Immigration Site

I am US Citizen and my brother is in US on H1B Visa. He is over 21 years and has an approved Labor application.

I plan to sponsor his Green Card and have couple of queries:

1. Whats the average time taken for processing of I 130 ?

2. Can there be two applications for one person? And the impact of doing such?

3. Once the I-130 is approved, does my brother always need to maintain the employment status (given the market situation, there may be potential layoff between jobs) without being concerned about H1B status?

4. During the GC process (Family based), can he travel overseas ? Is there any impact to the application? or any additional processing to be done at the local US Consulate once on travel.


TIA
Rahul

He can have employment and sibling petitions in process at the same time.

Your sibling petition for him does not eliminate the need for him to maintain a valid legal status at all times. If he does not have valid H1B or other status, he must leave until his sibling priority date become current if that is the petition that he intends to use.

He may not become illegally present or work illegally as neither of these is "forgiven" in either a sibling or employer petition.

He may not become illegally present or work illegally as neither of these is "forgiven" in either a sibling or employer petition. Wrong. Both are forgiven in EB cases, but only 180 days or less.

It is quite unlikely that he intends to be illegally present for any but the entire time of the wait otherwise there would have been no need to post the question. Many people assume that any filing grants permission to live during the wait because it is possible in certain specific situations - such as immediate relative and pending extensions. Illegal work will have an impact for future immigration processing so it is a poor choice at any time.