The outline of comprehensive immigration reform includes some drastic changes to the current family-based immigration system.
- The new system will have two family-based preference categories (instead of the current 4).
- The new categories will cover unmarried adult children,
- Married adult children who file before age 31
- Unmarried adult children of green card holders.
- V visa holders will be included in the new system.
- Eliminating visas for siblings of US citizens. Elimination will occur 18 months after the date the bill will be enacted.
- “Immediate Relative” will now include child or spouse of green card holder (good!), child and spouse of person who accompanies/follows the child/parent/spouse of a US citizen or green card holder (great change).
- Married sons and daughters of US citizens must be under 30 when entering the US (Why?? Not good).
So, in sum, under the 2 categories, US citizens and green card holders can both petition for immediate relatives that will now include adult children. However, to enter the US, the married children have to be younger 30 years old. This is another example of giving generously with one hand, yet taking away with the other. It is commendable to expand the preference categories to keep families together but the age restriction is onerous.
The backlog or so called ‘line’ will be eliminated only when applying through the merit based visa system (I will discuss another time). It will be interesting to see what the bill states exactly on these issues.
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