an F2A visa because she's under 21. However, the current cutoff date for F2A visas is July, 2008. This means there's currently about a three year wait before her priority date will become current. If she's over 21 by the time her priority date is current then she'll no longer be eligible for an F2A - she'd be eligible for an F2B. The current cutoff date for F2B's from most countries is July, 2003, which means an eight year wait. Since it will be a year or so before your dad will be able to send the petition, it currently looks like she'll be too old for an F2A, and may end up having to wait for an F2B. A lot depends on what happens to the cutoff dates between now and then. The cutoff dates have been advancing more than a month with each new visa bulletin lately, so the wait time might be much shorter before she's 21 years old. She also gets to deduct any time spent waiting for the petition to be approved when calculating her "effective" age for visa eligibility. This is all a "wait and see" scenario.

You could also file for an F4 visa for your sister. However, the wait time is years longer, and varies by country.

[Steph1988 11]

Or it could be faster. My case with uscis got approved with in 60 days and is at NVC already

[Walley 0]

Jim & Steph, thanks for your swift replies.

Jim, what is going to happen during F2A? Granting he gets his green card before my sister turns 21 and file for my sister right away, if petition gets approved, can my sister come to the US say in about 8 yrs? If she gets married before visa approval, what happens then?

I'm sorry, I know what these family based visas are but I get lost when it comes to technical differences. It's simple but it's not.

Cheers,

Walley

[ngvuanh 0]

Usually, if your sister gets petition approved, it's hard for her to get any other visa category.

Even if she can get one, she may be deport at port of entry since they will find out your sister has approval I-130.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

You sister must stay unmarried if your father stays an LPR once she is 21. Otherwise the whole thing is dead. A sibling2sibling it doesn't matter about her marital status. If you father gets USC before the gets a visa it may make it shorter and she could get married

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Jim & Steph, thanks for your swift replies.

Jim, what is going to happen during F2A? Granting he gets his green card before my sister turns 21 and file for my sister right away, if petition gets approved, can my sister come to the US say in about 8 yrs? If she gets married before visa approval, what happens then?

I'm sorry, I know what these family based visas are but I get lost when it comes to technical differences. It's simple but it's not.

Cheers,

Walley

The petition is the same, regardless of what kind of visa the beneficiary will eventually get. Which visa she gets depends on which visa she's eligible for when a visa number becomes available for her. If her priority date becomes current in the F2A category, and her effective age is under 21, then a visa number will be available for her. If her priority date becomes current in the F2A category, and her effective age is over 21, then a visa number will not be available for her yet - she'll have to wait until her priority date is current in the F2B category.

A green card holder can only petition for an unmarried son or daughter. If she gets married then she's no longer eligible for either an F2A or F2B. If you'd like some insurance against that scenario then you should also file an I-130 for your sister. That would be for an F4 visa. It does take years longer than either an F2A or F2B, but she'd still be eligible even if she marries. By filing a petition you would be reserving her priority date in case she needs to wait for an F4 visa. You can file the I-130 for her now.