Help! We just got horrible news!

[davephillips]

My wife is a U.S. Citizen (formerly from Pakistan) and recently applied to have her parents come over to the U.S. as immigrants. Her parents have an 18 year old daughter (considered a minor by the Immigration law). We were told by USCIS when we filed that we only needed to file for her mother and father and that their daughter would be able to come with them because she is a minor. Her mother and father have now received their visa numbers and we were about to send in the immigration fees to the National Visa Center but they just told us that their minor daughter CANNOT come with them! This is exactly opposite of what the USCIS told us.

Does anyone out there know the truth about this and/or where we can find it?

Thanks!

Dave

[curiousone]

National Visa Center is correct.

You parents were petitioned for as immediate relatives not preference relatives and accompany relatives are included only with preference relatives, not immediate relatives. Any children, even minor children, cannot be accompanying relatives. Had she not filed a separate petition for each parent one could not ride on the others visa.

I know its confusing and it takes some time to understand but let me try....

Within the context of a family, One qualifies for GC if u fall into one of the foll categories:

. immediate relative of a USC
. preference relativ eof a USC or green Card Holder
. accompanying relative of someone in preference category.

IMMEDAITE RELATIVES:

Spouses of USC
Unmarried children under 21 who have at least 1 USC parent
Parents of uSC, if the USC is over 21

Immediate relatives have no quota but preference relatives ahv eto wait on apriority date.

PREFERENCE RELATIVES

Family 1st pref.........unmarried childen, any age who ahve at least 1 USC parent

family 2nd pref............. (2A) spouses and childen under 21 of LPR (2B) umarried children over 21

3rd pref...........married childen, any age

4th pref............sisters and brothers of USC where the USC is 21 and over.

if one is getting a green card as a preference relative and u have children under 21, they can get GC too as an accompanying relative. However if you qualify as an immediate relative, they cannot ride on your visa..

your wife would have had to petition for her sister as a 4th prefer or now one of the parents will have to petition for her as a LPR but she will not be able to ride on her parents visa.

Its a difficult area to understand and even more difficult to explain but in short, she will not be able to accompany her parents.