Triman

Background...
My 18 year old niece has been over in the US on F-1 Visa from Korea.
I am her court appointed legal guardian and have been providing
support for past 2.5 years.
She will graduate from an American HS and will attend college in fall.

Questions

In order to get g/c do I submit a 864 affadavit of support and will
that be enough or can I submit a I-130? (I understand that it is for
immediate relatives, and I know they say no for nieces...)

I was thinking that a combination of the two would be enough to get a
green card?

Thanks in advance

Ingo Pakleppa

On Wed, 18 Dec 2002 06:58:17 +0000, Triman wrote:

    > Background...
    > My 18 year old niece has been over in the US on F-1 Visa from Korea. I
    > am her court appointed legal guardian and have been providing support
    > for past 2.5 years.
    > She will graduate from an American HS and will attend college in fall.
    >
    > Questions
    >
    > In order to get g/c do I submit a 864 affadavit of support and will that
    > be enough or can I submit a I-130? (I understand that it is for
    > immediate relatives, and I know they say no for nieces...)
    >
    > I was thinking that a combination of the two would be enough to get a
    > green card?
    >
    > Thanks in advance

Unfortunately, getting a Green Card involves substantially more than an
affidavit of support. Unless you are her adoptive parent, there may not be
much you can do for her at all. I'm not sure whether Legal Guardianship is
the same thing; I suspect she is not.

There are only a few categories of relationships that would allow you to
get her a Green Card:

- if you are a US citizen and are her parent (biological or adopted, as
long as the adoption occurred before age 15), and she is a minor, you
could sponsor her as an immediate relative right away. Unfortunately, she
is too old for that now.

- if you are a US citizen and are her parent, and she is unmarried and
adult, you could sponsor her under the Family 1st preference. The current
quota wait for that is around three years.

- if you are a US citizen and are her parent, and she is married, you
could sponsor her under the Family 3rd category. The current quota wait
for this is around five to six years.

- if you are a Green Card holder and her parent, and she is unmarried, you
could sponsor her under Family 2B category. Current wait: around eight
years.

- if she has a US citizen brother or sister, he or she could sponsor her
in Family 4th category. Current quota wait: around 11 years.

If you don't fall into any of these categories, you cannot sponsor her.

Another word of caution: filing anything for her, an I-130 or anything
else, can cause her problems trying to get a student visa.

I would recommend you consult with a competent immigration attorney before
trying anything.

Triman

Thanks for your help! I do not want to jepordize her current F-1
visa. Will continue to trudge along in her current status.
Hoping that a H1 visa becomes available after her OPT whenenver that
might be...