World Journal Weekly Q & A - March 17, 2013

Q & A 1.

Q&A 1.

K-4 Dependent Whose Mother Married When K-4 Was 18 Wants To Know What To Do As He Has Received Multiple Rejections For The Green Card.

A K-4 dependent asks:

I entered the U. S. 4 years ago under the visa category K-4. My mother married my stepfather when I was 18 years old, and he filed papers to get us into the U. S. under K-3 for my mother and K-4 for me. He later applied for my mother and she has a green card. He also tried to apply for me, but I have been rejected a few times, what can I do now?

Dear reader:

There is unfortunately no great “fix” to your situation. The difficulty is that you do not qualify as the “child” of your stepfather because the immigration laws define the term “child” as one who was under the age of 18 at the time that a marriage creating a step relationship was executed. The Board of Immigration Appeals recently held in Matter of Akram, 25 & N Dec. 874 (BIA 2012) that although a K-3 nonimmigrant’s daughter who was 18 years of age at the time of her mother’s marriage was properly issued a K-4 nonimmigrant visa, the K-4 could not adjust status because she did not qualify as the stepchild of her mother spouse. Hopefully there will be a solution to your situation in the future.

As you are considered illegal, you may ultimately benefit from any comprehensive immigration reform package. If you marry in the future to a U. S. citizen, you may be benefited by the Obama Administration’s I-601A provisional waiver program through which you can more safely consular process your immigrant visa since the waiver application to remove the bar of 10 years for remaining in the U. S. illegally for one year can be filed for and adjudicated during the time that you are present in the States. Therefore at the end, the consular interview would in all likelihood be fairly routine.

Copyright © 2003-2013 Alan Lee, Esq.
The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.