scrubbedexpat099

British does not help, actually closes routes.

Could she show what those ways and means are? Wonder if it entails learning Spanish?

Interested minds would like to know.

Noorah101

OK. So she never actually received an Immigrant Visa or a Green Card. There is an approved I-130 in the system from when she was unmarried. I don't know if this I-130 can be resurrected or not, you will have to consult with an immigration attorney. Even if it is, it was so long ago, and her category is married now anyway, so might just be quicker and easier to file a new I-130.

Not "re-do", but "do". That's the only category she qualifies under. Yes, it's a long wait.

The only "magic" I know of would be to see if that old I-130 is still valid, but the wait is so long anyway, it probably is much simpler to just start over with a new I-130. There's no magic an immigration lawyer can do to make the wait time shorter, though. That's simply the reality of the backlog in that category.

For a one-time consultation, about $200.

I'd like to hear her thoughts on that. Being British does not help in any way whatsoever. All immigrants are treated equally by USCIS...i.e. they go through the same process with the same waiting times.

BTW, the USC sister can also file an I-130 towards an immigrant visa in the sibling category. Of course that's a much longer wait time, but if anything happened to Dad in the meantime, the one filed by the sister will continue moving along. Could be good "insurance" if you still think you will want to immigrate 15+ years from now.

Rene

S Folinsky

This retired attorney is amused at the reference to "magic." Quite often, what a professional [not limited to lawyers] often seems like "magic" to the lay person.

It may very well be that the only course is to do a new I-130 and start over. That said, the facts suggest that there may be what appears to be a "magical" solution.

As a story from when I was a younger lawyer. The best piece of "magic" I ever performed involved the old Western Hemisphere priority dates, a US born US Citizen, whose biological father abandoned his wife and kid when he was infant, moved a 1000 miles away and started a new family without bothering to divorce in which he fathered two kids. When an adult, US citizen discovers he has two half-brothers and establishes contact. BTW, under the law at the time, the common biological father did not count as a common parent since his last two kids were illegitimate. However, the brothers did have a "parent" in common under the immigration laws -- the legal wife who would like to see those "two bastards" dead. Also, it turned out that biological father [who was deceased] has registered to immigrate back in 1971 but never used the registration.

tht

I thought it did help, with the way the caps work, being from a country with a smaller population helps with the quotas and limits. So while they may alll be subject to the same rules, these rules have a different effect.

http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/...ngListItem.pdf