Question:
My wife will become a US citizen (hopefully in the next few months). Her
sister is in the US on a visitor visa (Russia). My wife would like to
sponser her once she becomes a US citizen.
What forms do we need to fill out for her (I assume I-130, anything else)?
Can she stay here while the paperwork is being processed?
About how long does it take.
What options do we have?
Answer:
Her sister will have to wait until her Priority Date
is current, which currently takes about a dozen years for natives of
Russia (and you are lucky. For natives of the Philippines, it is over 20
years!). Fortunately, that also includes most processing delays.
Basically, the process is this:
- file the I-130. Make a note of the date you filed it; this will be your
sister-in-law's priority date.
- wait for the I-130 to be approved. INS takes its time with it because
it doesn't really matter as long as her priority date isn't current. I
would expect it to take about three years or so. Again, even if it takes
six years, that won't slow you down one bit.
- wait for the priority date to become current. To do that, you check
Department of State's Visa Bulletin (for instance, at
http://travel.state.gov/visa_bulletin.html). Your sister in law would
fall into Family fourth category. If you check the visa bulletin right
now, you will see that priority dates of November 1, 1990 (and earlier)
are considered "current" and eligible for a Green Card. The visa bulletin
is updated every month. Keep in mind that there it is unlikely that the
priority date will be moved by one month every month. More typical is
that it moves only one or two weeks - that is, in December the current
priority date is "November 15". It also happens that priority dates move
backwards (this recently happened to Family 1st category, which jumped
backwards by four years in a single month, and a few months later jumped
back to where it was), or - rarely - that the priority dates move forward
by huge jumps.
So if I tell you that the wait is 12 years, take that with more than just
a grain of salt. It is entirely possible that it will actually take 20
years. It is also conceivable that it will be less than 12 years,
although most people consider that unlikely. Personally, I think it is
possible because so many people got discouraged waiting that long that
possibly, the number of applicants may have decreased dramatically in the
past few years. That is the only thing that would reduce the quota wait.
Until her priority date is current, unfortunately none. As a matter of
fact, chances are that she wouldn't even be allowed to come to the US as
a tourist any more because she demonstrated immigration intent.
Realistically, most attorneys recommend forgetting about most
family-based immigration categories, and in particular Family 4th (which
your sister-in-law would fall under), and looking for other avenues to
immigrate. If she is highly qualified, she may be able to get an
employment-based immigrant visa.
Before you receive an approval notice, are you supposed to receive a
receipt from the INS? If so, when should you receive a receipt?
INS service centers issue receipt notices as soon as the case is entered
into their computer. In most cases, this will be within a few days, but
it has happened that they were so overwhelmed that envelopes remained
unopened for several months.
That's what I was afraid of. She would like to go to college in the US and
it would be cheaper as a resident than as a International student... That
was the main reason we were looking at sponsering her.
So my next question would be if she is here on a student Visa for the next
four years or so what would be the best approach. Student Visa only or
after she has her student Visa submit the I-130? What implecations would
that have on the student visa portion? What would be the better approach?
She can TRY to get a student visa. Unfortunately, I have to tell you that
there is a very good chance a student visa would be denied. It is
difficult for young female Russians to show that they plan to return to
Russia. In her case, having a US citizen sister is an added handicap.
Having an I-130 pending would add to the problems.
