It is well known that foreign nationals who are immediate relatives of US citizens and permanent residents, can immigrate to America, if they are sponsored by their relatives. In order to sponsor a relative, a US citizen or a Green Card holder must file the USCIS Form I-130. This form will help you to prove that a family relationship exists between you and the beneficiary. If you are a native US citizen or if you are a naturalized US citizen, you may petition for your spouse and your children. Being a US citizen, you may also petition for your parents and your siblings, if you are above age 21. However, you need to provide supporting documents to prove that the beneficiary is your relative.
If the beneficiary is your immediate relative, the beneficiary may not be required to wait for a long time to get an immigrant visa. However, your family member must wait for a certain period of time to obtain a visa and to immigrate to America. When a visa number becomes available, your relative will be issued a visa and with that he can get into the United States. Nevertheless, an immigrant visa will be issued to your relative only if your relative is admissible into America.
Parents, spouses and children of US citizens will be given special consideration and applications filed on behalf of these relatives will be processed sooner. Similarly, such relatives will be allowed to file applications for immigrant visas as soon as the USCIS approves Form I-130, filed on behalf of them. Apart from filing Form I-130 for your family member, you must also file Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. That is because a US citizen who sponsors a family member, must financially sponsor that beneficiary. If the beneficiary does not have a financial sponsor, he may not be allowed to immigrate to the United States. So the sponsor who files Form I-130 must file Form I-864 and financially sponsor the beneficiary.
You may obtain a copy of Form I-130 from the website or you may also complete this form online. See to that the form contains all the required information and that the information you entered is correct, before filing. Your Form I-130 must accompany a filing fee of $535. You must also provide the required supporting documents to prove that you are a US citizen or a permanent resident. Similarly the documents that are required to prove your relationship with the beneficiary must also be submitted. If you wish to sponsor more that one relative, you will have to submit separate forms for each eligible relative. Only the applications filed on behalf of immediate relatives will be processed faster and the relatives who are not immediate relatives will have to wait for a long time to obtain immigrant visas.