Filing for Married Daughter

Guzo44

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,

I have a question regarding filing for my stepdaughter who is outside of the country at this time. I am a U.S. Citizen.

I am still married to her mother and we were married when my stepdaughter was 12.

She is now 37 and married with 2 children.

I have looked at the timelines for all 4 offices. It seems that the California office is still in 2002 for these types of cases. But the other 3 (Texas, Nebraska/Vermont) are all being processed in a year or less.

My wife went to 2 lawyers about this and they told her that it would take 8 years.

My questions are:

1 - Are they assuming the longest time for processing in these cases which is basically the California office?

2 - How do I know which office my application would end up in? We live in New Jersey and I was assuming Vermont since its the closest and its where my citizenship was handled.

3 - Would her children and husband be also granted green cards? I am assuming they would receive them in the embassy in Portugal since they are not coming here until they would be of legal status.

Any replies are greatly appreciated.
 
What you refer to is the Service Center processing timeline and not the timeline for the priority date to become current (i.e. visa to become available). For the category you will be filing in, current priority date is 01JAN2002 for Portugal. So your lawyer is correct that the process as currently constituted will take about 8 years. See this link for current priority dates: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5092.html

As for the Service Center that will handle the application, that is of no consequence to the overall timeline of the petition.

If granted immigrant visa, yes her husband and all minor children will be able to immigrate with her.
 
Top