BRINGING YOUR PARENTS TO THE UNITED STATES
Only the citizens of the United States age 21 or over may petition for their parents, holding the citizenship of another country, to come and live in the United States. Unfortunately, legal permanent residents may not bring their parents to live in the U.S. permanently.
In addition to being immediate relatives of a United States citizen, the parents have to meet other eligibility criteria for the green card approval. One of the more complicated issues for immigrating parents is that, if they are retired and not working, the citizen will have to prove that he/she will be able to provide health insurance coverage for them.
As mentioned before, to petition for a green card for your parents, you must be a United States citizen and be at least 21 years old.
If you meet the basic criteria you can petition for your natural mother and father and in certain cases for your stepmother and stepfather as well as adoptive mother and father. Please note however, that legally adopted children may not petition for their biological parents based on the legal assumption that the adoption decree cuts off all legal ties between the child and the natural parents.
To begin the process of bringing your parents to the United States you must prepare and file a visa petition Form I -130. Form I – 130 serves to prove to the USCIS that your parents are truly and legally yours. You will be notified by USCIS if your petition is approved or denied. If it is approved and your parent is outside the United States, he or she will be notified to go to the local U.S. consulate to complete visa processing.
The second part of the process after the visa petition is approved is for your parents to submit a green card application and attend an interview. This part of the process is aimed to determine whether your parents meet other eligibility for permanent residence criteria in addition to qualifying as the parents of the United States citizen.
If your parent is legally inside the U.S. and did not file the Form I-485 Application concurrently with your petition, he or she may file at this time.