Immediate Relative of US Citizen forms required

[kjv62803]

Sponsoring mother & father as an Immediate Relative of US citizen......filed I-130 forms for each of them. Are sending in the $380 fees for each of them for the DS-230 forms and also will be mailing in the Affidavit of Support forms for each.

My questions are: 1)How much longer should we expect this process to take until they will be eligible to travel here to US (from Philippines). 2)Will mother & father be able to get social security number and be eligible to work right away upon arriving in US or is there a waiting period? 3)What other forms, FEES, and requirements are lurking around the corner for us?

Thanks for any guidance that anyone can offer. We are just trying to budget for all of these fees that we are being hit with and are concerned about the increased fees on many of the USCIS forms. We are wondering which additional forms we are going to have to complete in the near future for them.

[kjv62803]

Sponsoring mother & father as an Immediate Relative of US citizen......filed I-130 forms for each of them. Are sending in the $380 fees for each of them for the DS-230 forms and also will be mailing in the Affidavit of Support forms for each.

My questions are: 1)How much longer should we expect this process to take until they will be eligible to travel here to US (from Philippines). 2)Will mother & father be able to get social security number and be eligible to work right away upon arriving in US or is there a waiting period? 3)What other forms, FEES, and requirements are lurking around the corner for us?

Thanks for any guidance that anyone can offer. We are just trying to budget for all of these fees that we are being hit with and are concerned about the increased fees on many of the USCIS forms. We are wondering which additional forms we are going to have to complete in the near future for them.

[RationalE]

http://discuss.ilw.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/902603441/m/8...10422141#29310422141

[kjv62803]

not sure what help that link is to ANY of the above questions!!!!

[RationalE]

I am utterly sorry,kjv62803, didn't mean to elicit so many exclamation marks from you.

Just wanted to express my sincere concern about your predicaments.

Good luck

[Teletype]

My response may be of limited usefulness, but I will attempt to answer what I can.

Question 1: My own case (although it was for my spouse's fiancee visa on I-129F) took about five (5) months to process through the USCIS, even before it gets sent over to the State Dept. for consular processing. At that point, it could still take weeks to months more to process, since the U.S. Embassy in Manila has such a large caseload.

Here's a link to the latest processing times for USCIS: http://www.visalaw.com/07aug1/6aug107.html

You'll need to check separately with the U.S. Embassy Manila for their processing times. State.gov (at the State Dept.) will have a direct link to the embassy's website.

Question 2: It's my understanding that persons arriving on an immigrant visa as a direct relative of a citizen will have no employment restrictions and should therefore be immediately eligible for an SSN. The Social Security Admin. (ssa.gov) should be able to clarify.

Question 3: This is where I'm not sure about what happens, and some other folks would need to step in. But if someone arrives in the U.S. on an immigrant visa, (s)he wouldn't need to adjust his status on I-485, because he's an immigrant already. As noted above, employment should already be authorized, and the green card would authorize him/her to travel abroad and still return to the U.S.

THAT SAID: Your parents would be required to renew the green card every ten (10) years on form I-90, which is not inexpensive. I-90 is also required to replace cards that have been lost or stolen, because your parents would be required by law to keep their green cards with them at all times. They would also be required to report all address changes to USCIS, but fortunately, there's no cost to do that. And finally, and this is optional, if your parents desire to become U.S. citizens, they can do so after at least five years of permanent residence using form N-400.

I'm only a J.D. who's married to an immigrant (now a U.S. citizen), so please don't substitute this for a trip to your local immigration attorney.

[Teletype]

Whoops, forgot to add that your parents would also need to make sure their passports remain current. I think the Philippine Govt. only issues passports for five (5) years. So they'll need to check in with the nearest Philippine embassy or consulate here in the U.S. at least that often in order to be able to do that. Fortunately, passport renewals can be accomplished by mail--they only require that the forms be notarized--but you'll have to pay for express mail shipping both ways besides their fee(s).

Good luck.

[Young Man]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by kjv62803:
Sponsoring mother & father as an Immediate Relative of US citizen......filed I-130 forms for each of them. Are sending in the $380 fees for each of them for the DS-230 forms and also will be mailing in the Affidavit of Support forms for each.

My questions are: 1)How much longer should we expect this process to take until they will be eligible to travel here to US (from Philippines). 2)Will mother & father be able to get social security number and be eligible to work right away upon arriving in US or is there a waiting period? 3)What other forms, FEES, and requirements are lurking around the corner for us?

Thanks for any guidance that anyone can offer. We are just trying to budget for all of these fees that we are being hit with and are concerned about the increased fees on many of the USCIS forms. We are wondering which additional forms we are going to have to complete in the near future for them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

1) About one year from the date of approval of I-130 from USCIS

2) Yes they can work right away.

3) They will need to fill out form DS-230 part 1 when asked by NVC and then again Form DS-230 part 1 & 2 when asked by the consulate. Also they have to get medical chekup when asked by the consulate.