KainRios Immigration can advise you on the procedures to petition for your family members so they may immigrate to the United States and become permanent residents.
KainRios Immigration can help you understand the visa backlogs in your case and provide you with resources to track the priority date of your petition with the Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin.
If you are a U.S. citizen, U.S. immigration law allows you to petition for some family members based on their relationship to you.
- If you are U.S. citizen, you may petition for your parents, your spouse and your minor (under 21) unmarried children. These three relationships to a U.S. citizen are considered Immediate Relatives.
Immediate Relatives will receive uninterrupted processing for lawful permanent residence, because there is no numerical limit of how many Immediate Relatives of U.S. citizens can receive permanent residence each year.
Priority dates and Visa Backlogs
Other family members must wait for many years between the time that a petition is filed and the time they can ask for permanent residence. There is a fixed number of visas available for these other family relationships and over the years there have been generally more and more of these family members waiting their turn.
- U.S. citizens may also file for son or daughters who are over 21 or who married, but these adult children must wait for many years between the time that the petition is filed for them and the time that they become eligible to apply for permanent residence.
- U.S. citizens may also petition for a sibling. Brothers and Sisters of U.S. citizens have to wait many years because of the visa backlogs in this family preference category.