New to Visas

[KJamal99]

So I'm engaged to be married... About nine years ago, a woman I met in college asked me to be a pen-pal to her niece. We wrote to each other for all those years, and this past May I traveled to the Philippines to pay her a visit. Long story short, we hit it off and SHE IS THE ONE! We're both 28 and we've decided that we want to be married to each other, and that now is the time; and a little research has made it clear to me that this will be a difficult process...

I think we need to do the K1 Fiancee visa and get married here. But there is a problem... She has a younger sister - recently turned 11 - who she has practically raised since she was 5. Their mother passed away as a result of high blood pressure. Their father is still living, but he travels weekly (and even monthly sometimes) to other islands for work. My fiancee has been the one raising her sister in his absence. There is no other woman there to guide her, and we feel that without female support she may make some bad decisions. Not to mention, my fiancee and her sister are attached at the hip. Essentially, my fiancee is her mother figure...

So my question is, how can we get her sister here too? Is there some kind of student visa or sponsorship we would qualify for in this situation? What is the whole "petitioning relatives" thing about? I'm sorry if this has already been asked... If it has, would someone please direct me to that thread.

Thanks

[nichole]

I don't know alot about petitioning relative, but in general there is a pecking order of relatives that determines how soon a visa can be available. The number of visas allowed per year is apportioned out by country...sometimes called quotas I think. Your wife or fiance of a US Citizen is not subject to quotas. Parent, brother, sister, married child, cousin etc of a USC has a lower pecking order, if you will. You could wait 5, 7, 10? years for their category to make it to the top of the list. If you start reading about family based visas there will be wording like "visa becoming available" which means you've been on the waiting list long enough that your relative has reached the top of the list and their visa can be processed. I believe once your wife becomes a legal resident (green card) she can apply for her relatives to get on the list. After 3 years she would be eligible for US citizenship. That's a wait too, but once she's a citizen, I think she gets more clout and her petitions for relatives bump up to a higher priority. Not at all sure, but it's something like that.

For you, maybe if the fiance was the legal guardian of the sister, then she could come immediately like a child can--K2 visa. You could check with an immigration attorney and find out if there are any tactics. I would imagine it would be hard because the goal of many is to get to America and bring relatives with them. But it could be looked into from the legal guardian view.

[KJamal99]

I believe once your wife becomes a legal resident (green card) she can apply for her relatives to get on the list. After 3 years she would be eligible for US citizenship. That's a wait too, but once she's a citizen, I think she gets more clout and her petitions for relatives bump up to a higher priority. Not at all sure, but it's something like that.

Okay, I've done a little more reading; and the information out there - especially on USCIS - couldn't be any more vague or lacking...

Okay, so what if I (the US citizen), were to do the petitioning for my now sister-in-law as soon as my fiancee and I get married? She is, after all, now MY sister also. Rather than waiting all those years for my fiancee to gain her US citizenship... I mean, the environment she's in, with the influences she'd be left with... We just don't want to leave that girl behind for too long. So can I petition her, and if so how long does that one take? You said citizens have more clout...

[KJamal99]

For you, maybe if the fiance was the legal guardian of the sister, then she could come immediately like a child can--K2 visa. You could check with an immigration attorney and find out if there are any tactics. I would imagine it would be hard because the goal of many is to get to America and bring relatives with them. But it could be looked into from the legal guardian view.

Thanks Nichole...

PraetorianXI hi, I'm new here. I've noticed you seem to be a very knowledgeable person here. Would you please weigh in on this topic too? Is what Nichole is suggesting a viable option? Could that work? If my fiancee can adopt her sister (11) and become her legal guardian, maybe even before we actually begin the K1 process, then will the sister be able to come with my fiancee once we are married? I THINK USCIS is saying adopted siblings can... Is this true?