A client came in the other day who had just received his green card and wanted to sponsor his adult children, who are currently in his home country. I explained the process. He could file an I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative) on behalf of his children. This puts them in category 2B where the current wait is ten years (and likely to increase). However, if he were to become a citizen in the meantime, they would jump to category 1 and save a year (the difference used to be far more significant).
What happens if his children marry and/or have kids? Would they be able to come with them when the time came? I then explained that the various preference categories generally included spouses and children but that the definition of category 2B and category 1 is restricted to the unmarried. Therefore, if either of his children married, they would forfeit their right to immigrate to the United States (but their illegitimate children could come). If they waited until after he became citizen before marrying, they would then be bumped to category 3 but the whole family would be able to come.
That’s right folks. Current U.S. immigration law actively discourages marriage and encourages illegitimate children!
So what should be done? I suppose the anti-immigrant crowd would be happy to abolish the preference system altogether and keep them all out permanently. I suggest a more moderate solution (although I do think that a point system like Canada’s that considers family ties along with other factors may be the way to go but that’s another post). Either abolish the distinction between citizen and permanent resident for adult children (i.e., a category for unmarried children of citizens/residents and one for married children) or abolish the distinction between married and unmarried (i.e., a category for children of citizens and one for children of permanent residents).
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