Wife just got Green Card, how to bring her family?

[Azagarth 0]

Her parents do not need a visa number, so a year or so, siblings do, 15 years or so.

Presumably the parents would not leave a 7 year old anyway.

Please correct me if I am confused.

SO it sounds like in 3 years my wife can become a citizen, petition for her parents, and on avg in 2 years they will immigrate as LPR to the US.

However, Her siblings, who will in 3 years be the ages of 4,15,22 will not be able to come with the parents and will end up waiting some 15 yr on avg to get here? That seems really messed up, please tell me I am wrong. I know there is no way the parents are ditching their kids. Is there not some way they can bring them with at that 5 years from now when they should receive legal resident status?

[Boiler 43,438]

No.

They could wait for the slowest and all come together.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi,

There is absolutely no way for them to immigrate together.

Your wife can only file for her siblings and parents when she becomes a citizen. It will take 1-2 years for her parents and 12-14 years for her siblings.

This is the fastest and most common route in your scenario;

1. Wife gets citizenship. In 3 years.

2. USC wife files for her dad. (1-2 years).

3. LPR dad immigrated and filed for his wife and unmarried children. In 2-3 years, his wife and unmarried kids under age 21 can immigrate. The older kids will wait 7 years.

So 15 years for all of them to get here.

Yes, that is the fastest unless you can get US spouses for the older kids.

[Azagarth 0]

the oldest two we could probably sponsor as students in 5 yrs at the local college, the problem is the youngest kid then, who is not even 1 yr old. So there is no possible way he being so young could just come with the parents?

[aaron2020 11,651]

the oldest two we could probably sponsor as students in 5 yrs at the local college, the problem is the youngest kid then, who is not even 1 yr old. So there is no possible way he being so young could just come with the parents?

None. When your USC wife petitions for a parent, only the parent will get a visa.

Have you looked into what it takes for a student visa? Got $20,000/per year/per student? You have to have the money upfront.

[Boiler 43,438]

Correct

Bear in mind that with these time frames you never know what may happen, the oldest could be married by then.

Education in the US is not cheap.

[Cathi 5,610]

Just because one becomes an LPR does not automatically give their family an easy route to the US. Nothing is easy or cheap about US immigration. You do realize that with a student visa not only do they need the tuition and fees up front, they also need to prove they can afford to pay living expenses the entire 4 years, and when they graduate they have to return home to their country. A student visa only allows them to attend school here, nothing more. No one has brought up that soon the US government will be doing away with the sibling category, making it impossible to bring siblings at all.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Just because one becomes an LPR does not automatically give their family an easy route to the US. Nothing is easy or cheap about US immigration. You do realize that with a student visa not only do they need the tuition and fees up front, they also need to prove they can afford to pay living expenses the entire 4 years, and when they graduate they have to return home to their country. A student visa only allows them to attend school here, nothing more. No one has brought up that soon the US government will be doing away with the sibling category, making it impossible to bring siblings at all.

Agree with everything except the elimination of the sibling category.

There is nothing soon to change about the sibling category. Congress is not going to act on this or any other part of immigration. There is no law to eliminate the sibling category. There is no discussion to eliminate it either.

[Boiler 43,438]

I agree that any changes are not currently on the horizon, if anything ever does happen then the sibling category is likely to go.

[nertilduraku 2]

Travel Visa in an option, since no options left for you my friend, they maybe can get a travel visa, to visit her daughter,sister! But they dont need to overstay if they want to immigrate in later stadium of the process

[tocca2015 24]

Please correct me if I am confused.

SO it sounds like in 3 years my wife can become a citizen, petition for her parents, and on avg in 2 years they will immigrate as LPR to the US.

However, Her siblings, who will in 3 years be the ages of 4,15,22 will not be able to come with the parents and will end up waiting some 15 yr on avg to get here? That seems really messed up, please tell me I am wrong. I know there is no way the parents are ditching their kids. Is there not some way they can bring them with at that 5 years from now when they should receive legal resident status?

Also keep in mind that your wife will have to make a good income to bring over her entire family... She has to file for an affidavit of support for all those people. Ultimately, it's probably best she follows the advice given here: file for the dad, let the dad become a US citizen and file for his wife and kids.

I personally don't think it is messed up that it takes that long to bring siblings, as parents of US citizens get a visa rather quickly. Moving to the US is a choice a person makes and it comes with advantages and disadvantages, being split up from family being one of the latter. Every life choice comes with 2 sides to it.

I'm not against the time frame it takes because if every immigrant sponsored their entire family super quickly, I think this country would be overwhelmed with people. I don't mean that in a bad way and I'll probably get flamed for it, but it's my opinion...Immigration is great, hey, I'm a Canadian immigrant to the US, but I think priority should be given to spouses of US citizens and parents as well as highly trained individuals who can fill gaps in the science and technology field. I think there are issues with immigration in general, but the siblings program isn't one of them.

[_Paul&Jesica_ 70]

Please correct me if I am confused.

SO it sounds like in 3 years my wife can become a citizen, petition for her parents, and on avg in 2 years they will immigrate as LPR to the US.

However, Her siblings, who will in 3 years be the ages of 4,15,22 will not be able to come with the parents and will end up waiting some 15 yr on avg to get here? That seems really messed up, please tell me I am wrong. I know there is no way the parents are ditching their kids. Is there not some way they can bring them with at that 5 years from now when they should receive legal resident status?

One way to reduce the time for her siblings, is to petition her parents, they become USC in 5 years, then the parents can petition their unmarried children as IR, so instead of 15 years, it could be less than 10: 3 years for your spouse to be USC, 1 year for parents to become LPR, 5 years for parents to become USC, 1 year for unmarried children of parents.

[bestofboston 36]

Go to the USCIS Instructions for I-130. On page 6 Paragraph titled "When will a visa become available" details who a US citizen can bring to the USA and details that a spouse, parent, or unmarried minor child of a US citizen are classified as immediate relative that once approved by the USCIS, they do not have to wait for a visa number. They go to the head of the line.

For alien relatives in preference categories, a limited number of immigrant visas are issued each year and are processed in the order in which the petitions are properly filed and accepted by the USCIS.

In other words, brothers and sisters of a US Citizen that are not considered immediate relatives and are subject to the limited number of immigrant visas issued each year.

For example in the Philippines, it may take up to 20 years from the time you filed the I-130 for each sibling to get your brothers and sisters here. The time frame varies for each country.

[Ale_Grisolia 4]

Don't forget about the EB-5 visa ! Sure, it requires money, but this is really a time vs money situation, right there !

With a paralell dollar of 13+ pesos to 1 dollar, there are very few families that can afford 500k in investment to come to america, it would be 6.5M pesos to get half a million dollars! and he is asking how much he will have to pay for the fees, it is a posibility but very unlikely.

You have to wait 3 years since the GC was issued, to apply for citizenship and then file to bring the family, they will pay each one the fees, and if your wife needs her family here, or it meets the criteria for an expedition, you can try after filing the cases, ask to expedite the cases.

Good Luck!

[Azagarth 0]

I know there is no way my father in law is leaving his new born baby for 6 years while he waits it out in the states.

Or is there a way he can just come and get his green card and then wait in Argentina until he can apply for citizenship? My assumption is that for citizenship you have to be physically present those 5 years right?