Oxnard, CA Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

H-4 is allowed to be trying to immigrate so there is no conflict there. I would be concerned if a 2008 petition had not yet been approved though. If denied she will not have any place in line and the last two years lost. If we can assist in any of these matters please let me know. My contact information follows.

The answer to your question is more complicated than it may seem. There are some instances where a criminal charge is "dropped," such as through some pretrial diversion programs that include a defendant's admission of the elements of the crime, and yet the USCIS will treat that dismissed charge as a "conviction" under immigration regulations. Aside from whether the actual charges were for offenses that could bar eligibility for naturalization, a collection of instances of certain conduct could be deemed by the USCIS as demonstrating that the applicant lacks good moral character and therefore is ineligible to naturalize. Even if the offenses do not stand in the way of naturalization eligibility, the naturalization application process requires an applicant to supply court-certified copies of disposition documents associated with arrests/charges. To assess eligibility for naturalization, there really is no alternative to obtaining certified copies of the arrest/charge disposition documents and having an immigration attorney review them carefully.

The approval process takes about 1 year. However, I would guess that it is not the visa petition approval time you want to know but how soon can the beneficiary come to the U.S. If an I-130 petition gets approved, the beneficiary will have to wait for his/her priority date to become current. Each year, only 23400 unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens who have I-130petitions approved receive immigrant visas. It means that the person who filed an I-130 petition for his child now will have to wait several years before the child gets a visa, to be exact, 19 years if the child is a citizen of Mexico, 15 years for a Filipino, or 7 years for everyone else.