Family-based immigration is the largest pathway to permanent residence in the United States — and the one where families most often assume the relationship speaks for itself. It does not. The petition proves the relationship, the category sets the wait, and the beneficiary's own history determines whether the case ends in a green card or a denial that could have been predicted. Audu Law Firm builds family petitions front-to-back.
Who Can Petition for Whom
Immediate relatives
Spouses, unmarried children under twenty-one, and parents of adult U.S. citizens face no annual visa cap — the timeline is processing time, not a queue.
Preference categories
Adult children and siblings of citizens, and the spouses and children of permanent residents, wait in capped preference categories where the priority date governs — sometimes for years. Category strategy matters: marriages, aging out at twenty-one, and a petitioner naturalizing mid-case can all move a beneficiary between lines, for better or worse.
Proving the relationship
Marriage cases are examined for bona fides — the shared life, not just the certificate. Documentary gaps and inconsistent answers, not fraud, sink most cases that fail.
The Petition Is Half the Case
An approved I-130 is a classification, not a green card. The beneficiary still completes adjustment of status or consular processing, where admissibility is examined — prior overstays, entries, and misrepresentations surface here. We screen for those issues before filing, because the petition that exposes an unwaived ground of inadmissibility does not help the family; it starts a clock the family is not ready for.
Consultations are conducted by Zoom. Immigration law is federal — we represent clients nationwide before USCIS.
The relationship is real. Make the file prove it.
832-780-9005 | Audu Law Firm, PLLC
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