Legal Question in Immigration Law in Virginia

Derivative Status

I am a US citizen. If I applied for my spouce's green card succesfully last year, and listed her children in the applications documents (children are in Africa); do the children gain a derivative status (we applied and received her green card while here US--change of status) even if the children are out of the country. The kids have never come to the USA.

My question is: now we are ready to bring the children over. Should we apply for their green cards separately (form I-130) since they are in Africa now or they have a derivative status since their mom just received her Green card? How long is the whole process.


Asked on 2/01/07, 3:19 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kseniya Zavala Law Office of Kseniya Zavala

Re: Derivative Status

When you apply for immediate relatives, there is no derivative category. You must apply for each of your immediate relatives separately. Thus you must petition for your step-children (I-130) and go through the whole process again as you did for your wife. The processing time may take from 6 months to 1.5 years. Note, your stepchildren must be under 18 years of age when you got married, otherwise they are not considered to be your stepchildren. If you have any further questions, you may contact me directly at [email protected].

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Answered on 2/05/07, 12:09 pm


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