Petersburg, TX Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

There are several steps to the process and if all goes well it should take about 7-12 months. You must show you have had at least one face-to-face meeting within the last two years and that you are free to marry and will get married within 90 days after she enters the U.S. The consulates are tough on these cases and will want to be satisfied that this is a legitimate relationship and not just you assisting her to get to the States so lots of documentation of your ongoing relationship is critical - phone bills, emails, cards to each other, copy of your passport stamps for visits, boarding passes, etc.

There never is a legal obligation to file a Form I-130 Petition for Relative Alien if the planned petitioner does not wish to do so. Note, however, that there is a very long backlog for visas in the Family-based Fourth Preference visa category - the category by which a U.S. citizen sponsors a sibling. While it may appear otherwise, that delay is likely to be 15-20 years or even longer, and the filing of the Form I-130 alone would not confer any right for a sister to travel to the U.S., to work in the U.S., etc. Instead, it is simply the first step in a process for attaining immigration benefits that cannot be completed until a visa becomes available in the applicable category. With this in mind, you might re-consider your reluctance to file a Form I-130. Some immigration law firms, including mine, offer legal services on a "flat fee" basis so that a client will know the total expense from the very beginning, and a few immigration law firms, including mine, offer an initial consultation free of charge.