River Rouge, MI Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

If you have permanent residency with no conditions attached (your card has a 10-year expiration date), filing for divorce will not affect your residency status or applying for citizenship. Not all marriages last forever, and USCIS cannot hold you responsible for your husband's actions and the dissolution of your marriage. Of course, in your naturalization interview, the immigration officer may ask you questions about your marital status due to the fact that is how you obtained residency, but he cannot use a divorce or separation as a basis for denying your citizenship application. However, if you still have a conditional permanent residency (for two years), and have not yet removed the conditions on your residency, a separation and/or divorce can complicate things in your immigration case. It is best to consult with an immigration lawyer to see if these situations apply to your case.

(brothers and sisters of adult citizens) category has a longer waiting time than F2B (unmarried sons and daughters (21 and over) of permanent residents) and F2A (spouse and children (below 21) of permanent residents) categories. If your brother is below 21, the waiting time is about 2 years for all countries of charge ability for F2A category. The waiting time for F4 is about 11 years for all countries of charge ability other than Mexico and the Philippines. For Mexico and the Philippines, the waiting times are 16 years and 23 years, respectively. So the waiting time difference ranges from 9-21 years, depending on your brother's country of changeability. If your brother is 21 or older and his country of changeability is other than Mexico and the Philippines, the difference is about 3 years based on the November visa bulletin. If your brother's country of changeability is Mexico, the difference is about 4 years. If it's the Philippines, it's about 13 years. In deciding who should file the petition, I think you should also factor in the age and health condition of your parents and the likelihood of your brother getting married before your parents could file for citizenship. The death of a petitioner before a visa is granted to the beneficiary results in the automatic revocation of the visa petition (unless 204(l) applies). Also, if your brother is petitioned by your parent and he gets married before the petitioning parent naturalizes, it will also result in the revocation of the petition because there is no visa category available for married sons and daughters of permanent residents.