What is an F4 visa? Who Can Apply And What Are The Requirements?

If you are living in the United States as a green card holder or a lawful permanent resident, you would want to reunite with your immediate family members. The family-based immigration visa program was initiated by the US authorities to let the permanent residents of the USA invite their immediate family members such as spouse, children, parents and siblings to the USA to reunite with them. Since its inception, this program helped thousands of families to reunite in the US soil.

However, almost all permanent residents want to reunite with their families and that is the reason the demand for this visas is very high. Every year, a limited number of visas issued under this category and if your application exceeds the limit, you will be given a chance in the next year.

There are different family-based immigration visas, but in this article, we will discuss F4 visa in-detail to understand what it is and its application procedures and other information.

What is an F4 visa?

The F4 visa gives an opportunity to the US lawful permanent residents to reunite with their siblings such as brothers and sisters and their spouses and children. It is important to note that, every year, total 65,000 F4 visas are issued by the US authorities.

If you want to apply for the F4 visa to invite your siblings, you must be 21 years of old, a US citizen of and must qualify all the requirements necessary to complete the procedure. Your siblings can work in the US without an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and can study in US schools and universities. The children of your siblings must be unmarried and not older than 21 years.

What are the requirements of the F4 visa?

Obviously, there are eligibility conditions for the siblings of US citizen who are living in a foreign country. Also, there are some eligibility conditions for US citizen who want to invite their siblings to the US.

For siblings, the only eligibility criteria are that you have a sibling who is a US citizen. If you are married and you have children, they can also get qualified for the F4 visa.

For the US citizen, you must fulfil the criteria shown below:

You are a US citizen

You are at least 21 years old

You have siblings who are living in a foreign country. You have to prove it through birth certificates and other legal documents.

You have a valid US address and you are living in the US.

How to apply for the F4 visa?

So you have made your mind to reunite with your siblings in the US. Now the first step is to file a petition for your siblings to join in the US. Once the petition is approved by the US authorities, your siblings can start the procedure for the F4 visa. Remember, without an approved petition, your siblings cannot apply for the F4 visa. Once the petition is filed by the US citizen, it must be approved by the lawful authorities, once it is approved, siblings of the US citizen can apply for the F4 visa at the US embassy at their home country.

Petition filing:

If you want to file the petition for the F4 visa, you need to fill the form I-130, petition for Alien Relative. The petition must have details about your siblings and if they are married, about their spouses and children. It will help the siblings to file for F4 visa for their whole family in case their petition is approved.

Once the petition is made, it will be sent to the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS department will process the petition and generally, it will take a few months before you get the reply from them whether your petition is accepted or denied. If you get a negative response, the reasons will be mentioned in the document. You can send another petition after carefully reading and solving the issues mentioned in the document. If the petition is approved by the DHS, the petition will be sent to the National Visa Center.

The NVC will send documents to the applicants who are living in a foreign country. These documents include case number, the invoice ID number, instructions and other crucial information.

When the current date comes, NYC will inform your siblings that you can initiate your procedures for the F4 visa. Your siblings, their spouses and children, all have to submit separate F4 visa applications.

Also, all the members who want to apply for the F4 visa have to submit the Form DS-260 individually. In the form, the members have to mention their background and the reasons for immigration.

Medical examination and vaccination

The NVC also inform you to complete all the necessary medical examinations and vaccination requirements. Licensed doctors will perform a medical examination of your family members.