Does my daughter need a separate petition?
Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,
I got my US citizenship in December and made a petition for my wife and daughter, who are living in Jamaica to receive their green cards and to come live in the States with me. I know the process will take some time. I made one petition for my wife and added my daughter to it. I have been recently told by a friend that I need to make two separate petitions for them. My question is, Is this by any means the case?
Could you shed some light on this for me please?
IW
Dear IW,
When someone is filed for by a US green card holder or citizen to migrate to America, at some point, the intending immigrant’s immediate family is listed on one or more forms. Listing the names of the relatives (spouse or children) does not always mean that those family members have been “filed for” in the sense that they are now derivative beneficiaries of the petition.
For example, if a parent files for their son/ daughter at the time of visa processing, any minor grandchildren would be deemed derivative beneficiaries and be able to be added to the filing and migrate. The same would attain if a US citizen files for their sibling – spouses and minor children are derivative beneficiaries and would migrate with the principal beneficiary.
However, as a US citizen filing for your wife and children, you are required to file separate petitions. Adding the children to your wife’s petition does not equate to your filing for them. You should file a petition for your daughter as soon as possible. You can sometimes delay responding to the National Visa Center in the case of your wife and try to get the files to catch up to each other.
Just a note that as a green card holder you were eligible to file a petition for your family to join you in America – you did not have to wait to become a US citizen. And, ironically, in that situation, if you filed as a gr-een card holder, your daughter would have been a derivative beneficiary of your wife’s petition.
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 diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com