LPR Parents seeking ways to bring Aged-Out Son to the US

[Aletaalexea]

Hi All,

My LPR husband filed an I-130 for myself (beneficiary) and our children (derivatives) last January 2001. We were able to come to the US last April 2007 except for my eldest child who aged out in August 2003.

We consulted a lawyer who made the CSPA calculations and found out that CSPA could not benefit my son because the period for processing the petition was not long enough. Since then, we have been asking the USCIS, DOS, NVC and the US Embassy in Manila on what we need to do to re-unify our family. But none would give us a definitive answer. We have written appeal letters when asked but to no avail.

Last month, we visited the USCIS field office and after relating our case, we were told that the case had been closed since the beneficiary has successfully arrived in the US. Further, we were told that our son cannot have his F2A category automatically converted to an F2B because he was just a derivative.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TheRealCanadian]

Have you filed an I-130 for him?

 

[Aletaalexea]

Yes, as soon as I got my green card, my husband suggested that I filed a separate I-130 petition for him. I was hoping to preserve my son's old priority date of January 23, 2001 so I submitted also an appeal letter to USCIS. However, he was assigned a priority date of February 2008. Thanks for asking.

 

[Jackolantern]

This case is an example of why it is better to file a separate F2A petition for each child, instead of having the children added as derivatives.

With a separate F2A, he would have converted to F2B upon aging out, retaining the old priority date. Or to F1 if your husband naturalized.

 

[Aletaalexea]

Hi Jackolantern,

Thanks for your reply. We were not aware of such wisdom till too late. We should have at least filed separately for my eldest. But alas we did not. Thanks!

 

[Jackolantern]

Another helpful hint before it's too late: If you naturalize, he would move into F1 which has the unusual "feature" of actually worse than F2B for the Philippines. However, there is an option to request to USCIS that he stays in F2B despite your naturalization. See http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/obtainlpr/oblpr110.htm.

So before you naturalize, check to see if opting to stay in F2B is still available, and how to go about doing it. And before he gets married he needs to wait for you to naturalize, otherwise his F2B petition would be voided if he marries while you are still a permanent resident.