Stepchild of US Citizen, biological child of US Permanent Resident

[hannibal0789]

I am a USC, and my husband immigrated to the US about a year and a half ago from Brazil. We would now like to bring his son, who is turning 18 in a couple of weeks, the quickest way possible. We couldn't bring him before because the biological mother refused to consent, and there was an abusive situation, so we didn't file for legal custody of him, to avoid further trauma, so we had to wait until he turned 18 to start filings.

I read about "Follow to Join", but I don't think he is eligible because my husband is category IR1, I think I read that it has to be the child of a K-visa recipient. I was wondering if there is anything like a K-visa or FTJ that I can use to expedite things, I am anxious to get his journey started. There is so much for him to learn and do, and we just miss him so much, any advice would be great. I contacted a local attorney for advice, but he can't even speak to me for 6 weeks, and I just figure this would be a quicker way for advice, I plan on filing without a lawyer, it seems somewhat straightforward for this one, unlike my husband's, which also had a 601 waiver attached and took us 6 years to complete.

Thank you!

[newacct]

You would start by filing an I-130 petition for him to immigrate as your (step)child. You don't need the other parent's consent for the I-130 -- that is just for establishing the relationship. You just need the other parent's consent for him at the consular processing step. Unfortunately, the time from I-130 filing to getting the immigrant visa may take a year.