question about I-130

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pomsel

New Member
i already posted the story about my illegal friend in the "any topic" section.
but thats not important right now, its just the background

so my friend is 20 years old and an illegal immigrant from mexico. she was brought over the border when she was 3 months old and never left the states since then. her younger brother was born in the united states and is the only legal person in this family.

is it possible for my friend to become a citizen trough her brother? does he have to wait until he is 21 before he can fill out a I-130 form? ( he is 18 right now)
how long does this process take?

my friend's mother tried to get a citizenship trough her parents, they both got legal a long time ago, in the early 90s and there is still no progress. she waited over 15 years and nothing has happened so far
 
A US citizen cannot sponsor a sibling who is in the US illegally.

She will have to leave the US and obtain a green card through a consulate outside the US. She has stayed in the US for more than 1 year past her 18th birthday, so she will be subject to the 10-year ban starting when she leaves the US.

The other issue is that sponsorship via a sibling takes a very long time. See the Family category 4 in the visa bulletin: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_4879.html. They are currently taking people from Mexico who applied in 1995. So your sister can expect a 14-15 year wait (by that time the 10-year ban would have expired anyway).
 
Her brother must be 21 or older when filing for her. In order to establish a place in the 15-year queue, he can file it while she is still in the US illegally, but she would have to eventually spend 10 years outside the US to become eligible for the green card.
 
pomsel said:
how would they know that she was illegally in the united states?
Click to expand...

They might know, they might not know. I presume she has attended school and done other things in the US with her name, so they can find out about that if they want to search for the information. By the time the 15 years have passed, if she doesn't leave she would accumulate much more of a history of activity in the US.

And in the interview they can also ask questions about her life and family in Mexico, and she probably won't be able to tell logically consistent lies that would fool them. If caught in a lie she could be permanently banned from entering the US.
 
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