How long can I get a work permit after my brother makes a petition? 10 Answers as of November 30, 2011

For a brother who is a US citizen to petition for you, it will be about 10-12 years before you would be eligible for a green card. You cannot obtain a work permit until you can file for your green card on the basis of your brother's approved petition and that will take about 10-12 years. You would have to remain in valid non immigrant status throughout, which is not going to be possible on a H-2B.

About ten years through a brother I-130 petition.

You will not be eligible for employment authorization until an application for adjustment of status has been filed. An application for adjustment of status cannot be filed cannot be filed until an immigrant visa is available. Unfortunately, the wait for an immigrant visa when the petitioner is a sibling can be 8 years or more. Also, it is important to keep in mind that you will not be able to adjust your status in the United States through your brother unless you remain in a valid non-immigrant status until the immigrant visa comes available. This will be extremely difficult to do. You will likely have to return to your native country while the immigrant visa petition is pending.

Sibling petitions take decades to become current before you can immigrate. Unfortunately, you cannot obtain work authorization until the visa becomes current and you file for permanent residence. In the category for brothers and sisters of a citizen there is a backlog of many years. You can access the visa bulletin here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5603.html Additionally, if you overstay your H-2B visa, you will eventually have to leave the U.S. to process your immigrant visa. If you have been in the U.S. for more than one year and you leave, you will trigger a 10 year bar to reentry and that 10 year bar is only waivable if you have a parent or spouse who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

A visa petition filed by your brother will not give you work permit. You will have to wait for at least 10 years for the visa number to become current and then you file I-485 to adjust your status to permanent resident. Only by that time you can apply for work permit(EAD). You will have to maintain legal status in the US during this long period of time.

Many years usually more than 10.

The employment authorization that you seek has absolutely nothing to do with the visa petition being filed by your sibling. The filing of the visa petition in and of itself confers no rights or benefits, but it does establish USCIS recognition that a particular family relationship does exist, and it does set a priority date or place in the waiting line for immigrant visa availability under the family-based 4th preference, which is currently significantly backlogged for all countries. The I-765 application for employment authorization is an application that you would file in connection with your I-485 application for permanent resident status, when and if you are eligible to file that application when an immigrant visa number becomes available for your priority date. What follows is an explanation of the immigrant visa allocation system: NOTES: EXPLANATION OF THE NUMERICAL CONTROL SYSTEM AND CUT-DATE PROJECTIONS WHAT CAUSES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CUT-OFF DATES? The Visa Office (VO)subdivides the annual preference and foreign state limitations specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) into twelve monthly allotments. The totals of documentarily qualified applicants that have been reported to VO are compared each month with the numbers available for the next regular allotment and numbers are allocated to reported applicants in order of their priority dates, the oldest dates first. - If there are sufficient numbers in a particular category to satisfy all reported documentarily qualified demand, the category is considered "Current." For example, if the Employment Third preference monthly target is 3,000 and there are only 1,000 applicants, the category is considered "Current." - Whenever the total of documentarily qualified applicants in a category exceeds the supply of numbers available for allotment for the particular month, the category is considered to be "oversubscribed" and a visa availability cut-off date is established. The cut-off date is the priority date of the first documentarily qualified applicant who could not be accommodated for a visa number. For example, if the Employment Third preference monthly target is 3,000 and there are 8,000 applicants, a cut-off date would be established so that only 3,000 numbers would be used, and the cut-off date would be the priority date of the 3,001st applicant. Applicants entitled to immigrant status become qualified at their own initiative and convenience and upon the completion of various processing requirements. Therefore, it is extremely important to remember that by no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing cut-off date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, visa allotments are made only on the basis of the total applicants reported qualified each month, and consideration of other variables. Demand for visa numbers can fluctuate from one month to another, with an inevitable impact on cut-off dates. HOW IS THE PER-COUNTRY LIMIT CALCULATED? Section 201 of the INA sets an annual minimum Family-sponsored preference limit of 226,000, while the worldwide annual level for Employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 sets the per-country limit for preference immigrants at 7% of the total annual Family-sponsored and Employment-based preference limits, i.e. a minimum of 25,620. - The annual per-country limitation of 7% is a cap, meaning visa issuances to any single country may not exceed this figure. This limitation is not a quota to which any particular country is entitled, however. The per-country limitation serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the visa numbers by applicants from only a few countries. - INA Section 202(a)(5), added by the American Competitiveness Act in the 21st Century (AC21), removed the per-country limit in any calendar quarter in which overall applicant demand for Employment-based visa numbers is less than the total of such numbers available. In recent years, the application of Section 202(a)(5)has occasionally allowed countries such as China-mainland born and India to utilize large amounts of Employment First and Second preference numbers which would have otherwise gone unused. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON FREQUENTLY MISUNDERSTOOD POINTS Applicants entitled to immigrant status become documentarily qualified at their own initiative and convenience. By no means has every applicant with a priority date earlier than a prevailing cut-off date been processed for final visa action. On the contrary, a significant amount of demand is received each month for applicants who have priority dates which are significantly earlier than the applicable cut-off dates. In addition, fluctuations in demand can cause cut-off date movement to slow, stop, or even retrogress. Retrogression is particularly possible near the end of the fiscal year as visa issuance approaches the annual limitations. Per-country limit: The annual per-country limitation of 7% is a cap which visa issuances to any single country may not exceed. Applicants compete for visas primarily on a worldwide basis. The country limitation serves to avoid monopolization of virtually all the annual limitation by applicants from only a few countries. This limitation is not a quota to which any particular country is entitled, however. Applicability of Section 202(a)(5): INA Section 202(a)(5), added by the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, removed the per-country limit on Employment-based immigrants in any calendar quarter in which applicant demand for numbers in one or more Employment-based preferences is less than the total of such numbers available. In recent years, the application of Section 202(a)(5) has allowed countries such as China - mainland born and India to utilize large amounts of Employment First and Second preference numbers which would have otherwise gone unused. Such numbers are provided strictly in priority date order without regard to the foreign state chargeability, and the same cut-off date applies to any country benefiting from this provision. Applicability of Section 202(e): When visa demand by documentarily qualified applicants from a particular country exceeds the amount of numbers available under the annual numerical limitation, that country is considered to be oversubscribed. Oversubscription may require the establishment of an earlier cut-off date than that which applies to a particular visa category on a worldwide basis. The prorating of numbers for an oversubscribed country follows the same percentages specified for the division of the worldwide annual limitation among the preferences. (Note that visa availability cut-off dates for oversubscribed areas may not be later than worldwide cut-off dates, if any, for the respective preferences.) Furthermore, Section 202(a)(2) reads, "2) Per country levels for family-sponsored and employment-based immigrants. Subject to paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), the total number of immigrant visas made available to natives of any single foreign state or dependent area under subsections (a) and (b) of section 203 in any fiscal year may not exceed seven percent (in the case of a single foreign state) or two percent (in the case of a dependent area) of the total number of such visas made available under such subsections in that fiscal year." The seven percent per-country limit specified in INA 202(a)(2) is considered to be for both Family-sponsored and Employment-based numbers combined. Allocation of visa numbers under Section 202(e) is accomplished as follows: 1. If based on historical patterns or current demand it appears that during a fiscal year number use by aliens chargeable to a particular country will exceed the per-country numerical limit for both the Family and Employment preferences combined.

Count on 8 to 13 years depending on your country of origin.

If your brother is a US citizen and he is filing an FB-4 petition for you, the priority date backlog is about 10 years.

Probably 11-12 years or longer depends on what country he is from. Filing the I-130 does not give your brother the right to remain in the U.S. He will need another non-immigrant status or go home and await his Priority Date to be current.