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The Child Immigration
Categories, Visa Number, |
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The Child Immigration
Categories, Visa Number, |
1. The Green Card Application for U.S. Citizen's Unmarried Children under 21 Year of Age
Unmarried children under 21 year of age of U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for permanent resident status as immediate relatives. Immediate relatives of a U.S. citizen can immigrate to the United States without being subject to any numerical restrictions. This means there is no visa quota allowed under the immediate relative category, unlike other close family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The immediate relatives of U.S. citizens do not have to wait for an immigrant visa number to become available once the application filed for them is approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
If you are a U.S. citizen and your child is under the age 21 who is in U.S. already, then you can file the USCIS Form I-130 and Form I-485 for adjustment of status at the same time, without the Form I-130 approval notice.
2. The Green Card Application for U.S. Citizen's Married Children or Children over 21 Year of Age
1) U.S. Citizen's Unmarried Children over 21 Year of Age, in the First Preference Category: A child of a U.S. citizen, who is seeking U.S. permanent residency and who will turn 21, will be age out and lose the original eligibility as an immediate relative of U.S. citizen. In most cases, if the child turns 21 before the adjustment case is approved, the case moves into First Preference category which can result in a delay in the processing time.
If a child does not qualify as an immediate relative, he or she may apply under the First Preference - unmarried children over 21 year of age of U.S. citizens (23,400 per year, plus unused visas from the Fourth Preference). Since numerical caps apply to this category, visa petitions are ranked chronologically based on a "first come, first serve basis." Also, because of the numerical cap, there may be long waiting period to obtain a visa.
2) U.S. Citizen's Married Sons or Daughters, in the Third Preference Category: This category is designed for the married children of U.S. citizens regardless of his or her age. That means to qualify as a "child" in this category, the person must be the son or daughter of a U.S. citizen, who is married. A “married son or daughter” is a person who has a recognized parent-child relationship, and who is also married, regardless of age.
Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, including their spouses and their minor children, have an immigrant visa number of 23,400 per year, plus unused visas from the First and Second Preferences. Immediate family members of the married alien child can also apply for a Green Card with the child.
If the child is already in the United States in a nonimmigrant status, the U.S. citizen may only file an immigration petition (I-130) for the alien child. The child has to wait for the immigrant visa number to become current before he or she may apply to adjust to permanent resident (Form I-485). During this waiting period, the child needs to independently maintain a valid nonimmigrant status.
If the child is outside the United States, the U.S. citizen needs to file an immigration petition and request that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS ) notify a U.S. Consulate in the country where the child lives. Once the immigration petition is approved and an immigrant visa is available, the National Visa Center of the U.S. State Department sends a forms and information package, "Packet 3", to the U.S. citizen. After the necessary forms are completed, the child goes to the U.S. Consulate overseas to apply for an immigrant visa. On the day that the child enters the United States on an immigrant visa, he or she becomes a U.S. permanent resident.3. The Immigrant Visa Number for Child
An immigrant is a foreign national who has gone through the U.S. immigration process and been granted the privilege of living and working permanently in the United States. Your child or children must go through a multi-step immigration process to become an immigrant and obtain a Green Card. First, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must approve an immigrant petition that you filed for your children. Second, the State Department must give your children immigrant visa number, even if your children are already in the United States. Third, if your children are already in the United States, your children may apply to adjust to permanent resident status when a visa number becomes available. If your children are outside the United States when an immigrant visa number becomes available, your children will be notified to go to the local U.S. Consulate to complete the immigration processing for an immigrant visa.
If you are a U.S. Citizen and the immigrant visa petition is approved for your unmarried child under the age of 21, an immigrant visa number will be immediately available to them, no waiting time needed.
If the immigrant visa petition is approved for your unmarried child 21 years of age or older, or for your married child, they must wait for an immigrant visa number to become available according to the preference system.
If you are a legal permanent resident (Green Card holder) and the immigrant visa petition is approved for your unmarried child of any age, they must wait for an immigrant visa number to become available according to the preference system.
You will be notified by the USCIS when your I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, is approved or denied. If it is approved, your child will be notified when a visa number is available. If your child is outside the country, your child must then go to the local U.S. Consulate for processing. If your child is legally inside the United States when a visa number becomes available, your child should apply to adjust to permanent resident status.
Those that must wait according to the preference system may not get an immigrant visa number immediately after the immigrant visa petition is approved for them, because the immigrant visa numbers that are available each year is limited.
In some cases, several years could pass between the time USCIS approves the immigrant visa petition and the U.S. State Department provides an immigrant visa number. Because U.S. law also limits the number of immigrant visas available by country, they may have to wait longer if they come from a country with a high demand for U.S. immigrant visas.4. Required Documents for Child/Parent Relationship
As a parent, the document to prove your child/parent relationship include:
1) You are the child's mother: Submit a copy of the child's birth certificate showing your name and the name of your child.
2) You are the child's father: Submit a copy of the child's birth certificate showing both parents' names and your marriage certificate.
3) A child born out of wedlock and you are the father: If the child was not legitimated before reaching 18 years old, you must provide copies of evidence that a real parent-child relationship existed between the father and the child before the child reached 21 years. This may include evidence that the father lived with the child, supported him or her, or otherwise showed continuing parental interest in the child's welfare.
4) Stepparent/stepchild: If your petition is based on a stepparent-stepchild relationship, you must provide a copy of the marriage certificate of the stepparent to the child's natural parent showing that the marriage occurred before the child's 18th birthday, and copies of documents showing that any prior marriages were legally terminated.
5) Adoptive parent or adopted child: If you and the person you are filing for are related by adoption, you must submit a copy of the adoption decree(s) showing that the adoption took place before the child became 16 years old. If you adopted the sibling of a child you already adopted, you must submit a copy of the adoption decree(s) showing that the adoption of the sibling occured before that child's 18th birthday.
5. The Green Card Application for U.S. Permanent Resident 's Children
The child of U.S. Permanent Resident category provides foreign children of permanent residents the opportunity to reunite with family living in the United States and become permanent residents. Permanent Residents have the right to live and work in the United States permanently, leave and return to the United States with few limitations, attend public schools and colleges and become a U.S. citizen when eligible to do so.
As a green card holder, or permanent resident, you may petition for certain family members to immigrate to the United States as permanent residents. You may petition for the following family members:
1) Spouse, husband or wife;
2) Unmarried children under 21,
3) Unmarried son or daughter of any age.
Children of the lawful permanent resident must prove relationships through birth certificates, adoption papers and marriage certificates. Applicants must also meet certain health and character requirements.
6. The Children’s U.S. Visa Eligibility after Marriage with a U.S. Permanent Resident
If your relative is already in the United States legally, he or she may apply to adjust status to become a permanent resident after a visa number becomes available using Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status.
If your relative is outside the United States, your petition will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will forward your petition to the appropriate U.S. consulate when a visa becomes available and your relative will be notified about how to proceed. This process is referred to as “Consular Processing.”
If your spouse has a U.S. green card, your children who are unmarried and under age 21 are considered derivative beneficiaries. This means that the children will not need a separate initial visa petition (Form I-130) filed for them in order to be included in your immigration process. Unlike many other applicants, they also would not need to prove that the petitioning spouse is their parent or even stepparent, because they are riding on the immigrant's application. They will share the immigrant's place on the visa or green card waiting list, and most likely get a visa at the same time as the immigrant, provided they remain unmarried.
Children who have gotten married will not be able to immigrate to the United States at the same time with their parents. They will have no visa options until the petitioning spouse becomes a U.S. citizen, and files a visa petition for them in category 3 of the Visa Preference System, which has a very long waiting period. Of course, to do this, the spouse would have to prove that he or she is either the child’s legal stepparent or the biological parent.
7. The Children’s Visa Eligibility If Marriage Is to a U.S. Citizen
If the petitioning spouse is a U.S. citizen, and the unmarried children under 21 are his or her biological children or legal stepchildren, and if you married when they were under age 18, then the children qualify for Green Cards as the U.S. petitioner's immediate relatives. The immediate relatives are given high priority under the immigration laws, with no annual limits, and therefore waiting periods, to slow their receipt of a Green Card.
The children's Green Card should be approved at the same time as the immigrant spouse's, if they remain unmarried right up to the day they enter the U.S. with their immigrant visa; or if they are already in the US, receive approval of their adjustment of status application.
If any of your children marry before they receive a immigrant visa or Green Card, they will automatically drop into category 3 of the Visa Preference System, which is subject to long waiting periods.
If one of your children turns 21 before receiving an immigrant visa or Green Card, as long as the petitioner is a U.S. citizen and the child was under 21 when the visa petition was filed, the child will still be considered an immediate relative even after turning 21.
8. The Immigration Petition for Adoptive Child?
While U.S. citizens may sponsor any of the spouse, parent, brother/sister, or child, the lawful permanent residents may only petition a spouse or unmarried child. If you are filing the Form I-130 petition for a child or parent, you will need to select an option for the type of relationship: biological, stepchild/stepparent, or adoptive.
The immigration petitions with biological relationships are generally the most straightforward, but the immigration laws that affect step relationships and adoptive relationships get more complicated. For example, the marriage that created a stepchild/stepparent relationship must take place before the child’s 18th birthday. Petitioners with step or adoptive relationships will also have to submit additional documentation as evidence of the relationship.
There are some additional questions about adoptive relationships. These are generally easy to answer. The adoptive relationships can make the visa petition process more complicated. There are two ways to bring an adopted child to the United States through the immigration process. You can petition a child either as an orphan or as a non-orphan.
First, you can bring a child to the United States if the child is a Non-Orphan Adopted Child. The criteria for this process are as follows: The legal adoption order must be from a court or other governmental entity and that the adoption process must be finalized before the child’s sixteenth birthday. You must have lived with your adopted child outside of the United States, and the child must have been in your legal custody, for at least two years.
If you meet the requirements, you can file a Petition for Alien Relative Petition (I-130 Petition). You may receive a notice to appear to your nearest USCIS office to submit additional documents or information. If the petition is approved, then the U.S. embassy or consulate can issue an immigrant visa on behalf of your adopted child.
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