How many visas are available for family immigration?

On Behalf of | Jul 10, 2020 | Firm News

Can your family come with you to the United States? Can they join you once you are here? These are all questions that can occupy your mind when you are looking at visas for yourself or your loved ones. So it is best to know the situation when it comes to how many visas are available from Washington.

  • What is a family visa?

A visa for family-based immigration may be applied for by a new resident or citizen of the United States. The subject of the application must be an immediate family member or another type of close family member in what the government calls a family preference category.

  • How many family visas are available?

The U.S. Congress set the maximum number of family visas at 480,000 per year in 1990. Spouses and children took up 69 percent of these available visas in the 2015 year. There may be other reasons that visas are not available, especially for people in the family preference categories.

  • What is required to get a family visa?

A person must prove their relationship to the citizen or resident with approved documents from the country of origin or other authorizing government agency. These documents may be hard to find or replace in some cases, which is one of the reasons a lawyer can help with the process.

  • How else can an attorney help?

Legal representation is a great idea for any part of the process of getting family to join you in the United States. An attorney can review applications and help get them ready for submission.