What is the appropriate form to submit?

Question

My mother is a US citizen who wants to submit an application for my grandpa who is in a foreign country. He is old, doesn't work, and only wishes to come to the US for a visit. What application do we need? Who do we submit it to? How long does the process take? What is the fee?

Is the form I-130 from USCIS the appropriate one? Can my mom submit the same application at the same time for a sister or brother? Is there a limit to how many people you can submit this application too?

I would like to do this on my own because we don't have the $ for an attorney. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

To visit the US, if he lives in a visa-waiver nation, all he needs is a passport and he can visit for up to 90 days.

If in a nation that requires a visa, he should apply at a US consulate in his nation for a tourist visa.

Your mother would have to apply to sponsor him as an immigrant.  

Answer 2

the form i-130 is the first form to submit for someone to sponsor a family member to immigrate to the u.s....

if your mom wants to sponsor family members such as her father, siblings and children to immigrate to the u.s., she has to submit the i-130 (one form for each person).  when she submits this, it'll be a wait before uscis approves it.  for your grandpa, it'll be faster for him to come over (i'd say about a year).  i have family members, my brother in law in particular, who sponsored his parents over and they were here in about a year with their greencards.  for your mom's sibblings, it'll take a loooooong time (i''d say about 15-20 years of wait).  your grandpa is an immediate family, but your aunts and uncles are not...they are in the 4th category...check this website as you'll know what i mean by categories:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bullet...

as you scroll down, the first table you see, you'll see on the left column, it tells you a numbered category (your uncles and aunties are here on category 4..scroll up and it'll give you a description of what the categories mean under family). on the right column, it gives you dates.  the dates is when you submit the i-130 and uscis receives it.

if you are from mexico or the philipines, as you can see from the table, it'll take much much longer before the person you're sponsoring gets here..

check back monthly as uscis updates monthly...be aware that each month, the dates don't have to go up nicely..it can stay on a date for a long time or it can go backwards...

but like i said, your grandpa will get his fast...if he is not interested in immigrating, but only visiting, someone in the home country needs to go to the nearest u.s. embassy and get him a visitor's visa stamped on his passport to be able to visit the u.s. for about a couple of months...then they'll need to purchase a ticket to the u.s. and he'll be here visiting.  the same goes with your aunts and uncles who just wishes to visit but not immigrate...

goodluck!