Immediate Relatives of U.S. Citizens (IR): The spouse, widow(er) and unmarried children under 21 of a U.S. citizen, and the parent of a U.S. citizen who is 21 or older. As there is no numerical limit on how many visas can be issued in these categories each year, qualified applicants don't have to spend time waiting for their priority date to become current (immigrant visa number to become available), once the petition is approved by the USCIS.

A. Spouse (IR1):
Fraud marriage to US citizen, i.e., marriage just to get the green card is illegal. Only the couple can know the actual intention behind the marriage, there are many situations that can lead to suspicion of the USCIS such as couple not living together, having just met, not knowing common language to talk to each other, coming from extremely different background etc. There are many things, on the other hand, that would tend to prove the bona fide marriage are children born of the marriage, staying in the same house, common finance, joint property ownership etc.

Marriage to the U.S. citizen must itself be valid, i.e., the husband and wife were each legally able to get married. For example, if either person had been previously married, a legally valid divorce must have since taken place. The actual ceremony must also, in the jurisdiction where it was performed, be legally recognized. Husband and wife also should be of legal age to get married.

The marriage must actually still exist; a former marriage to a U.S. citizen does not qualify to apply for green card. While a marriage can remain in existence despite the physical separation of the couple, more serious arrangements, such as the execution of a legal separation agreement, do tend to generate substantial obstacles to immigration. It is also important to remember that if the marriage took place within the two years of getting permanent residence, it is done so on a "conditional" basis only. This means that if within two years after permanent resident status is obtained, the marriage terminates or is discovered to have been a "sham", the grant of permanent residence will be revoked. In every other respect, the "conditional" permanent resident is identical to all others. He or she may work, travel, and enjoy the full measure of benefits available to all lawful permanent residents.

B. Children (IR3):
Any child who is under 21 years old and is not married is covered under this category. As long as that child is sponsoring US citizen's child, it does not matter whether the child was born while sponsor was married to the partner or not. Child born while sponsoring parent is married to the partner, sponsoring parent can be either mother or father. Child born while sponsoring parent is NOT married to the partner, if sponsoring parent is mother, that will qualify. But if sponsoring parent is father it will qualify only if evidence exists such as father financially supporting and/or living with the child and while in legal custody of the child and before the child's 18th birthday, has "legitimized" the child in the manner prescribed by law.

Step children, adopted children, and "eligible orphans" are also eligible for immigration in certain instances.

C. Parents (IR5)
If the citizen child is 21 years of age or above, he/she can sponsor his/her parents for immigration. And the citizen must be the "child" of the parent seeking permanent residence, as described above. Separate petition needs to be filed for each parent.

Returning Residents (SB): Immigrants who lived in the United States previously as lawful permanent residents and are returning to live in the U.S. after a temporary visit of more than one year abroad.

All other categories other than described above are limited categories; they have numerical limits on how many people can immigrate each year under that category.

These are further broken into several sub categories described below and they have an annual quota. As number of immigrant visas available to these categories is subject to a numeric annual limit, they have been separated into preferences. As such, the higher the preference category, the shorter the wait for an available visa.

Whenever there are more qualified applicants for a category than there are available numbers, the category will be considered over subscribed, and immigrant visas will be issued in the chronological order in which the petitions were filed until the numerical limit for the category is reached. The filing date of a petition becomes the applicant's priority date. Immigrant visas cannot be issued until an applicant's priority date is reached. In certain heavily over subscribed categories, there may be a waiting period of several years before a priority date is reached. The immediate family members of immigrants qualifying under each of these four preference categories are also permitted to concurrently immigrate, as well.

If the relative's case is not current, NVC can NOT expedite immigrant visa processing, even in the cases of family emergency. Immigrant visa processing is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended, which controls visa categories, priority dates and the availability of visa numbers. Immigrant visa numbers are made available strictly in the order of priority dates. There is no provision within the law that would allow NVC to waive numerical limitation in any individual case.

Please see the visa bulletin to see the current waiting time in each category. These categories, in order of preference, are as follows:

Family First Preference (F1): Unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, and their children, if any. (23,400/year plus any visas unused in F4 category) They do not qualify for immediate relative(IR) category because they are over 21 years of age. To qualify for this category, they must have met the legal definition of "child" when he or she was under the age of 21, as described above in IR category.

Family Second Preference (F2): Spouses, minor unmarried children (under 21 years of age), and unmarried sons and daughters (over age 21) of lawful permanent residents. (114,200/year plus any visas unused in F1 category) At least seventy-seven percent of all visas available for this category will go to the spouses and children; the remainder will be allocated to unmarried sons and daughters.

Unmarried children or sons/daughters should not get married prior to the green card approval. If they get married after I-130 is filed, the petition is considered invalid. Neither the married child/son/daughter not his/her spouse would be able to get a green card under this category.

F2 category is further divided into the two sub-categories:

F2A. Spouses and Children: 77% of the overall second preference limitation, of which 75% are exempt from the per-country limit. If the marriage took place just to get green card, green card will not be given or if already given will be terminated. If marriage took place 2 years before grant of green card, it will be on conditional basis. Please read more description in IR category about this.

If you were married to your spouse before you became a permanent resident, your spouse may be eligible to receive following-to-join benefits. This means that you would not have to submit a separate Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, for your spouse, and your spouse would not have to wait any extra time for an immigrant visa to become available.

If the marriage is less than 2 years old when you enter the US as a new immigrant based on the petition filed by your US spouse, green card is conditional and you will have to apply to remove the conditions to get a permanent green card. However, because of long waiting list (usually 3 to 5 years), it is highly unlikely that you actually will be able to get immigrant visa within 2 years of marriage, you will get a permanent green card initially itself.

If the adopted child has lived with the family (adoptive parents) under legal authority for 2 years, he/she would be regarded as a child under immigration law and may be able to get green card at the same time parents get green card. Otherwise, adopted children would also be under this category.

F2B. Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older): 23% of the overall second preference limitation.

Family Third Preference (F3): Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, and their spouses and children. (23,400/year plus any visas not used by F1 and F2 categories) As always, each son or daughter must have, at some earlier point, met the definition of "child" for immigration law purposes.

Family Fourth Preference (F4): Brothers and sisters of United States citizens, and their spouses and children, provided the U.S. citizens are at least 21 years of age. (65,000/year)
To qualify under this category, the sponsoring citizen and his or her sibling must both meet (or have met) the definition of "child" in relation to the same parent.

When you file for relative under the categories F1, F2B, F3 or F4; separate petitions are not required for his/her spouse or unmarried children under 21 years of age.