A U.S. citizen can sponsor his immediate relatives (spouse, unmarried children under 21 years and parents-the U.S. citizen should be himself/herself) to receive immigrant visa cum green card with immediate effect without having to wait for long period of time. U.S. citizen can sponsor his/her other family members (siblings- given that the U.S. citizen is himself 21 years of age or above, fiancé (e), children married or unmarried above 21 years, etc.) and Lawful permanent residents also can sponsor their immediate relatives to receive non-immigrant K3/K1/K4 visas subject to the order of the preference categories in which the respective relative fall; priority date (based on date of filing of petition) and visa quota numbers for each country. U.S. citizen’s relatives always get preference over Green card holder’s relatives. For the preference category relatives in both cases the waiting periods can get as long as years.

Preference categories are as follows:

  • First preference – Unmarried, adult (21years of age or older) sons and daughters of U.S. citizens,
  • Second preference (2A) – Spouses of green card holders and unmarried children (under 21 years of age) of green card holders, Second Preference (2B) – Unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents,
  • Third Preference – Married sons and daughters (any age) of U.S. citizens, Fourth Preference – Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens.

FAQ’s on Green cards based on relatives:

How can an immigration attorney help me with my green card application?

An immigration lawyer can help you to prepare the documents needed for the application in a fool proof manner; help you fill the forms correctly and intelligently; represent you in many offices for getting many documents; accompany you to the green card interview to assist you with documents; give legal explanations to the absence of certain documents or some variants of documents; protect your rights during the interview; etc. But attorney is not allowed to answer to the questions asked to the clients and those who accompany him as witnesses (especially in case of spouse visa for the husband or wife).


Do I need to give an “Affidavit of Support” from my U.S. citizen spouse with her as my sponsor and what is a “Joint sponsor for Affidavit of Support”?

Affidavit of support is a document signed by your visa sponsor by which he/she takes legal responsibility of your financial support, should there arise a need for it while you are in the U.S. till the time you gain citizenship and authorization to work documents. Joint sponsor is a second person other than your principal sponsor who also signs an Affidavit of Support in cases where the principal petitioning sponsor does not meet the requirements for the income needed for the person to be eligible for sponsoring a foreign citizen.


With Gavlin & Associates, P.C, NY you get a highly preferential treatment regarding green card applications. We leave you carefree and take almost all the work on ourselves. You don’t even have to be present physically at our place for beginning the process. You just need to give us the necessary information over fax/e-mail/post/phone and make the payment.