Sponsor Your Siblings for US Green Cards

Sponsor Your Siblings for US Green CardsUS citizens can petition for their siblings and get their siblings US Green Cards. To do that, the US citizen who looks forward to sponsor his sibling must be above age 21. US citizens alone can petition for their siblings. Permanent residents cannot sponsor their siblings for lawful status in the United States.

To get a sibling a permanent resident card, a US citizen must file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. One needs to remember that immigrant visas will not be made available immediately to the siblings of US citizens as they do not belong to the immediate relative’s category. They belong to the family preference category and applicants who belong to this category will be put on a waiting list. They need to wait for several years to immigrate to the United States and to get Green Cards.

However, immigration reform would bring changes to the current immigration system of the country. The US Senate has passed an immigration reform bill that includes a section that would eliminate the F-4 family preference category that is meant for the siblings of US citizens. If the US Congress passes this bill and if this bill is signed into law, US citizens would not be able to sponsor their siblings. And the siblings of US citizens would not be able to immigrate to the United States through family-based immigration.

US citizens would not be able to sponsor their siblings if the Senate bill is passed. But the applications that the US citizens file now for their siblings would be expedited after the passage of the bill. Currently, it takes more than 12 years for the USCIS to adjudicate immigrant petitions filed on behalf of the siblings of US citizens. But family-based petitions that the US citizens file now for their siblings will be processed sooner after the passage of the Senate bill.

So, the right time for the US citizens to petition for their siblings is now. If you wish to bring your brother or your sister to the United States, file Form I-130, now!