First Preference
The First Preference category is reserved for the adult children of U.S. citizens, i.e., those children who are now over the age of 21 and therefore traditionally fell out of the "immediate relative" definition. The adult child must be unmarried. As with all the family‑based categories, there is typically a backlog since there are more applicants than visas available under the annual allocations. Currently applicants from most countries have waited nearly five years for a visa number to become available in this category. Applicants from Mexico and the Philippines have faced an even longer backlog. Unless Congress increases the annual limit of 226,000 immigrant visas for family‑based categories, it seems likely these backlogs will continue to increase. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) allows some children to still be considered under the Second Preference category even if they turned age twenty‑one before their cases were completed.
Family First Preference