How Can Refugee or Asylee Help Family Come to the U.S.?

If you are a refugee or asylee (aged 18 and over) living in the United States, and your close family members have not already been granted the same status as you, here are the legal ways to help them come to live in the United States.

By , Attorney · Florida Coastal School of Law

If you are a refugee or asylee (aged 18 and over) living in the United States, and your close family members have not already been granted the same status as you, you might be looking for legal ways to help them come to (or stay in) in the United States. Here are three possible ways to accomplish this:

  • You could file a Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition, within two years of your admission as a refugee or asylee in the U.S. (or later, if the U.S. government excuses this deadline in your case).
  • You could file an Affidavit of Relationship within five years of your admission as a refugee or asylee in the United States.
  • You could file a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, if and when you become a green-card holder or U.S. citizen; or if appropriate, a Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), after you become a U.S. citizen.

This article will further explain these three options and how to best take advantage of them.

Submitting Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition for Family in U.S. or Abroad

If you have lived as a refugee or asylee in the United States for less than two years (even if you have become a green-card holder, but not if you have become a U.S. citizen), you may file Form I-730 to ask that the U.S. government allow your spouse and your unmarried children under age 21 to come join you.

If you have a very good reason for not being able to file within two years (for example, if you were very ill), the U.S. government could decide that these "humanitarian" circumstances excuse the deadline and allow you to file your petition late.

There is no limit to the number of nationalities that qualify for admission through Form I-730 every year. Moreover, to qualify for this status, your relatives would not even need to meet the main qualification for obtaining asylee or refugee status—that is, that they were persecuted in their home country.

They would instead be classified as your "derivatives." They would, however, still need to show that they are not barred from receiving asylee or refugee status, meaning that they do not pose a security threat and have never persecuted anyone or committed a serious crime. (If other grounds of inadmissibility, such as having a communicable disease, apply—especially to refugee derivatives—they can request a waiver, or legal forgiveness, on USCIS Form I-602.)

For more information on how to file Form I-730 with accompanying forms and documents, see Filling Out Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition.

If your I-730 petition is approved and your relatives live abroad, they will need to apply for either what's called a "Visa 92" (if you are an asylee) or a "Visa 93" (if you are a refugee) at a U.S. embassy or consulate. That means they will need to attend an interview there.

If they're already in the U.S., they'll need to attend an interview at a USCIS office. Also, as of a 2020 USCIS policy, you will be expected to attend the interview of any family member who is in the United States.

The primary purpose of these interviews is to establish that they're truly related to you and don't pose a security threat.

Submitting Affidavit of Relationship (AOR) for Overseas Refugee Family Members

If you have lived as a refugee or asylee in the United States for less than five years (whether or not you have become a green card holder or a U.S. citizen), and you come from one of the countries listed by the U.S. government, you may file an AOR to help your spouse, your unmarried children under age 21, and your parents apply for refugee status through the U.S. Refugees Admissions Program.

This is done under a special family reunification category also referred to as "Priority 3." Other members of your previous households (whether or not they are related to you) could also qualify as family members in rare circumstances if you shared the same resources when you lived together, and if they can demonstrate "exceptional and compelling humanitarian circumstances" (for example, they are in dire need of aid).

While open to a few more categories of family members than Form I-730, Priority 3 is open to only a few nationalities, which the U.S. government specifically designates every year. Furthermore, it requires that family members prove not only that there is no bar to their admission, but also that they were persecuted.

Also unlike Form I-730, Priority 3 might require that you and your family member (if you claim a blood relationship) obtain DNA testing. This would be paid for by you or your relative. (This requirement was added after a lot of fraud was committed by applicants to this program—so much that it had to be suspended for years.)

In any event, to gain access to Priority 3, your family member would need you to begin the process by filing an AOR with a local branch of one of the few nongovernmental agencies allowed to process the document for the U.S. State Department. (For a list of agencies, see the U.S. Resettlement Partners page of the UNHCR website.)

Submitting Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative or Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) for Family in U.S. or Abroad

If you were admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or asylee but have since become a green-card holder, you might have a choice between filing a Form I-730, an AOR, or a more standard family petition on USCIS Form I-130 or (for fiancés) Form I-129F.

Form I-130 allows green-card holders to petition for not only their spouse and unmarried children under 21, but also their unmarried sons and daughters over age 21). However, the I-130 process for family of green-card holders is costly and can sometimes last several years—often longer than the processing times for either Form I-730 or AORs/Priority3. Moreover, I-130 beneficiaries are subject to a larger number of inadmissibility grounds. So, the best reason to go this route would be that the two-year deadline on Form I-730 has passed.

Similarly, if you were admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or asylee but have since become a U.S. citizen, you might have the choice between filing an AOR (if the U.S. government deems it in the "public interest" for you to do so), a Form I-130 (which allows U.S. citizens to petition for many more categories of relatives than green-card holders can, including brothers and sisters) or a Form I-129F (which allows U.S. citizens to petition for their fiancé(e), spouse, or children to come the U.S. before they apply for the green card).

However, except for the issues of cost and inadmissibility mentioned in the previous paragraph, your relative would almost always have faster access to the United States if you filed Form I-130 (or Form I-129F, if applicable) instead of an AOR.

For More Information and Help

For more information on Forms I-130 and I-129F, read about Family Sponsors Petitioning for Immigrants. You might also consider hiring an experienced immigration attorney to help you strategize and prepare the paperwork to bring your family here. Fortunately, asylum is an area where you'll find a lot of help from volunteer attorneys or nonprofit (charitable) organizations serving immigrants and refugees.

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