Can I petition for my dad if I am not married? 12 Answers as of October 26, 2011

What you are referring to is not petitioning. Your dad is applying for cancellation of removal. This may be based on your hardship as his child. But if you are married there will be no hardship presumed.

You can only petition for a parent if you are a U.S. citizen child over the age of 21. Your marital status does not affect your ability to petition your parent.

You cannot petition your father if you are under 21. He might be eligible for cancellation of removal if he has lives here over 10 years. If your father does not understand the attorney or the attorney appears not to know the law, seek the opinion of another lawyer before damage is done.

You can't because you are green card owner. You have to be a citizen and 21 years older. There will be other factors that affect approval of your petition. You may need a lawyer to help you if this case is beyond you.

You cannot file a petition on behalf of a parent unless you are a U.S. citizen and 21 years and older. However, if your father is currently in immigration court proceedings and has been residing in the U.S. for a continued period of 10 years, he might be eligible for a relief in the form of Cancellation of Removal.

You can't petition for him while you're a permanent resident married or not.

There is serious confusion here. You cannot file for your father at all. There is no category for the parent of a Permanent Resident. FB2A is for spouse and minor child of an LPR; FB2B is for adult unmarried child of LPR. He is neither.

If what you are saying is correct, then I think your lawyer is confused and you should ask him to look this up or change lawyers. If you are not a US citizen, you cannot petition (meaning file an I-130 petition) for your father that would allow your father to ask the immigration court to terminate removal proceedings and then file his I-485 application for adjustment of status. If you are a US citizen, it does not matter if you are married or not. However, so long as you are a minor, you cannot petition for your father, even if you were a US citizen.

Unfortunately, it is not clear what method your lawyer was advising you to proceed on, but I will try to explain who can and cannot petition for a parent. You cannot petition for your father until you become a citizen. It does not matter whether you are married or not. The only requirement for a son or daughter to petition for their parent is that the person be a U.S. citizen and over the age of 21. As such, from what you have told me, you cannot petition for your father. However, your father may be eligible for immigration benefits through cancellation of removal. This relief is only available if a person is in removal proceedings and would result in permanent residence if granted. Your father could seek this relief if he has been in the United States for 10 years or more (counting back from the date he was placed in removal proceedings), show he has been a person of good moral character for 10 years, not been convicted of certain criminal offenses, has a qualifying relative, and exceptional and unusual hardship will result in his removal. I do not have enough information to determine whether your father would be eligible to petition for this relief. It is important that you and your father are comfortable with your attorney. If you are second guessing your attorney's advice then you may want to consider retaining new counsel.

You must be 21 to petition for your father and a US citizen. It sounds like there is some confusion or your attorney is committing fraud. I recommend you speak with another attorney immediately. They may not tell you what you want to hear but it is better than spending a lot of money if the person is going to mislead you.