Sponsoring a child for US citizenship....help needed.

Ladies,

I want to sponsor my niece for US citizenship since I am a US citizen and also an OCI...Overseas Citizen of India card holder.
She is my own sisters daughter who is 4yrs old and now living in India. They are of course Indian citizens. How can I do it? Please give me any info on how to do it etc etc. Are there any drawbacks for this? What are the advantages? As of now the only advantage I can think is she has free access to US later. What else do you think is a + point. What are the minuses?

Please reply if you have any info.

Adara

As far as I know, you can sponsor for your sister in the siblings quota. I don't think there is a provision to sponsor for niece. Your sister has to sponsor for her kid once she gets a GC and so forth. But the siblings quota for India is heavily backlogged. If they are planning on living in India for long, then you could start the process for your sister now and let her do it for her daughter. Since she is just 4 years old, I guess she could become a GC holder if not citizen by the time she reaches 18 years.

I don't know if I am absolutely right but this is just my knowledge.

Aswini, you are absolutely right.. Adara you can sponsor your sister and she in return will sponsor her child, or I think you can sponsor her entire family if the children are under age. I don't think you can sponsor your niece..

Couldn't she adopt the niece and then bring her as her own daughter?

Thanks Aswini, desiprincess and tashi for all your responses.

Aswini, ok so I cannot do that directly to my niece. I need to sponsor my sister first. Is there any website you can suggest so I can get this info and the procedure? Also, if I sponsor her then at say age 18 or 20 if she wishes to come here on student visa or work visa will she be eligible provided she has not got her GC by then. Thanks!

Tashi, Thanks for your response.
I don't think I will adopt my niece for this. Anyway, we are planning on settling in India in less than 2 yrs so there is no point in bringing her here. I was just wondering if I can do that for her then that may give her an oppurtunity later in life.


Adara

Adara,

The official website would be uscis.gov . I am not sure if they would have given the procedure but you should get that pretty easily by googling.
and starting the process when she turns 18 is not wise due to the long wait time.
If I were you, I would start the process for your sister right away for various reasons:

1. siblings category is severly backlogged. If I am right they are processing 1999 cases now. So you are looking at 10 years wait.
2. IF (its a big IF) immigration bill gets passed , there are talks that the siblings category might be eliminated.
3. As the wait time is more, your sister might get GC after 10 years. I am not sure at which stage she can add her daughter to the process and how long that would take - few more years (??)


Hope this helps.

Adara - Try immigration portals. Here you can find links to a lot resources for immigration related queries - Family Based Green Cards - Through Marriage or a Relative - ImmigrationPortal Forums .

Originally Posted by aswini

Adara,

The official website would be uscis.gov . I am not sure if they would have given the procedure but you should get that pretty easily by googling.
and starting the process when she turns 18 is not wise due to the long wait time.
If I were you, I would start the process for your sister right away for various reasons:

1. siblings category is severly backlogged. If I am right they are processing 1999 cases now. So you are looking at 10 years wait.
2. IF (its a big IF) immigration bill gets passed , there are talks that the siblings category might be eliminated.
3. As the wait time is more, your sister might get GC after 10 years. I am not sure at which stage she can add her daughter to the process and how long that would take - few more years (??)

Hope this helps.

Oh!No! Aswini, I didn't mean that I will start the process when she is 18. I am sorry for that confusion. I meant that if I sponsor her now and when she is 18 or 20 and has not get her GC/Citizenship then can she still be eligible to apply for student or work visa to come to US. I mean by sponsoring her now will I be depriving her of her being eligible to even apply for student/work visa later when she is a major?

Hope I was clear this time. Thanks a lot.

Adara

Originally Posted by Laks09

Adara - Try immigration portals. Here you can find links to a lot resources for immigration related queries - Family Based Green Cards - Through Marriage or a Relative - ImmigrationPortal Forums .

Thanks a ton Laks09.....that is a huge help!

Adara

Originally Posted by adara

Oh!No! Aswini, I didn't mean that I will start the process when she is 18. I am sorry for that confusion. I meant that if I sponsor her now and when she is 18 or 20 and has not get her GC/Citizenship then can she still be eligible to apply for student or work visa to come to US. I mean by sponsoring her now will I be depriving her of her being eligible to even apply for student/work visa later when she is a major?

Hope I was clear this time. Thanks a lot.

Adara

Oops!! My bad. 10 years from now how the immigration laws will change - no one can predict. So, I am answering this assuming the laws are still the same. If her GC is in process by the time she wants to study here, she won't get a student visa since she had already shown immigration intent. she might get H1-B/L1-B because those are *dual* intent visas.

Hope I got your question correctly this time.