Family Green Card Law

Who is family?
Foreign nationals may be eligible to immigrate to the United States through a family member. Family members are either immediate relatives or non-immediate relatives, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The INS processes immigration applications for immediate relatives faster than for non-immediate relatives: Immediate relatives will be granted a green card soon after they apply, while non-immediate relatives must often wait years before getting a green card.

U.S. law allots 226,000 green cards in total each year in the family-based immigration category.

Immediate relatives
Immediate family members include:

• Husband or wife of U.S. citizen
• Unmarried child (under 21) of U.S. citizen
• Parent of U.S. citizen, if U.S. citizen is at least 21 years old

Non-immediate relatives
If a foreign national does not fit into any of the above categories, he or she may be a non-immediate relative.

The INS has established four categories of non-immediate relatives. These are called "preference" categories, meaning there is a limit on how many visas are allotted each year in each category.

The categories of preference green cards are:

• First preference: Unmarried sons and daughters over 21 of U.S. citizens (23,400 available each year)
• Second preference:
  1. Spouses of permanent residents (green card holders) and their unmarried sons and daughters under age 21
  2. Unmarried sons or daughters over 21 of permanent residents (green card holders)
     (The total for both is 114,200 available each year.)
• Third preference: Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (23,400 available each year)
• Fourth preference: Brothers and sisters (age 21 or older) of U.S. citizens (65,000 available each year)