Family-Based Green Card for Sibling - I-130 Form

The legal definition of sibling includes step-brothers and step-sisters (as long as you were both 18 or under when your parents married) and adopted siblings (as long as your sibling and if applicable, you - were both under the age of 16 when adopted and meet other legal conditions for a legal adoption).

To petition for your brother or sister to live in the U.S., you must be a U.S. citizen and at least 21 years old. Legal Permanent Residents cannot petition to bring siblings to live permanently in the United States.

Siblings are not considered immediate relatives and instead fall in the family preference category, the Green Card process takes considerably longer because a visa number will not become immediately available.

Once Form I-130 is accepted, siblings of U.S. Citizens will have to wait for their priority date to become current, since visas are assigned in the chronological order in which the petitions are filed. The filing date becomes the applicant’s priority date. Once a visa number becomes available the beneficiary can apply for a visa or to adjust his or her status.

If your brother or sister resides outside of the U.S., the NVC will send your petition along with their visa number to the recipients’ local U.S. Consulate or Embassy with detailed instructions on how to complete the Visa process. Your sibling may begin his or her green card application once Form I-130 is approved and the priority date becomes current.

To check the status of the current priority date, please see the Visa Bulletin published monthly by the US Department of State.

To correctly sponsor your brother or sister, you must also provide evidence of your U.S. Citizenship.

Documents that can prove your US Citizenship:

• Birth certificate
• Naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship
• Form FS-240, Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States
• Valid US passport
• Original statement from US consular officer verifying your citizenship

Note: Permanent Residents cannot petition for a Family-Based Green Card on behalf of their siblings. However, once naturalized, Green Card holders will have the same rights as U.S. citizens.