Good day, I have been here since April 2003 on a B-2 Visa. My parents became citizens in January 2009. I turn 21 in November 2009.

I have filed an I-130 since May 2005 which has been approved, however, I did not receive the approval package. My file was sent to the National Visa Center and I was told to do an Affidavit of Support and an application for visa (DS 230).

I would like to be interviewed in the United States (US), what are my options now?

Thanks in advance.

- G.A.

You have only one option: your parents need to immediately file to adjust your status to a permanent resident. You are an immediate relative and younger than 21.

If the application to adjust your status is received by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after you turn 21, you will have to wait at least seven years to receive a green card.

I would re-file the I-130 that was done in 2005 along with the entire adjustment of status package. I would not depend on the I-130 that was approved from 2005 just in case your file has been closed.

You do not have time since you will be 21 in a couple of months. You cannot afford for your package to be rejected by USCIS in the short window of opportunity that you have.

You have to ignore the National Visa Center (NVC), the NVC is for beneficiaries who are outside of the US and will do consular processing, i.e., go to the embassy for their green-card interview.

Do not do the DS 230 or the Affidavit of Support, and do not pay for the visa or the Affidavit of Support. This will be a waste of your money and this will continue the consular processing of your file and generate an appointment at the US Embassy in Kingston.

You have been illegally in the US for more than a year, if you should return to Jamaica for your green-card interview, you will not be allowed back into that country for 10 years. Although you might be otherwise eligible for a green card, the fact that you accrued unlawful presence in the US of more than a year means that you face a mandatory bar of 10 years if you leave the US in your current illegal status.

Illegal aliens

Many Jamaicans believe that they are not illegal aliens in the US because they entered the US with a visa and have overstayed. They somehow believe that only people who entered the US illegally, e.g. those who walked across the border from Mexico are illegal aliens. Anyone who has overstayed their visa is illegal in the country and leaving to pick up a green card outside of the US triggers a mandatory bar to returning.

The only way to overcome the mandatory bar is for the person who files the petition to be granted a hardship waiver. Not every beneficiary qualifies to have a hardship waiver filed in their case, and the granting of such a wavier is extremely difficult. The petitioning person — in this case, your parent — would have to show extreme hardship to themselves if you are not allowed to return to the US.

Please do not hesitate, act immediately to file your adjustment of status - you should have done so immediately upon your parents becoming US citizens.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington is a Jamaican-American attorney who practices law in Florida in the areas of immigration, family, corporate and personal injury law. She is a mediator, arbitrator and special magistrate in Broward County, Florida. Email: info@walkerhuntington.com