Texas City, TX Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

With regard to a person living in the Philippines, certainly they can apply for a B-2 visa while waiting on an I-130 visa petition case. There is no guarantee to get the visa and the officer could say there is immigrant intent by having an I-130 filed/approved. The officer might also NOT say that and approve the visa. It is a high;y arbitrary and discretionary process.

I am afraid your attorney is mistaken. It is true that, when your grandmother will become a lawful permanent resident, she will be able to file an immigrant petition for her son. What's not true is that your dad could then come to the U.S. on a tourist visa and then adjust status. First, if he comes to the U.S. on a tourist visa while knowing that he is going to stay and become an immigrant, that constitutes a visa fraud. If USCIS finds that your father's application for a tourist visa was fraudulent, his application for green card will be denied, and he will be deported and barred from coming to the U.S. in any status. There are tricks to avoid the USCIS determination of a visa fraud, but It is highly unethical for your attorney to suggest doing it. And you can expect that the one who is willing to teach you how to deceive the U.S. Government will have no problem lying to you. Second, a permanent resident can sponsor her adult son only if he is not married, and he would have to wait for his immigrant visa for years. Every year, only a limited number of immigrant visas is issued; many more people petition for their relatives. The result is a backlog, a queue in which everyone has to wait for his/her turn. In the F2B category (unmarried adult sona and daughters of permanent residents), immigrant visas are now being given to the beneficiaries of the petitions that were filed in the fall of 2004 (for most countries; for Philippines - January 2002, for Mexico - August 1992). So, depending on where your father was born, he would have to wait for his immigrant visa no less than 8 years after his mother files a petition for him. If he becomes illegal in the U.S., the immigrant visa will not help him because he would become ineligible to receive a green card. While it might be possible for him to get en extension of his original B1/B2 status for up to 6 months, and it could be possible to change his status to a student visa, it appears very problematic that he can stay in the U.S. in a legal status all the years that he will have to wait for his immigrant visa. Please understand, I am not saying that it is impossible, but that it will take a lot of preparation, and might fail any time if USCIS denies any of the extensions or changes of status your father would have to ask for. One thing you need to understand: if your grandmother becomes an permanent resident and files for your father, he cannot come to the U.S. on a tourist visa and just stay until his number in the queue comes up - if he becomes illegal, he will not be able to get a green card even with an immigrant visa in his hand.

If the petition is prepared right, the approval will take from 5 months to 1 year (depending on the Service Center where it will be processed). The processing time, with few exceptions, does not depend on your nationality. Approval of the immigrant petition, by itself, gives you no right to remain in the U.S., no employment authorization, and no right to apply for adjustment of status.You will have to wait until an immigrant visa will become available to you, which, in your case, will take about 11.5 years. If you cannot stay in the U.S. legally until that time, you have to leave and wait for the U.S. Consul in Cameroon to invite you for a visa interview. If you fall out of status and remain in the U.S. illegally, when your turn to receive an immigrant visa comes, it will be useless to you: simply speaking, if you have no status, you cannot adjust status because you have nothing to adjust. You might have a shorter road to U.S. residency if you find an employer willing to sponsor you for a non-immigrant worker's visa.