FAQs About Petitioning for Family Immigrants

U.S. citizen petitioners face limitations on sponsoring derivatives of relatives who qualify through them.

Not only natural-born children, but also adopted and stepchildren can immigrate through their parents if certain conditions are met.

Here is when a spouse or child can take the derivative visa route to immigrate and when they cannot.

Having more than one person file a visa petition for an intending immigrant provides a potentially crucial backup plan.

Before you mail in Form I-130, find out whether your foreign-born relative is, if living in the U.S., allowed to also submit the remainder of the green card application.

In most cases, children who arrive after the I-130 visa petition is filed can immigrate along with other derivative children.

Planning for the worst, given long waits in immigrant processing.

Your child's application for permanent residence can either speed up or slow down as time goes by and two significant things possibly happen: you go from LPR to naturalized citizen, or your child turns 21.

With the passage of time or changes in life circumstances, family petitioners sometimes realize that they're no longer able or comfortable sponsoring an immigrant. Find out what to do next.

What happens if a U.S. citizen cancels an I-129F petition for a foreign-born fiancé and then later meets someone new, and wants to file another such petition?

Possibilities for revoking the green card of an immigrant who conned someone into a sham marriage.

Does the process for applying for a green card as part of a same-sex married couple differ from the process for a same-sex couple?

Under the Adam-Walsh Act, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who have criminal convictions for sex offenses against a minor cannot petition for family members to receive U.S. residence (green cards).