Siblings Greencard Question

[Datguy89]

Hello All,

Is it possible to petition for a sister or brother who is IN the united states? I do know that it can happen if they live outside of the states.

Thanks

[newacct]

They can be petitioned no matter where they are. However, they will need to wait until a visa number is available for their category and priority date before they can proceed to the next step. Siblings are in the F4 category. According to the latest visa bulletin, visa numbers are available now for F4 petitions filed more than 15 years ago (or even longer ago for people born in India, Mexico, or the Philippines). When a visa number becomes available that many years later, if they happen to be in the US and in status at that time, they can do Adjustment of Status in the US. If not, they will need to do Consular Processing abroad. Whether they are in the US now has no relevance.

[Datguy89]

Thank you for the response. I wanted to add that I have heard of someone who did this for a sibling and received their greencard within 2 years or so. That person was residing in the USA throughout the entire process. That's what I was told. I don't know if any information was omitted.

[Enub4]

Thank you for the response. I wanted to add that I have heard of someone who did this for a sibling and received their greencard within 2 years or so. That person was residing in the USA throughout the entire process. That's what I was told. I don't know if any information was omitted.

If there are no immigrant visas available then no GC is available.

For someone to get a GC after 2 years being a sibling of a US citizen today, the petitioner must have started the process around 13 years ago (or more).

To know how this sibling received a GC in only 2 years we should ask:
- when the petition started
- priority date
- when the petition was approved
- when the AOS started (form I-485 and others)

I have read cases that people that became US Citizens and start the petition for siblings, then after many years the siblings travel to the USA with a visitor visa or student visa. Then they start the AOS process a year or so later (when the priority date became current) and receive their GC a year or two later.