petition now? need expert advice...

augigi, CNS · Dec 2, 2006

Excuse me, but I was not thinking anything negative, only posting to help answer your question.

I merely said if you were worried about not graduating nursing school then it may make sense to apply for the family petition as a backup. Some people for various reasons have a hard time getting through school and need to have other options available - but I did not suggest that you were one of them.

jano, LPN, LVN · Mar 26, 2008

Hi Suzanne,

I have a family based petition from my mother F2B, PD July 7, 1997. I have graduated from BSN in 2006 and passed NCLEX and IELTS recently. Do you mean my Family petition will be cancelled if I get an employer to petition me under I-140? Cant I have I-130 and I-140 at the same time?

Thanks and hoping for your response.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 27, 2008

You can have a non-immigrant petition pending for a visa and then have a immigrant visa pending, but you cannot have two for the immigrant visa active at the same time. This is the point that we are trying to make.

Best to check with the attorney that is handling your original petition.

jano, LPN, LVN · Mar 28, 2008

dear suzanne,

thanks for taking time to answer my querry. in my case, i have an immigrant petition pending (f2b) and planning to apply for another immigrant petition under eb right? so if an employer files a petition for me, i am going to have 2 immigrant petition pending. will the uscis allow this? heres what the immigration lawyer of the agency i am applying for says about my case just last night and i quote:

"hi, dianne! to answer your question, the mere fact of having two or more existing petitions does not invalidate the others, as long as the beneficiary remains eligible under those classifications. thus, as long as you stay single and your petitioner parent remains a permanent resident and doesn't become a us citizen, your f2b case continues on even if you are filed under an employment-based i-140 for which you are also qualified. each petition will run each own course with its own priority date, so whichever comes first and becomes current is what you will get the immigrant visa for. thanks!"

suzanne, i am hoping for your response as i beleive in your judgment through your years of experience and firsthand information including nurse immigration matters who have the same cases as mine.

john83, BSN, RN · Mar 29, 2008

It will slow things down, and you cannot have two petitions in progress for the green card at the same time, they will auromatically cancel the other one out. One petition has absolutely nothing to do with the other, and the process starts over from Day One.
You are going to cause more problems for your family with this route.

I heard from a famous US immigration lawyer in one of his tv shows here in the Philippines that such maybe possible because family and employment based petitions are different and maybe filed at the same time without being in conflict with one another(a similar question, like this one was raised in his show).

john83, BSN, RN · Mar 29, 2008

You can have a non-immigrant petition pending for a visa and then have a immigrant visa pending, but you cannot have two for the immigrant visa active at the same time. This is the point that we are trying to make.
Best to check with the attorney that is handling your original petition.

Yes, such would be true if the case would involve two or more employment-based immigrant petitions existing at the same time.

The exception would be two or more family based petitions(one serving as back-up for the other) and family based petitions combined with only one immigrant employment-based petitions.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 29, 2008

Best bet is to check with the immigration attorney that handled your petition in the first place, rules are always changing and we have seen many here have problems when they had two different immigrant petitions in the works.

Family based petititons are taking 15 to 20 years to get thru if you look at the visa bulletins. There are many that are in the same predicament as you.

The employer based petitions always get done much faster, only 18 months or so when is not retrogression. But the fact that many more are also applying no longer gives any guarantee. As well as the fact that there is a retrogression in place and we are expecting the family based petitions to go even further out in time as more are going that route because of the increase in those that have come to the US and wish to petition their family members.

As I mentioned above, check with your immigration attorney since they are under contract with your family and know your case well.

We have seen employers also refuse to start any processing for those that already had a pending family based petition.

The original question posted on this thread was if the poster should go for petitioning now and until they are done with school and have gone thru the licensing process and have passed the exams, not one thing can be started. Even an employer cannot offer a job until that time. And who knows what will change by that time? We keep hearing of new rules that the PRC is putting into place and you will be affected by these.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 29, 2008

Family based petitions also get changed around when the petitioner is a US citizen. So for a parent or anyone else to remain under green card status to get someone over here does not make any sense for them either.

Without the actual citizenship, it means that if they get into any type of trouble with anything, then your papers get cancelled as well.

jano, LPN, LVN · Mar 30, 2008

Dear Suzanne,

Thanks lot. I have checked with Reeves lawyers before about my F2B, my PD is 7-7-1997. They are processing now 2-1-1997 acgd to visa bulletin. Although its not moving month to month and it may take longer than it appears on the date. Acdg to the Reeves lawyer, even though my mother has naturalized as u.s. citizen, I am entitled to what they call as CSPA or the Child Status Protection Act wherein I can elect to retain my F2B

classification because the Philippines is under unique circumstance that petition for unmarried sons and daughters of immigrants parents over 21 years old are faster than unmarried sons and daughters of a u.s. citizens over 21 years old. By the way, I am still single.

But maybe you are right, I need to check again with the Reeves lawyer about my plan to be filed for an employment petition, although the lawyer I have consulted with in the employent agency has assured me that it is not illegal and they can file a petition for me inspite of my family based petition pending.

Thanks a lot.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 30, 2008

As I keep mentioning, it is always best to check with the attorney that is handling your file because many times there are different rules in affect for specific populations, etc. Or exemptions, etc. And not all meet all of these.

Best of luck to you.