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Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

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Old Aug 4th 2018, 6:26 pm
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Default Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

I was born & raised in the UK. Moved to the USA when I was a teenager (mother married an American), and have my US citizenship.
my half-sister (same father) would like to move to the USA, and I see that I can sponsor her since we share a common parent.
When I look at the instructions for the form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), it says:


E. A brother or sister: Submit a copy of your birth certificate and a copy of your brother’s or sister’s birth certificate showing that you have at least one common parent. If you and your brother or sister have a common father but different mothers, submit copies of the marriage certificates showing that your father was married to each mother, as well as copies of documents showing that any prior marriages of either your father or mothers were legally terminated. If you and your brother or sister are related through adoption or a stepparent, or if you have a common father and either of you were not legitimated before you turned 18 years of age, see Items D., H., and I. in these Instructions for additional information on proving your family relationship.

However, my sister’s mother was never married to my father; they just had a child together.
Is she considered ‘not legitimated’?

Thanks for any assistance!

Last edited by handslikesecrets; Aug 4th 2018 at 6:28 pm.
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Old Aug 4th 2018, 10:04 pm
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Default Re: Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

I believe so, yes. Your shared father is listed on both long copy birth certificates, right?

Edit: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclope...hapter7-5.html this may help

Side note: you do realise that petitioning for your sister could potentially take tens of years?

Last edited by TheKingOfHearts; Aug 4th 2018 at 10:07 pm.
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Old Aug 5th 2018, 12:52 am
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Default Re: Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

Just to add to the pot, it looks like another government shutdown will be approaching in September if Trump gets his way. Fairly certain “chain migration”/what you’re trying to do is one of the things he wants cut immediately and probably won’t face a ton of resistance.
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Old Aug 5th 2018, 3:25 am
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Default Re: Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

No harm filing, who knows what will happen, F4 seems likely to go at some point but they may honour existing filings.
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Old Aug 6th 2018, 3:01 am
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Default Re: Sponsoring Half-Sister; Parents Never Married?

Originally Posted by handslikesecrets
I was born & raised in the UK. Moved to the USA when I was a teenager (mother married an American), and have my US citizenship.
my half-sister (same father) would like to move to the USA, and I see that I can sponsor her since we share a common parent.
When I look at the instructions for the form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), it says:


E. A brother or sister: Submit a copy of your birth certificate and a copy of your brother’s or sister’s birth certificate showing that you have at least one common parent. If you and your brother or sister have a common father but different mothers, submit copies of the marriage certificates showing that your father was married to each mother, as well as copies of documents showing that any prior marriages of either your father or mothers were legally terminated. If you and your brother or sister are related through adoption or a stepparent, or if you have a common father and either of you were not legitimated before you turned 18 years of age, see Items D., H., and I. in these Instructions for additional information on proving your family relationship.

However, my sister’s mother was never married to my father; they just had a child together.
Is she considered ‘not legitimated’?

Thanks for any assistance!
A situation such as the one posed by OP can be quite complicated, to say the least. We have nowhere near enough in the way of facts to venture an answer.

Dates would be necessary. All places of residence of dad, mother's and kids would be needed. Did Dad exercise his rights and obligations as father or was he totally absentee dad?

To show you how weird this can get. Once had a case where man and wife had child together, said child born in Texas. Dad deserts family, moves 1500 miles away and "marries" again (who needs a divorce?) and they have two children. Dad could not be "father" of his illegitimate children. However, those children were born while Dad was still legally married. Therefore, legal wife was step-mother to the later children. It was the mother who was the common parent!

I just gave the foregoing as an example of weirdness.
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