Immigration: Can My Step-Parent Sponsor Me?

As an immigration attorney practicing immigration law for more than 30 years, I hear the following question from many of my clients.

“My mother just married a US citizen and he is going to sponsor her for permanent resident status in the US.  Can my step-father now sponsor me too for permanent resident status?”

In many cases, the answer is “yes”.  A US citizen step-parent must marry his/her spouse before the minor child(ren) turn 18 years of age.  To be included in the “minor child” category, the child must be under the age of 21 years of age before the completion of the immigration process (except in limited circumstances where the Child Status Protection Act applies).

For instance, US citizen Robert meets Maria inside the United States.  Maria is undocumented, and has two minor children from a prior relationship.  Both children are also undocumented.  Maria’s son Carlos is 16 years old and her son Juan is 17 years old.  Robert and Maria decide to get married and start to plan their wedding.  If they marry after Juan turns age 18, then Robert will not be able to sponsor Juan as his step-child for permanent resident purposes.  Obviously, if they marry before Carlos turns 18, then Carlos will be considered Robert’s step-child and Robert will be able to sponsor Carlos as if Carlos were his own child. 

If Robert and Maria marry after Juan turns 18 years of age, then Maria can still sponsor Juan as her own son, after she becomes a permanent resident.  This process will take a bit longer, but Juan may still be able to become a permanent resident through his mother. 

As long as Robert and Maria married before the minor children turned 18 years of age, they can file the paperwork with US Citizenship and Immigration Services after the child turns 18, but before the child turns 21 years of age.

Times passes and Maria becomes a US citizen.  She and Robert together decide to adopt a child from Maria’s native country.  Contrary to the step-parent scenario, the minor adoptive child must be adopted before the child turns 16 years of age.  Sometimes, this means a race to conclude an adoption before the child turns 16 so that the adoptive child will qualify to be sponsored by the US citizen-adoptive parents.