Most parents naturally do not want to stay far from their children and for this reason, they always enquire about how they can bring their child to the US.
Asides from being close to them to monitor them, parents also want the best for their children. These “child” can either be biological or adopted. In preparing immigration processes for your child, the age and marital status of that child matter a lot.
Technically, a child is an unmarried person under the age of 21, while a son or daughter is a married or unmarried person above 21 years. immigration purposes, a “child” is an unmarried person under 21 years of age.
As long as a citizen is a lawful permanent citizen, he or she may petition to bring in their children into the US. Being a lawful citizen in the US means the individual has a green card.
As earlier stated in this article that a child is any person under the age of 21 who is also unmarried. This means that the one eligible to bring along to the United States is only persons below 21 years who is also unmarried. However, one can also petition on behalf of their child or children above 21.
The steps to bring your child to the US
The US has outrightly accepted that foreigners can bring their child or children into the country, however, there are steps and processes laid down. They have to do with the documentation required to bring your child to the US.
They are
1. Petition to bring in a Relative
This has to do with signing form 1-130, the form 1-130 is a petition form meant for Relatives who are not Citizens or are aliens. It is filled AB submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), by a Lawful Citizen of the United States.
This means that the Lawful Citizen is submitting a petition to allow a relative to migrate onto the US to also become a citizen. One has to remember to fill the form and also attach a filing fee.
2. Submitting evidence of US citizenship
The petitioner will submit a copy of some documents testifying that he or she is a lawful citizen. The documents
- U.S. passport
- Consular Report of Birth Abroad
- Naturalization certificate
- Certificate of citizenship
- US birth certificate
3. Evidence of Change name
This is given only when necessary during the process of bringing your child to the US, where one has to submit a copy of marriage certificate, divorce decree, Affidavit from a court of Change of name, court decree of adoption especially if either the parent or the child had a change of name.
4. Proof of Relationship
This is to show proof that the supposed parent is either a biological father or mother, step-parent or adopted parent. They include:
- Biological Mother
- A copy of the child’s birth certificate
- Biological Father
- A copy of child’s birth certificate
- A copy of marriage certificate showing proof of marriage to the child’s biological mother.
- Evidence or proof of a father child relation before the child is turning 21 or turned 21 and before the child got married, that is if the child is married.
- Proof of termination of marriage, if no longer married to the child’s biological mother.
- Step Parent
- The stepparent will provide proof of marriage to the child’s biological parent.
- The stepparent will provide a copy of step child’s birth certificate.
- The Step parent will provide proof of termination of partnership to previous spouse or partners, both that of themselves and that of the biological parent of the child.
After filing these above-stated documents and making them available as well as the petition, if approved, the visa will be made available and then the petition will be sent to the embassy for further processing. Then you can be allowed to bring your child to the US.
