• If it is a family petition and you filed the appropriate family petition form and the immediate relative form the process takes some months.
• Once that’s approved, it is then forwarded to the National Visa Center. At the Center, the petitioner and the beneficiary have to complete documentation.
• One important aspect is that the petitioner, if applying for a family member, has to show that that family member would not become a public charge.
• That petitioner has to make a specified amount which varies depending on how many family members live with them.
• For example for a single person applying for a wife who’s living abroad, that person has to make $19,612 per year to be eligible. That’s 125% over the federal poverty guidelines.