Brooklyn Immigration Lawyer: Family-Based Green Cards in NYC

Last Updated on: 11th October 2025, 11:05 am

Brooklyn Immigration Lawyer: Family-Based Green Cards in NYC

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation immigration law firm managed by Todd Spodek – with over 40 years of combined experience handling family-based green card cases. Todd grew up in Brooklyn working for his father’s law firm – learning immigration law from the ground up before attending Northeastern University and Pace Law School. You might know us from the Anna Delvey case that became a Netflix series, or our representation in the Ghislaine Maxwell juror matter. You’re trying to bring your spouse, parent, child, or sibling to the United States – and you need to understand how long it takes, what USCIS requires, and how to avoid mistakes that cause denials. This article covers family green card processing times in 2025, income requirements, interview preparation, and common problems we see in Brooklyn cases.

I-130 Processing Times Depend On Your Relationship and Country

Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens – spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents – don’t face annual visa caps. Processing times in 2025 run about 14.8 months for USCIS to approve the I-130 petition for immediate relatives. If your spouse is already in the United States on valid nonimmigrant status – you can file the I-130 and I-485 adjustment of status concurrently, which takes about 9.2 months total to get the green card.

Other family relationships face preference category backlogs with annual visa limits. F2A category covers spouses and unmarried children under 21 of green card holders – processing times run 55 to 89 months currently. F4 category for siblings of U.S. citizens takes 56 to 121 months depending on the beneficiary’s country of origin.

Country of birth matters because each country is capped at 7% of total annual family visa issuance. If you’re sponsoring a sibling from the Philippines, China, India, or Mexico – expect decades of waiting because demand from these countries exceeds the annual cap. If you’re sponsoring someone from a smaller country with less demand – wait times are shorter even in the same preference category.

The Visa Bulletin published monthly by the State Department shows which priority dates are current. Your priority date is the date USCIS received your I-130 petition – and you can’t file for adjustment of status or schedule your consular interview until your priority date becomes current. Some months the dates move forward, other months they retrogress backwards, and sometimes they don’t move at all for years.

Affidavit of Support Requires 125% of Poverty Level Income

Every family-based green card requires an Affidavit of Support on Form I-864 – where the U.S. citizen or green card holder sponsor promises to financially support the immigrant and prevent them from becoming a public charge. The 2025 poverty guidelines require sponsors to earn at least 125% of the federal poverty level for their household size.

For a two-person household in 2025 – that’s $26,437 annual income. A family of four requires $40,187. Active duty military sponsors only need 100% of poverty level instead of 125%. Alaska and Hawaii have higher thresholds due to cost of living – $50,237 for a family of four in Alaska, $46,225 in Hawaii.

If you don’t earn enough – you have three options. Get a joint sponsor who meets the income requirement independently and files a separate I-864. Use income and assets of household members who lived with you for 6 months or are your dependents on tax returns – they file Form I-864A. Or count the cash value of your assets – USCIS allows you to count 1/5 of asset value toward the income requirement ($5 in assets counts as $1 in annual income).

Joint sponsors must meet the income requirement on their own – you can’t combine your income with the joint sponsor’s income to reach the threshold. The joint sponsor must be a U.S. citizen or green card holder, must be at least 18 years old, and must domicile in the United States. Many people ask a parent, adult sibling, or close friend to serve as joint sponsor when their own income falls short.

Tax returns are the primary evidence – USCIS wants 3 years of IRS transcripts showing your income history. If you’re self-employed – provide Schedule C showing net profit. If you have a job offer for the immigrant you’re sponsoring – you can count their future income toward the requirement if they’ll be working in the same household.

Marriage Green Card Interviews Focus On Proving Your Relationship Is Real

USCIS schedules interviews for marriage-based green cards 4 to 6 weeks before the date – sending you a notice with the time and location. Both spouses must attend, interviews typically last 15 to 30 minutes, and the officer’s goal is determining whether your marriage is bona fide or a sham entered into for immigration benefits.

They ask about your daily life – who wakes up first, what you eat for breakfast, whose side of the bed you sleep on, what color are the kitchen walls, where do you keep the towels. They ask about your relationship history – where you met, who proposed, where you got married, who attended the wedding. They ask about finances – who pays which bills, do you have joint bank accounts, whose name is on the lease, do you file taxes jointly.

Officers sometimes separate spouses and compare answers. If you say you sleep on the left side and your spouse says you sleep on the right – that’s a problem. If you say you have two bedrooms and your spouse says one bedroom – that’s a bigger problem. Inconsistencies on major facts suggest you don’t actually live together or know each other well.

Bring organized documentation proving your bona fide marriage – joint bank statements from throughout the relationship, joint lease or mortgage with both names, joint utility bills, car insurance with both names, health insurance listing your spouse, tax returns filed jointly, photos together at family events and vacations with dates and locations labeled, affidavits from family and friends who know you as a couple.

Red flags that trigger fraud investigations – living at different addresses without explanation, getting married shortly after the U.S. spouse filed for divorce from someone else, large age gaps over 20 years, inability to communicate because neither speaks the other’s language, meeting online and marrying during the first visit, no joint financial accounts or documentation, minimal photos together outside the wedding day.

Some red flags are legitimate and don’t mean fraud – but you need to explain them. If you live separately because of work in different cities – show evidence of frequent visits, phone records, travel receipts. If you met online – document the relationship timeline with messages, video calls, visits before marriage. If there’s a language barrier – show you’re taking classes to learn each other’s language or that you communicate through family members who translate.

Common Mistakes That Cause Family Green Card Denials

Insufficient income documentation kills many cases. Sponsors submit only one year of tax returns when USCIS wants three years. Self-employed sponsors don’t provide Schedule C or business financial statements. Joint sponsors don’t file separate I-864 forms with their own supporting documents. Household members don’t complete Form I-864A properly or don’t meet the 6-month cohabitation requirement.

Missing documents delay or derail cases – birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees from prior marriages, police certificates from every country where the beneficiary lived 6 months or more since age 16. Some countries don’t issue certain documents – when that happens you need a statement from the relevant government authority explaining the document doesn’t exist, plus secondary evidence like church records or affidavits.

Criminal history that wasn’t disclosed causes problems. People think old misdemeanors don’t count or that expunged convictions don’t need to be reported – wrong. USCIS runs FBI background checks and they find everything. If you lied on your application about criminal history – that’s fraud and grounds for permanent inadmissibility.

Prior immigration violations create bars to adjustment of status. If you entered without inspection – you typically can’t adjust status inside the United States unless you qualify for 245(i) based on a petition filed before April 30, 2001. If you overstayed a prior visa by more than 180 days – you face 3-year or 10-year bars. If you worked without authorization – that can make you inadmissible depending on the circumstances.

Why You Need A Brooklyn Immigration Attorney for Family Green Cards

Family green card cases seem straightforward – but small mistakes cause denials that take years to fix. Our immigration attorneys know how to document income when sponsors are self-employed or have complex tax situations, how to prepare clients for marriage interviews when there are red flags in the relationship, how to overcome inadmissibility issues with waivers, and how to handle appeals when USCIS denies applications.

Our law firm has handled thousands of family-based immigration cases since 1976 – including cases with criminal convictions, prior deportation orders, fraud issues, and appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals. We’ve been featured in major media outlets, like the New York Post, Newsweek, and Bloomberg.

If you’re sponsoring a family member for a green card and you’re worried about income requirements, if you have a marriage interview coming up, if USCIS denied your petition or issued a Request for Evidence – contact our immigration attorneys. We’re available 24/7 at our offices throughout NYC and Long Island.