Back on April 27, 2004 my wife filed I-130, immigrant petition for relative, for her three brothers. This was about 12 years ago. On Saturday she received a notice from the National Visa Center, that it was time to process the affidavit of support for her brothers. Now it did not take 12 years for immigration to prove the petitions. These petitions were approved on December 1, 2009. Nowadays it’s taking approximately 5 months to approve the petitions. What is taking so long is that we have had to wait until immigrant visas have become available.
With a sister filing for her brothers, this is the family fourth preference where there are 65,000 visas available each year. As there are over 65,000 visas applied for each year we are in a backlog situation. It is hard to determine exactly when a visa will be available because it is based in part upon how many visas have been granted in that category and how many applications there are.
By today there is still not visas available for my brothers-in-law. The National Visa Center believes though that we are close enough to justify beginning the application process. The National Visa Center has issued fee bills for the affidavit of support portion of the application. The filing fee for the affidavit of support is $120 per family unit. As my wife is filed for each of her three brothers, including their wives and children, are filing fee is $360. Once this fee is paid we can then file the supporting documents for the affidavit of support. The supporting documents will include the last three years of tax returns, current pay stubs and letters from the employer.
When the visa becomes available, the National Visa Center, will issue fee bills for the immigrant visa fee which is $325 per person. As we were filing for 12 people that makes the filing fee $3900. Once that fee is paid we can then submit the DS-260 and the required civil documents.
To help people understand the filing fees and the income requirements for the affidavit of support I’ve created a spreadsheet which you can access by clicking here. As we move ahead in this journey I will write additional articles that will be helpful to other people going through this process.
[contentblock id=1 img=html.png]