1. Please Tell Us What to be Aware Of If Mother Sponsors Our Grandma for U.S. Immigration?
My grandmother is 80 and lives in China. My mother is a US citizen and wants to sponsor her so that she can stay with us for the rest of her life. She wants to know what things she should consider before beginning the process like how long it’s going to take, what steps are involved, and what will be her liability.
Dear reader,
The best advice without regard to financial liability is to begin the process now. Under the current unsympathetic administration, there is the possibility of the category of US citizens applying for parents being curtailed. The recently blocked regulation on public charge which would make family-based immigration dependent not only upon a viableI-864 affidavit of support but on a variety of factors would disadvantage an elderly parent attempting to immigrate. Although the public charge regulation may become unblocked by the time that your mother has her interview for the green card, that is a circumstance over which no one has control except the courts. In terms of liability, this administration has shown a propensity to enforce the affidavit of support obligations, and that would mean that the parent would not be eligible for means tested benefits for a period of five years, and that the financial supporter would have to pay back means tested benefits taken by the parent with certain exceptions such as emergency care. The process is approximately one year or less and consists of an I-130 petition for alien relative processing by USCIS, and then further processing through the National Visa Center (NVC) and the American consulate in Guangzhou.
2. How Difficult Will It Be for My Brother to Immigrate With His Crime and Taking Into Account His Family Here in the U.S.?
My brother committed an assault on a storekeeper and injured him badly for which he was imprisoned for three years in the 1990s. He has a clean record since that time. He takes care of our green card mother (father passed away) in New York, has a wife although she is not legal, and three children who are US citizens and the oldest will soon be 21. My brother came to the US legally in 1995.
Dear reader,
Your brother is inadmissible as having committed a crime involving moral turpitude. He may also have been considered to have committed an aggravated felony, but the Supreme Court in 2018 voided aggravated felonies based on crimes of violence saying that the definition of a crime of violence was too vague. He came into the US legally, and so although he is not eligible for adjustment of status based upon a petition by his mother, he might be eligible to adjust status through a petition by his oldest child who is turning 21. He will require a waiver of grounds of inadmissibility for his criminal offense, and so would have to submit an I-601 application for waiver of inadmissibility when he applies for adjustment of status. Under current regulations, USCIS’s standard for adjudication where violent or dangerous crimes are involved is a showing of exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to qualifying relatives who are US citizen or permanent resident parents, spouses, and sons and daughters. Whether he is able to obtain permanent residence will then be in the discretion of USCIS.
3. Mother Passed Away Before Her Petition for Her Married Son Was Approved – What Can We Do Now For My Brother?
My mother petitioned for my married brother nine years ago, but just passed away. The I-130 petition is still pending and has not been approved. At the time when my mother was sick and dying, my brother was allowed a visa to come and he stayed with her until she passed and only went back home to Malaysia after the funeral services. What can we do now to keep the petition? We do not want to start all over again as we already have nine years invested in the process and they are processing 2008 cases at this time
Dear reader,
It appears that you will unfortunately have to begin again. If your brother has skills under which he can immigrate to the US through employment, the waiting time is not long at all for persons born in Malaysia. Otherwise you could begin again petitioning for your brother by yourself and it is an approximate 12 year wait. Your mother’s petition is not eligible for humanitarian reinstatement as the petition was not approved prior to your mother’s passing away. It is also not eligible to be continued under another provision of law which allows petitions to continue where a beneficiary resides in the US at the time of the petitioner’s death as the condition is that the beneficiary must be resident in the US at the time and thereafter until the petition is approved, and your brother was only a visitor to the country.
4. Thinking of E-2 Visa, Very Interested in L-1 Visa.
We are born in China, but now hold Grenada passports. We were thinking of opening up an E-2 business in the US, but on second thought think that we would like to try with a visa like the L-1 that can convert to the green card. I own 30% of the company here that has 150 workers and total income of approximately $2 million USD. I have been working in the company as general manager for the past five years.
Dear reader,
Besides showing that a US company is or will be viable in the near future, an L-1 petition for an intracompany transferee requires that there be a relationship of controlling interest between the US and China companies. 30% of a 150 person company is not regarded by USCIS as controlling interest although such might be in a much bigger enterprise. If you and other people in the China company owned the US company in much the same percentages as all of you own the China company, such a relationship might be recognized for L-1 purposes. I note that usual L-1 arrangements are that one company is owned by the other, or two companies are owned by an individual or individuals in roughly the same percentages, or two companies are owned by a third company. Controlling interest is usually seen as 50% and over.