Question:
I am going to marry a U.S. permanent resident soon. I want to know my
children’s U.S. visa eligibility after I marriage with a U.S.
permanent resident.
Answer:
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.
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