About an old immigration process

[Deoksda]

When I was a child my father started an immigration process on my behalf.
The I-130 was approved and the process continued until the next step to do was to schedule an interview in the US embassy (I was 15years old).
However, I decided not to do so that time, since I wanted to stay in my country.

Now I'm 30 years old and single, my father naturalized 5 years ago. If I wanted to immigrate today.
How difficult would it be to do so given that I already went through a previous immigration process ?

I'm asking this because I'd like to go to the US for a masters next year and believe that
getting a student visa would be complicated.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[SusieQQQ]

The petition lapses once you have not applied for a visa within a year of one becoming available, and if you/the petitioner does not do something to keep it active (such as updating NVC, rescheduling the appointment etc) every year.

Your father will therefore have to file a new i130 petition (with a new priority date) for you. It will be classed as category FB1 (unmarried sons and daughters over 21 of US citizens), and as it is one of the categories that has an annual limit on number of visas issued, has been taking 5-7 years for a visa to be available. If you are looking for something to get you here next year to study, a student visa is your best bet.


Relevant extracts from the uscis manual: https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM050413.html

• INA 203(g) provides for termination of registration of the visa petition of any alien who fails to apply for an immigrant visa within one year following notification to the alien of the availability of such visa.
• Beneficiaries of New Petition Filed by Same Petitioner: If the same petitioner files a new petition for the same beneficiary, and the original petition was revoked under INA 203(g), the original priority date would not be valid.

 

[Deoksda]

The petition lapses once you have not applied for a visa within a year of one becoming available, and if you/the petitioner does not do something to keep it active (such as updating NVC, rescheduling the appointment etc) every year.

Your father will therefore have to file a new i130 petition (with a new priority date) for you. It will be classed as category FB1 (unmarried sons and daughters over 21 of US citizens), and as it is one of the categories that has an annual limit on number of visas issued, has been taking 5-7 years for a visa to be available. If you are looking for something to get you here next year to study, a student visa is your best bet.

Thanks for your answer. One more thing I wanted to add (don't know if it changes anything). Within the last two years I applied twice for a B1/B2 visa for attending a conference (1acceptance, 1 rejection). The first time, the first thing that the consular officer told me was to show him my immigration card (which I obviously didn't have) and told me that I had an immigration process pending. My tourist visa was approved that time.
Is there any hope that my case is still "open" ?

 

[SusieQQQ]

Thanks for your answer. One more thing I wanted to add (don't know if it changes anything). Within the last two years I applied twice for a B1/B2 visa for attending a conference (1acceptance, 1 rejection). The first time, the first thing that the consular officer told me was to show him my immigration card (which I obviously didn't have) and told me that I had an immigration process pending. My tourist visa was approved that time.
Is there any hope that my case is still "open" ?

Hm, its possible then. I don’t know how you’d find out for sure though. If you can verify that the petition is somehow still active, I believe you’d file form i824, action on previously approved petition. You can‘t use it for a previously revoked petition, and as it is a $465 filing fee you’d probably want to verify that it would indeed be properly filed before you do it. Again, I’m not sure how you’d do that, but the first step would probably be your father (petitioner) contacting NVC.
Note that most family visas including your category are banned for issuance until January next year at the earliest though.