Fairfax Family Green Card Lawyer
Family members can be eligible for a green card through a legal permanent resident or a citizen petitioner. There is a broad realm of individuals who can apply but the type of relationship that a person has and the immigration status of the petitioner will determine how long they are going to have to wait to get status. The family members that can qualify at some point for status are unmarried sons and daughters of a US citizen, spouses and children if the children are minors, and under 21. Sons and daughters are the terms that the immigration uses for individuals older than 21.
An individual should contact a Fairfax family green card lawyer to discuss their eligibility for green card status and how to apply. Speaking with an experienced family immigration attorney may be vital to your case.
Eligible Green Card Groups
There are priority categories to eligible green card family. Those are all the individuals that have to actually wait through the line for their priority dates to become current before they are eligible to get status. These individuals include:
- Spouses and children of legal permanent resident
- Unmarried sons and daughters of legal permanent residents
- Married sons and daughters of US citizens
- Brothers and sisters of adult US citizens
The other groups of people are called immediate relatives and those people are immediately eligible for a green card and they do not have wait through the visa bulletin line. Those individuals are:
- Spouses of US citizen
- Children of US citizens
- Parents of US citizen that is older than 21
Common Application Misconceptions
The biggest misconception that people believe is that this is some pass to immediate entry or immediate lawful status into the United States and in most categories. Fairfax family green card lawyers have seen the line that a person needs to wait through in order to actually be able to lawfully enter the United States in many of these categories is decades long.
For instance, for brothers and sisters of US citizens from the Philippines right now, they are processing cases that were filed back in June of 1993 so it is over 20-year wait. From Mexico, brothers and sisters of US citizen, they are processing cases from May 1997 and then many of the other categories are in the same or have a significant wait that is over a decade long.
It is not something that leads to immediate status for most people if they are in the immediate relative category, that is why that is so important to be in that category. If a person has an issue about a child aging out, they should pay close attention to the dates and file as soon as q21 is eligible so that if somebody is in that immediate relative category, they will not age out. That is the biggest misconception. It does not provide for immediate status for most people unless they are in the immediate relative category.
Green Card Ineligibility
Any ground of inadmissibility that will apply to a person whether they are in the United States or outside the United States so that evaluation of an individual’s admissibility to the United States is the same no matter how the process takes place. Things that can make a person inadmissible to the United States are certain criminal convictions, many criminal convictions, prior immigration violations, any misrepresentations to an immigration official, if they have been ordered removed, or if they entered without inspection.
There are a number of different grounds of inadmissibility. If a person has any situation other than just entering on a lawful visa with their correct name and information and being married to a US citizen, then they definitely consult a Fairfax family green card lawyer. This is actually one of the most common ways for people to land in a deportation proceeding, through their removal proceeding in front of the immigration court, it is like filing an application that they believe they are eligible for but they have grounds of inadmissibility that make them ineligible for a green card and if they are ineligible and they submit an application, their case will most likely be referred to immigration court.
Role of a Spouse
If a person files an application and has grounds of inadmissibility that apply to them, it is common for them to go through the process and be called for an interview for the I-130. Their spouse will attend the interview to confirm the legitimacy of the marriage. ICE Agents will most-likely be nearby to arrest them should the legitimacy not be confirmed.