Family-Based Permanent Residence: An Overview

The Family-Based Immigration System allows certain family-members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to obtain permanent residence ("green cards") in the United States. Family-sponsored visas are divided into two main categories: immediate relatives and preference immigrants.

IMMEDIATE RELATIVES:

• Includes spouses of U.S. citizens, minor unmarried children (under 21 years old) of U.S. citizens, and parents of U.S. citizens who are over 21 years old. Also includes spouses of deceased U.S. citizens who were married for at least two years at the time of the citizens spouse's death and were not legally separated, provided that the foreign national spouse has not remarried and files an immediate relative petition within two years of the death of the U.S. citizen spouse.
• Unlimited number of visas (i.e. no waiting list)
• No derivative beneficiaries of an immediate relative (see below).

FIRST PREFERENCE

• Unmarried sons or daughters (over 21 years old) of U.S. citizens. This category is allocated 23, 400 visas annually plus any unused visas from the family fourth preference (which currently has a fifteen year waiting list for visas, and is therefore highly unlikely to ever provide extra visas for this category). Currently, first preference has a waiting list of several years.

SECOND PREFERENCE

• This category is allocated 114,200 visas annually plus any unused visas from family first preference.
• Family 2A - Spouses and children of lawful permanent residents, allocated 77% (87,934) of the visas allocated to the second preference category)
• Family 2B - Unmarried sons or daughters (over 21 years old) of lawful permanent residents (allocated 23% (26,266) of the visas allocated to the second preference category)
• There is a waiting list of several years for Family 2A visas and perhaps more than 10 years for Family 2B visas in this category.

THIRD PREFERENCE

• Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. This category is allocated 23,400 visas annually plus any unused visas from the first and second preference categories. There is a waiting list of approximately 6-8 years in this category. It is highly likely that the current backlog will continue to exist.

FOURTH PREFERENCE

• Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens 21 years of age or over. This category is allocated 65,000 visas annually plus any unused visas from the other family categories. Currently, there is a backlog of well over one million people, creating a waiting list of somewhere in the range of approximately 15-20 years.

DERIVATIVE BENEFICIARIES

• Spouses and children of the principal alien under each preference category are entitled to the same status and order of consideration if accompanying or following to join the principal alien.