Change of Status

[pashenk]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

I have a Ukrainian friend with a dependent 19 year old daughter who are here on a temporary visa. My friend is getting married and will be able to file for a change of status using the from I485. However, we do not know what form her daughter would use for a change in status. We can't find anything that addresses that for a dependent.
Thanks so much.

 

[ImmigAttyLana]

The dependent daughter will NOT be eligible for adjustment of status if her mother marries a US citizen IF the daughter is over the age of 18 at the time of the marriage between her mother and the US citizen. The ONLY way she would be eligible to adjust status would be if the mother is petitioned by the US citizen fiance as a fiance (K-1 visa) and the daughter gets the dependent K-2 visa. That way, as long as she is under the age of 21, she will be eligible to adjust status. Otherwise, she will not be eligible to adjust as a dependent of her mother; she would need to be petitioned on her own by her mother once her mother becomes a permanent resident but that process will take 2-3 years and she will age out of that category (child of LPR under 21 years of age) to a different category of (son/daughter of LPR over 21 years of age) and the processing times for that are about 4-6 years.

I have handled several very similar types of petitions recently and I assure you that the only solution to get the daughter to have a green card with her mother as quickly as possible is through the fiancee visa process.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or how I can be of further assistance to you in this matter. I also speak Russian, if that would help your friend from Ukraine and you can contact me directly at {sboukhny{@}gmail.com}.