Can a green card holder file for his adult daughter?
Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,
CAN YOU please advise whether my daughter’s father, who is a green card holder, can make application for her to reside in the United States of America or does she have to wait until he gets his citizenship. He will be 63 years this year and I was told that he will obtain automatic citizenship when he turns 65. My daughter is unmarried and will be 27 years old come September.
Any information you provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
SP
Dear SP,
As a green card holder, the father can file for his unmarried, adult daughter now. She would be in the F2B Preference category and visas are available for those filed for in August 2015 and prior. He could have filed for her the moment he became a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Keep in mind that the visa availability fluctuates depending on how quickly the US Department of State processes visa applications.
Green card holders can file for their spouse, minor children and unmarried, adult sons or daughters. The family members who need a US citizen as a sponsor are parents, married sons or daughters and siblings. US citizens can also file for their spouses and minor children. There is no waiting period/preference category for beneficiaries i n these two classifications and the parent of a US citizen; their files are processed as quickly as possible. However, when a US citizen files for their adult sons/ daughters (unmarried or married), and siblings, those petitions are placed in a preference category to wait for a visa to become available.
There is no automatic citizenship for your daughter’s father when he gets to age 65. If he has had his green card for five years or more, has spent more of the last five years in America than out, has never been absent from America for six months or more in the last five years and is a person of good moral character (taxes and arrests), he should seek advice from an attorney about applying to become a US citizen. It is the rare instance where someone can automatically become a US citizen, e.g., they must be born abroad to an American citizen parent – and even then, there are restrictions.
At age 65, the father will become eligible for benefits such as Medicare and Social Security. He may even be eligible to begin collecting social security before age 65. He should schedule an appointment with his local social security office to be advised of his benefits and his timeline for beginning to collect same. We should not take advice from non-professionals, as often it is misleading and can lead to lifechanging errors.
Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com