Relative Petitions (I-130)

One of the main factors in determining your eligibility to apply for a relative petition is the immigration status of the sponsoring relative. It will also determine the length of time you will need to wait. For example, those immediate relatives of a U.S. citizen include the USC’s parents, spouse, and children under 21 years of age. If you fall into the immediate relative category, visa numbers are always current and available. Depending on where the foreign national is residing at the time will help determine if the application can be filed in the U.S. through the USCIS office or whether consular processing would be utilized.

There are four family-based preference categories and the time it takes for these visas to be available is governed by the Department of State and can be located in the Visa Bulletin which is updated every month Click for recent visa bulletin.  U.S. Citizens can sponsor their brother and/or sisters (F-4 category) and half-siblings may petition for one another as well. With one of the longest wait times, this F-4 category currently is taking up to over a decade and in some countries, several decades.

Sometimes the sponsor (petitioner) may pass away after the I-130 relative petition has been approved, leaving behind the intending immigrant. In such cases, the I-130 may be reinstated by the Attorney General. The death of the petitioner will automatically revoke the I-130 petition unless USCIS decides that for humanitarian reasons, the petition should not be revoked and there is a substitute sponsor under the Family Sponsor Immigration Act of 2002. An I-130 petition filed by a spouse who dies is not automatically revoked where the surviving spouse qualifies as a widow(er) under the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA). If the beneficiary is the spouse of a USC and they were married for 2 years and the surviving spouse is not remarried, the I-130 petition is automatically converted into an I-360 self-petition and no affidavit of support is required.