Olney, TX Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

The mother can file immigrant petitions for her children any time, even tomorrow. The petitions' approval will take about a year. After the petitions are approved, the children will have to wait for their priority date: only 23400 visas are given every year for unmarried children of U.S. citizens, and 23400 visas per year - for married children of U.S. citizens; so, the children of the person in your case will have to wait until all the people who got their immigrant petitions filed (and approved) before them receive their visas; right now, the wait time is 7 years for unmarried children (19 years for citizens of Mexico, 15 years for citizens of the Philippines) and 10 years for married children (19 years for Mexicans, 20 years for Filipinos) It makes sense to file the petitions, anyway. First, because neither the waiting times nor the filing fees are likely to get any smaller. Second, the waiting time does not start until you file the petitions. And, most importantly, your grandchildren must be under 18 when the petitions are filed; otherwise, they will not receive visas under their parents' approved petitions.

You should probably pull a background check and FOIA request to see what's actually on his record. Most law offices will do this for a few hundred dollars. Once you see what's actually on there, then you can decide what to do.