Immediate Relatives and Family
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.

Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are: spouses, children, and parents. In this case "children" are defined as unmarried and under 21 years of age. For parents of a U.S. citizen, the petitioning son or daughter must be at least 21 years of age.

The definition of "immediate relative" includes widows of U.S. citizens, provided that the alien was the spouse of the citizen for at least 2 years prior to the citizen's death and was not legally separated from the citizen at the time of his/her death.

NB : The petition for permanent residence has to be filed within 2 years after the citizen's death and before re-marriage.

The advantage of qualifying as an immediate relative is that there is no numerical limitation or backlogs for sponsorship.

The Family preference categories are as follows:

1st Pref - unmarried sons and daughters (any age) of U.S. citizens,

2nd Pref - spouses and unmarried sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents,

3rd Pref - married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens

4th Pref - brothers/sisters of U.S. citizens.

At present the waiting time frames for the 4th preference siblings of U.S. citizens is approximately 10-12 years!! The Visa Bulletin, which is released each month by the U.S. State Department, provides the cut-off dates in each of the categories we have outlined above.