Who is eligible?Unmarried son/daughter (aged 21 or over) of a U.S. citizen; married son/daughter of a U.S citizen; brother/sister of a U.S. citizen; spouse and unmarried son or daughter of a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR).
How do I apply?The first step in applying for an immigrant visa is for the U.S. citizen or LPR to file an immigrant visa petition, form I-130, with the local office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The petition must be filed with the USCIS in the U.S.; it cannot be filed at the Embassy.
Once the petition is approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, it will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. If you wish to learn what happens next click here.
How long will it take to process my immigrant visa case?It depends. Applicants registered for immigration in the family based preference category are subject to the annual numerical limitation on immigrants admitted into the United States and are required to wait for the availability of a visa number before final action can be taken on the application. Whenever there are more qualified applicants for a category than there are available numbers, the category will be considered oversubscribed and immigrant visas will be issued in the chronological order in which the petition was filed.
It is not possible to begin the administrative processing of an application until the priority date, the date on which the petition is filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), becomes current.
The waiting period in the family or employment based preference categories varies from category to category and can extend to several years. Information on the progress of priority dates is available here.
| 
