Tryin to help out a friend - Confused about dates

M

MikeyS

New Member
Hello. A friend of mine asked me to lookup the status of her application online and now I'm a bit confused about the several dates flying around.

Her father filed form I130 with section: Unmarried child under 21 of permanent resident, 203(a) (2) (A) INA. She has a letter saying the petition has been approved. The Receipt Date is October 7, 1996, the Notice Date is November 19, 1996 and the Priority Date is October 7, 1996.

What does this mean? The way I understand it is that she is now able to adjust her status, but has she been so for ten years now? She's never had a lawyer look at her case, but she has had a paralegal helping her, I doubt she would miss this, would she? Is there a next step? My friend has been told that she had to "wait for something" (great help, I know).

Also, probably irrelevant, her mother also filed a I130 form with section: Unmarried child (age 21 or older) of U.S. Citizen, 201(a) (1) (INA). For this petition she has a Received and Notice date of April 1, 2003, but no priority date. When I go to the UCIS page I can see that this petition has been received and is being reviewed.

Both petitions were filed at the California Service Center.

Thank you very much in advance for your help. Please forgive me if I've posted this to the wrong forum.
 
OK, I think I understand now. The priority date has to be past the date on the Visa bulletin for her category. She is from Mexico, so it looks like it's still not her time.

My only remaining question is: did her category change because she turned 21 after her dad had filed her petition? She is now under category 2B?
 
MikeyS said:
OK, I think I understand now. The priority date has to be past the date on the Visa bulletin for her category. She is from Mexico, so it looks like it's still not her time.

My only remaining question is: did her category change because she turned 21 after her dad had filed her petition? She is now under category 2B?
Click to expand...
You're learning fast. ;)
Here is how it works.
Preference Categories:
1st: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens
2A: Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents
2B: Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older) of Permanent Residents
3rd: Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens
4th: Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens
Current bulletin for Mexico:
1st 01JAN94
2A 15MAY00
2B 01MAR92
3rd 01JAN95
4th 15MAR94
For her father's petition she was under 2A category. The current date for that shows 15 May, 2000. How old is she now? Maybe her priority date was current before she turned 21?
I don't know much about aging out process. She probably goes under 2B after turning 21. I don't think she can stay in 2A. To become current under 2B she has to wait for another 4 years.
To become current under her mother's petition (1st) she has to wait 9 years. :eek:
Isn't her father a citizen yet? If he is, then he can upgrade his petition, and she would have to wait for another 2 years in that case.
 
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Hi Anahit. Thank you very much for replying. She turned 21 on July 2000. I looked at the archived bulletin for that month here and I see that even under category 2A she still didn't qualify (22JAN94 was the cutout). I agree with you, I'm pretty sure she has now moved to category 2B (since the paralegal helping her said she had to wait some more).

I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say "To become current under 2B she has to wait for another 4 years". According to the February bulletin just released the cutout for category 2B for Mexico is 01MAR92, indeed four years to her priority of October 96, but that doesn't necessarily mean four actual years, does it? I know this is probably impossible to answer, but I don't want to break her heart either. :)

She tells me that her father already tried taking the citizenship test twice, but he has failed both times. He just doesn't know enough English and is not old enough yet to take the test in Spanish.

Again, many thanks for your help.
 
MikeyS said:
Hi Anahit. Thank you very much for replying. She turned 21 on July 2000. I looked at the archived bulletin for that month here and I see that even under category 2A she still didn't qualify (22JAN94 was the cutout).
Click to expand...
Well, at least we know that she did not fail to apply! :)
I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say "To become current under 2B she has to wait for another 4 years". According to the February bulletin just released the cutout for category 2B for Mexico is 01MAR92, indeed four years to her priority of October 96, but that doesn't necessarily mean four actual years, does it? I know this is probably impossible to answer, but I don't want to break her heart either. :)
Click to expand...
No it's not necessarily 4 years, could be less, could be more, unfortunately...
 
Got it. Yeah, reading other posts around here I see that this sometimes moves very fast, sometimes crawls. I guess all she can do now is wait some more.

I really appreciate the help. I'll try to come back in and update this thread on her progress in the hope that it's useful for other people in the same situation.
 
I assume she is in states. If yes, then she should make sure to maitain her legal non-immigrant status since the I-130 itself doesn't give anyone a legal status.
One more thing she should know about is that her father's petition would be voided if she gets married before getting her green card.
Good luck to your friend!
 
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