המשפחה היא למה עולים רבים הגיעו לארצות הברית במשך כמה מאות שנים. אנחנו הם אומה של מהגרים. סיפורי עלייה של איחוד מעוגנים ברוב הזיכרונות שלנו או אפילו סרטים. עברנו הרבה, עברנו מאבקים, היינו מדוכאים, והסתגלנו לקהילות חדשות, ערים, מדינות ומדינה. כיום החוקים לגבי ההגירה של ארצות הברית שונים בהרבה מהזמנים הקודמים: יש מכסות, העדפות לבני משפחה מסוימים, זמני המתנה שונים לאשרת עולה או לכרטיסים ירוקים, לחוקים מיוחדים לקורבנות ועוד.

Permanent resident status, which results in what is called a “green card,” gives foreigners the right to live and work in the United States without the time restrictions imposed by temporary nonimmigrant status. In  family-based immigration, the categories of immigrant visas can be divided into Immediate Relatives and family-sponsored Preference Petitions.  Immediate Relatives are not subject to an annual cap or quota based on nationality.

The Preference Petition categories are under the עלון ויזה, which is published every month by the U.S. Department of State. Hence, a Preference category visa is subject to annual numerical limits, and they are not always immediately available. A visa becomes available to a preference category based on the priority date (the date the Form I-130 was filed). In summary, these are the classifications of family-based immigrant visa categories:

קרוב משפחה: בני זוג, ילדים (מתחת לגיל 21) והורים לאזרחי ארה"ב (שהם בני 21 ומעלה).

A U.S. citizen may sponsor the following “immediate relatives” or “IR”:

• A spouse;
• Unmarried child under 21 years of age; or
• Parents (if the citizen is 21 years of age or older).

If the foreign immediate relative currently resides in the United States and wants to apply for lawful permanent resident status, they may apply for their green card at the same time.

If foreign immediate relative does not live in the United States, they must wait until the USCIS has approved the U.S. citizen’s immigrant petition before they can apply for an immigrant visa through the Department of State.

Non-Immediate Relative: Preference Categories

In general, family-sponsored preference visas are limited to 226,000 visas per year. Under the law, these annual visa limits may be increased when not all of the previous fiscal year’s visas were not fully used. As well, there are limits to the percentage of visas that can be issued each year based on an immigrant’s country of chargeability (this usually means the country of birth).

As a result of the annual limits on the number of visas, the supply and demand of visas can cause a waiting line, backlog or  visa queue to form based on each particular country. To distribute the visas among all preference categories, the U.S. Department of State allocates the visas according to the family immigrant’s preference category, country of chargeability, and priority date. The priority date is used to determine an immigrant’s place in the visa queue. When the priority date becomes available (or is marked as “current” in the Visa Bulletin) immigrants can move on in their processing for permanent residence.

The following are the preference categories along with the Visa Bulletin final action dates chart for each (as of November 2022):