Emergency situation, can child of LPR come during I-130 processing?

[mrs_piper 0]

I need help/advice too! I'm the USC and my husband is the LPR who has a daughter in Romania from a previous marriage. We want to bring her here to the US this summer! Anyone who has gone down the path of the USC petitioning for a stepchild, please help!

Do I use the form I-130 then we have to wait for her to get a visa? Or can she come to the US before a visa is approved? Any way to make it an 'emergency' situation since her living situation in Romania isn't good?

I've read through so much on this site and USCIS and I just feel the process isn't really clear. Does the child need to have a visa from the I-130 before coming, or can we get her a nonimmigrant visa while the I-130 processes?

Is it faster for me the US citizen to apply instead of my husband, the LPR.

anyone who has successfully gone on this path, please advise! Thanks in advance.

[Darnell 8,478]

Mrs_piper - have the USCitizen, the step-parent, file a I-130 on the child this week, and ask for expedite (in the cover letter) due to parent already in USA.

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

The child can come on a tourist visa to visit if she has a B2, or can apply for one, but she cannot come to live in the USA until she has an immigrant visa.

It's faster if you as the US citizen step parent petitions her.

You can try for an expedite, but frankly, unless the circumstances are really dire, I doubt it will be granted- you have other options such as moving her to a boarding school in the country or abroad in Europe. You are looking at most of a year for processing. Could you and/or your husband spend some extended time in Romania to parent the child?

[SerenityNOW 11]

**IF** you could get a B2 visa that would be great, she could visit here while the IR-2 visa is being processed. But she almost for sure would have to return to Romania for processing (I have seen people post that you can do adjustment of status on a family-based visa but it would be considered fraud if she entered on a B2 knowing you want to immigrate her, so I think this would be hard to pull off legally .... definitely the completely legal way is for her to process through the embassy in Romania). But if she had a tourist visa to visit, at least she could do most of the waiting with you.

We haven't been able to get a tourist visa for my husband's kids - and were told by the embassy officials in Sofia that since the children's parent was a US resident (now citizen) we NEVER would, which is why we are now immigrating his younger son and we just keep trying for a tourist visa for the older one, since he is in the middle of medical school in Bulgaria/owns his own apartment and would not drop out of school to come live here. In your case, since you guys intend to immigrate your step-daughter, it is going to be even harder to convince the immigration officers that she would return at the end of her visit... but who knows, maybe Bucharest is more lenient than Sofia.

The initial I-130 application process could go as quickly as 39 days (unusual, but it has happened recently). It was 2 months for us. Then typically another month for NVC to generate all the required numbers... after that, I have seen people get through NVC as quickly as around 20 days. Then it's up to your embassy how quickly they schedule an interview. So all in all it would be possible to get through the entire process in 4 months, but more likely 5-6.

You can request an expedite if her situation is dangerous/she has no one else to take care of her... but "parent already in USA" is not a reason - we are ALL in that situation!

The guides are pretty straightforward:

• Children of US Citizens or Permanent Residents: Overview Procedure
• IR-2 (and CR-2) Visas
• You can join the very long stepchild thread here: Stand alone I-130 for stepchild(ren)
• And... the NVC process is outlined in great detail in the first two posts every month in the spouse IR-1/CR-1 forum. Here is the current one: NVC Filers - April 2013

Filing for a stepchild is very similar to a spouse - the main difference is less "proof" of relationship is required and no G325A form and no photos required with the I-130. Keep in mind that, assuming your husband doesn't have sole custody, you will need permission from the biological mother - or from whomever has legal custody - to immigrate your step-daughter. You will have to find out what Romania requires. If your husband was not married to the child's bio mom when she was born and/or his name doesn't appear on her birth certificate, it is more likely the embassy will require a DNA test, but they might require it anyway and that adds more time (and $) to the process.

Good luck to you! The process is long and expensive but at least there are others here who are going through the same thing... hope we can help you -

Edited April 18, 2013 by SerenityNOW