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Family Based Immigration
One of the driving forces behind the United States immigration laws is the concept of family unity. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has made available several opportunities for foreign nationals to obtain Lawful Permanent Resident Status (“green card holder”) which permits employment authorization and the ability to indefinitely enter and exit the United States without restriction, based upon a qualifying relationship to a United States Citizen or Permanent Resident. Your relationship to a United States Citizen or to a Permanent Resident may qualify you to apply for a green card. United States Citizen’s and Permanent Resident’s have the ability in many circumstances to file petitions for members of their immediate family: including spouses, fiancées, parents, children, and siblings.
If you do not have a qualifying relationship to seek immigration benefits through a family member, there are many other avenues open to you such as employment based petitions or student visas which can lead to a green card later on down the road.
In order to determine if you are eligible to receive the benefits of a family based petition it must first be determined if a qualifying relationship exists. The Immigration and Naturalization Service categorizes family relationships into five broad categories. Each category (with the exception of the immediate relative category) has an annual limitation on the amount of people who can become permanent residents. The numerical limitations are often oversubscribed which causes periodic and often substantial waiting periods. Availability of each visa changes frequently, please contact us for up to date quota information.
Immediate Relative: Spouse, unmarried children under the age of twenty-one, parents, or widow(er)
of United States Citizen.
First Preference: Unmarried children of United States Citizens over the age of twenty one.
Second Preference: (a) Spouse or unmarried child (including stepchild if under eighteen at the time
of marriage) under the age of twenty one of a Lawful Permanent Resident.
(b) Unmarried child, over the age of twenty-one, of a Lawful Permanent Resident.
Third Preference: Married child of a United States citizen.
Fourth Preference: Sibling of a United States Citizen (United States Citizen must be over the age of
twenty-one).
Orphan: Orphan child under the age of twenty-one adopted by a United States citizen.
Amerasian: Child believed to be fathered by a United States serviceman in South East Asia during
the Vietnam conflict or the Korean War.
The petition to become a permanent resident based upon a qualifying relationship to a United States Citizen or Permanent Resident can be done in the United States or in your home country at a United States Embassy or Consulate.
If you are engaged to a United States Citizen, and are currently located outside of the United States, your United States Citizen Fiancée may petition for you to enter the United States on a K-1 visa.
If you are married to a United States Citizen, but are currently located outside of the United States, your United States Citizen spouse may petition for you to enter the United States on a K-3 visa.
The K Visa provides that during the time that an application to become a permanent resident is pending with the Immigration and Naturalization Service you will be eligible to travel and to work in the United States.
If you filed to become a permanent resident based your relationship to a United States Permanent Resident, and the application was filed before December 21, 2000, you may be eligible to enter the United States on the newly created V visa.
Permanent residence through a marriage yields conditional residence status if the marriage is less than two years old at the time of interview. As a Conditional Permanent Resident you are required to submit an application to the Immigration and Naturalization Service within the three-month period prior to the two-year anniversary of the time you first became a permanent resident to remove the condition. This application is ideally submitted as a joint application by husband and wife to remove the "condition" but can be made unilaterally (by one person) in the event of death or domestic problems prohibiting a joint application.
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