I-130 Petition for Alien Relative

Who can petition for whom

A U.S. citizen can file for a spouse, for sons and daughters of any age whether married or not, for parents, and for brothers and sisters. The citizen must be at least 21 to file for a parent or a sibling. A lawful permanent resident can file only for a spouse and for unmarried sons and daughters. A resident cannot file for a parent, a sibling or a married child, and if a resident's unmarried son or daughter marries while the petition is pending, the petition dies automatically.

Naturalizing changes the categories, and for Mexican families it does not always help. A resident's spouse becomes an immediate relative the day the petitioner takes the oath. But a resident's unmarried adult son or daughter moves from the F2B line to the F1 line, and for Mexico F1 is further back: September 2008 against May 2010 on the October 2026 bulletin. The law lets that child opt out of the conversion and stay in F2B, and we check this before a petitioner with an adult child files the N-400.

Immediate relatives and preference categories

Spouses of citizens, unmarried children under 21 of citizens, and parents of adult citizens are immediate relatives: there is no annual limit on their visas, so the case moves as soon as the I-130 is approved. Every other relative waits in a preference category under the monthly Visa Bulletin. The priority date is the day USCIS received the I-130, and Mexico has its own lines, among the longest in the world.

Two things stand out. The F2A line for Mexico is almost current, seven months behind on the final-action chart and exempt from the per-country limit, so a resident's spouse now waits roughly as long as the petition takes. The F3 and F4 lines for Mexico are at 2001, a wait of about twenty-five years. A petition for a married son or a sibling in Mexico is still worth filing, because the priority date is the only thing that ever moves the case, but it is a long-term plan.

Evidence that the relationship is real

For parents and children, the proof is the civil record: the birth certificate naming the parent and, for a stepchild or a child born out of wedlock, the marriage record or proof of a real parent-child relationship before the child turned 21. Mexican documents must be certified copies from the Registro Civil with a certified English translation. Late-registered birth certificates, common in rural Chihuahua and Durango, draw requests for evidence, so we add baptismal, school or medical records from the years after the birth.

For spouses, the certificate proves the marriage happened; the rest of the file proves it is real. USCIS looks hardest at marriages that are recent, that followed an arrest or a removal order, or where the couple does not live together. The evidence is ordinary life on paper: a joint lease or deed, joint bank statements and tax returns, insurance naming each other, children's birth certificates, photographs across time with each family, and declarations from people who know the couple. Cross-border couples, one spouse in Juárez and the other in El Paso, add crossing records, messages and transfers showing the relationship over time.

Filing online or on paper

Online filing is $50 cheaper, gives the petitioner and the lawyer a live view of the case, and makes requests for evidence easier to answer, so we file online in nearly every case. The exception is a concurrent I-130 and I-485 for a relative adjusting inside the United States, which USCIS allows online only through an attorney or accredited representative. Since October 28, 2025, USCIS no longer accepts paper checks or money orders.

The form also asks whether the relative will adjust status or apply at a consulate, and which one. For a Mexican relative abroad or one who entered without inspection, the answer is Ciudad Juárez; getting it wrong routes the approved petition to the wrong place, and fixing it with Form I-824 adds months.

What happens after approval

If the relative is outside the United States, or inside after an entry without inspection, the approved petition goes to the National Visa Center: the relative pays the $325 immigrant-visa fee and the $120 affidavit-of-support review fee, files the DS-260 and the I-864, and waits for an interview in Ciudad Juárez. If the relative is in the United States after a lawful entry and a visa number is available, the relative files Form I-485 with USCIS instead, and immediate relatives can file it together with the I-130.

On both roads the petitioner signs the I-864 affidavit of support, and since September 18, 2026 the relative faces the new totality-of-circumstances public-charge test, which can weigh non-cash benefits, so the sponsor's income and the relative's age, health and skills are part of the file from the start.