Families of U.S. Citizens and of immigrants and non-immigrants can bring along their spouses and children.  U.S. citizens can sponsor their parents, siblings and fiance`(e) to marry in U.S. 

Fiancé(e)

U.S. citizens may sponsor fiancé(e) visa if planning to get married within 90 days of arrival of the fiancé(e).  Eligibility criteria are strictly applied to screen for any fraud or misrepresentation.  Fiancé(e) arrives as a nonimmigrant.  Parties should have met before, but in genuine cases parties can receive Waiver of meeting requirement.

Marriage

Foreign national spouse marrying a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident can seek Permanent residence status based upon marriage.  

Spouses of citizens, permanent residents and non-immigrant visa holders are eligible to accompany or follow to join their U.S. based spouse to live together.  Same sex marriage is recognized for immigration purposes and same sex spouses can now lawfully immigrate. 

Marriage Bonafides

Married couples are eligible to permanent residence only if they had a bonfide or genuine marital relationship.

Immigration through marriage treats every marriage with suspicion and requires evidence of real marriage to grant approval.  Many marriage based cases are approvable but are poorly filed and suffer a finding of fraud.  Marriage based greencard filing must therefore be well documented for approval. 

Any suspicion of fraud or misrepresentation leads to higher USCIS scrutiny.  Denials are mostly based on marriage fraud or misrepresentation.  Denial can be reversed in Appeal.

Conditional Permanent Residence

Permanent residence status based on marriage within two years is approved for two years.  Foreign national spouse gets a conditional greencard.  In the last ninety days of greencard expiry must apply for removal of condition.  Foreign national spouse can have a green card with ten year validity upon approval of the application to remove the condition. 

Divorce, separation, and, to some extent, death of the citizen spouse present complex issues.  While, surviving spouse can seek reinstatement of pending or approved petitions filed by her deceased spouse.  In case of divorce or separation, it would be great to coordinate the work between the family lawyers and immigration lawyers. 

Waivers

Immigrant visa or nonimmigrant visa is approved individually after a family member is determined admissible.  The member must show that he or she is eligible for a visa and is not subject to any grounds of inadmissibility. 

Inadmissibility grounds are many and must be overcome individually, before approval of permanent residence status.  Waiver of grounds of inadmissibility is available against some, but not all grounds of inadmissibility.  The most common one is the unlawful presence waiver.

There is no waiver against false claim of U.S. Citizenship.  But, there are exceptions which may be allowed in genuine cases.  It is important to carefully prepare waivers against immigration related, health related and criminal grounds of inadmissibility.

Children

Children of the marriage or from previous relationship(s) can accompany or follow to join the immigrating parent, with some limitation, including adopted child and step child.

Processing times wait or the priority date not being current can cause the child to age out.  Age restrictions may cause the child to be left behind resulting in family separation.  Timely action may help in seeking age out protection under the Child Status Protection Act.

Child Citizenship

Children can automatically acquire citizenship through their parents or grandparents.  Citizenship law evolved almost for a century.  Many citizens are still unaware that they are not unlawful entrants or permanent residents.  People in this category are either deported in the absence of evidence or knowledge of their citizenship.  Many continue to renew their permanent resident card ignorant of their citizenship status.  This is frequently the case among adopted children.

Adoption

Children born abroad can immigrate before age 16 through adoption.  Older siblings can also be adopted up to age 18 if a younger sibling is adopted.  Hague International Adoption Convention requires the adoptive parents to seek permission from the Department of State before considering foreign child adoption and is a pre-requisite to commencing immigration procedure for the adopted child.