Check the waiting time for getting green card

QI am a U.S. citizen. I petitioned for my 29-year-old, unmarried son in Karachi, Pakistan. How long until he can get his green card?

Mohammad Saleem, by email The U.S. consul in Karachi should call your son in for his immigrant visa interview in about six years. The wait is because of the backlog in family-based immigration categories.

To check the waiting times yourself on the Department of State Visa Bulletin, go to travel.state.gov. You can also call (202) 485-7699. The Department of State will email the bulletin to you if you write to listserv@calist.state.gov. In the message body, type: Subscribe Visa-Bulletin.

Here’s an overview on the quota system and how to read the visa bulletin.

The law places a yearly quota or limit of 226,000 immigrant visas (green cards) in the four family preference categories, plus a per-country limit. The quota for employment-based immigrant visas is 140,000. When more applicants qualify for a visa than are allowed under the quota system, a backlog or wait list develops.

When that happens, the Department of State announces a cutoff date in its monthly visa bulletin. The bulletin is a way for the department to notify U.S. consulates, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the public, who can get a preference immigrant visa in a particular month.

AIf an immigrant visa applicant’s place in line (called the “priority date”) for a preference visa is before the bulletin cutoff date, the applicant qualifies to get a visa during the stated month. In a family-based immigration case, a person’s priority date is the date the USCIS receives the petition filed by the U.S. citizen or permanent resident petitioner. If the priority date is the same or later than the cutoff listed in the bulletin, the person must wait.

Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens get green cards outside the quota system, so the wait for them is only the time it takes to process their applications. Immediate relatives are the spouses, unmarried children under age 21 and the parents of U.S. citizens at least age 21.

Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship Now project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 4 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick