Family immigration lawyers in San Diego

Bringing a husband, wife, parent or child to the United States starts with one question. Which family immigration category does your relative fall into? That single answer decides how long you wait for a green card, which forms you file, and whether the case can be finished here in San Diego or has to go through a consulate abroad.

U.S. citizens bringing over a husband, wife, child under 21 or a parent do not wait in line for a visa number at all. You are waiting only on USCIS to adjudicate the petition, which is currently taking between two and seven years depending on which service center receives the filing.

Brothers and sisters are a different matter. That category is currently processing petitions filed in 2011, and 2001 if your sibling was born in Mexico.

It’s the same law and the same forms, but the wait is twenty years apart, and most people have no idea which side of that line they fall on until somebody tells them.

So before you pay for a consultation, it’s worth a call to find out where you stand. Kazmi & Sakata has handled family immigration cases in San Diego since 2004, and we will tell you plainly whether you need us. Call (858) 874-0711.

Which relatives can you actually petition for?

U.S. citizens can file a family immigration petition for a spouse, a child at any age, a parent once the citizen turns 21, and a brother or sister. Green card holders get a shorter list, just a spouse and unmarried children. Anything outside that is not eligible.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws. People ask about all of them, and there’s no petition for any of them. That isn’t a hard case, it’s a category Congress never wrote, so be careful with anyone who offers to file one for you.

Every eligible relationship is filed on the same form, the I-130. What differs is the category it falls under, and that is where the waiting comes from.

• Immediate relative. Your spouse, your child under 21, or your parent if you’re a citizen over 21. No wait for a visa number.
• F1. Your unmarried son or daughter who’s 21 or older.
• F2A. If you hold a green card, your spouse or your child under 21. This is the only preference category moving at anything like a reasonable pace right now.
• F2B. Your unmarried son or daughter over 21, if you hold a green card.
• F3. Your married son or daughter, plus their spouse and kids.
• F4. Your brother or sister. This is the longest wait in the system.

If yours is a marriage case, we go through the mechanics in more detail on our page about marriage petitions for spouses of citizens and permanent residents.

How long is this going to take?

A family based green card takes two things, and they run on separate clocks. USCIS has to approve the I-130 petition, which is taking roughly two to seven years for immediate relatives. Then, if your relative is in a preference category, you wait again for a visa number to become available under the monthly Visa Bulletin.

Below are the dates as they stood in October 2026. Treat them as planning figures rather than guarantees, because the two stages advance independently.

That last row matters most if your family is split between here and Mexico. A brother or sister born in Mexico is waiting on petitions filed in April 2001, which is longer than this firm has existed.

F2A is the exception worth noting. It stands at September 2026 for almost every country, so if you hold a green card and have been waiting to naturalize before filing for your spouse, you may not need to wait at all. Worth confirming before you assume otherwise.

“Highly Professional and very Knowledgeable! Their Commitment skills and Positive energy made great things happen with my Green Card. My Gratitude and Praise for your star Quality work!.”

– Evermore Mushayakarara , family immigration matter

Should you use a K-1 fiance visa?

A K-1 fiance visa is usually the slower route, not the faster one, for couples who are able to marry. It brings your fiance here as a visitor rather than a resident, so you file a whole adjustment package afterward anyway. Marrying first and filing a CR-1 spousal petition usually gets your spouse here with the green card already in hand.

The K-1 appears faster because the first step is faster. Add the consular stage, then the adjustment, and you are twelve to eighteen months in with more still ahead. Government filing fees across the full K-1 route now exceed $3,270.

A CR-1 takes longer to approve. But your spouse arrives as a permanent resident rather than in temporary status, with a work permit application and another $1,440 still to pay.

A K-1 followed by an adjustment generates more fees for this firm than a CR-1 does. We will still tell you to marry abroad when that is the better route. The K-1 earns its place when you can’t legally marry in your fiance’s country, or when you can’t travel, and in those cases we’ll file it.

Both routes are laid out side by side on our page about K-1 fiance and K-3 spousal visas.

Can you finish this without leaving the country?

A relative already in the United States who entered lawfully can usually finish a family green card case here, through adjustment of status. A relative abroad finishes at a consulate. Since May 2026 that choice carries more weight, because USCIS now treats adjustment as a discretionary favor rather than a formality.

The memo is PM-602-0199, issued in May 2026. It tells officers to weigh your whole record even when you meet every requirement on paper. How long you’ve been here, whether you’ve filed your taxes, what you’ve built. None of that gets assumed anymore, so it has to go into the file.

Going through a consulate avoids that review, but it means leaving. If your relative has built up unlawful presence, leaving is the thing that triggers a three or ten year bar. For families here that usually means Ciudad Juarez, which is a short flight and a long wait.

One further point, because most of what you will read online on this is out of date. Immigrant visa processing was suspended worldwide on August 21, 2026 while consular officers were trained on the new public charge rules, and resumed on September 10.

We walk through both paths on our page covering adjustment of status and consulate processing.

How much does your sponsor need to earn?

Your sponsor signs Form I-864 and has to show income at 125 percent of the federal poverty line for the household size. For two people that’s $27,050 under the figures effective March 2026. If your sponsor is active-duty military sponsoring a spouse or child, the lower 100 percent figure applies instead.

Count the household carefully, because people get this wrong constantly. It’s the sponsor, their dependents, the relative you’re bringing over, and anybody they’ve already sponsored who still has an obligation attached. Four people need $41,250. Five need $48,350.

Falling short is not disqualifying on its own. Assets can make up the difference, and a joint sponsor can sign a second affidavit alongside them.

One recent change is worth knowing about. The version of Form I-864 dated 08/24/2026 added language letting USCIS and the State Department pull your sponsor’s credit report and credit score. If they froze their credit after a data breach, as many people have, that freeze alone can delay your case or prompt a request for evidence. Ask them to lift it before you file.

“highly recommended. Sakata help us with our difficult 485/601 approval. Very professional. Most important he is very responsive, which helps a lot during stressful time.” – Zhengyu Ouyang, family case handled with Japanese language support

Will you have to go to an interview?

Nearly every family green card applicant now attends a USCIS interview. The agency brought interviews back across almost all family cases during 2026, and reported waiver rates have fallen under ten percent. If your case is marriage based, plan on both spouses appearing in person at a field office.

Nerves are not what decides the outcome. The officer is establishing that your marriage is genuine, and most couples who actually live together come through it without difficulty. Bring the documentary record of that life. The lease with both names on it, joint bank statements, the insurance card, photographs spanning more than the wedding, and mail addressed to both of you at the same residence.

Your social media is reviewed before the appointment. The problem is almost never anything scandalous. It’s a check-in from a city you said you weren’t in, or a relationship status nobody updated.

Should your accounts differ, the officer may interview each of you separately and ask the same questions about the same ordinary day. Which side of the bed, whose alarm goes off first, what’s in the fridge. That’s called a Stokes interview. Uncomfortable, but survivable, and considerably easier if you knew it was a possibility.

What usually goes wrong

Most family petition denials come from a short list of problems, and almost all of them are visible before you file. How your relative entered the country, what your sponsor actually earns, how much relationship evidence you kept, and whether anybody travelled at the wrong moment.

Roughly in order of how much damage they do.

• Your relative entered without inspection and you assume adjustment of status is still available. Usually it is not, and the remedy is complicated.
• Travelling on advance parole. In August 2026 the Board of Immigration Appeals overruled thirteen years of precedent, so if your relative built-up unlawful presence before getting status, leaving on advance parole can now trigger the bar.
• Miscounting the sponsor’s household size.
• Marrying abroad while a K-1 petition is still pending, which converts it into a spousal case and resets much of the work.
• Assembling relationship evidence the week before the interview instead of keeping it as it accumulates.
• Administrative processing at the consulate under section 221(g), which adds three to six months and cannot be expedited.
• Filing under the wrong preference category. Correctable, but in some situations it costs you the priority date.

Some of you don’t need a lawyer for this. If you’re a citizen, your relative entered lawfully, you’ve got one sponsor earning well over the threshold and nobody has any immigration history, you can file it yourself. Many people do, successfully. We would rather tell you that on a consultation call than charge you for work that did not need doing.

“Mr. Kazmi is an excellent and experienced attorney! I highly recommend him for any and all immigration needs.” –Sara Masood

Family visa cases we handle

These are the family immigration matters this San Diego office handles most often. Every file is reviewed before anything is submitted, because the right approach depends on your facts.

• Marriage based green cards. marriage petitions for spouses of citizens and permanent residents, whether you’re adjusting here or going through a consulate.
• Fiance and spousal visas. K-1 fiance and K-3 spousal visas, including which of the two actually suits you.
• Parents, children and siblings, including cases where a child is at risk of ageing out of a category while the petition sits.
• Cases with history behind them. Overstays, an earlier denial, time out of status, and the waivers that sometimes answer them.
• Requests for evidence. If USCIS has sent you one, the response has to answer what they asked rather than everything you have, and it has to be in on time.
• Adjustment and consular work. adjustment of status and consulate processing from start to finish, including the cases that end up at Ciudad Juarez.
• What comes next. Taking the conditions off a two year card, and naturalization once you’re eligible.
• When a family case isn’t your best route. Sometimes permanent residency through employment is.

A full list of practice areas is on our all immigration services page.

Why families in San Diego Trust us for Family Immigration Law

Harun Kazmi and Clifford Sakata started this firm in 2004 and have worked in immigration and nationality law in San Diego for more than twenty years. Immigration is all we do, rather than one department sitting inside a general practice.

Kazmi holds a J.D. cum laude from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and an LL.M. in international law, and has practiced in California since 2000. Sakata served as a judicial law intern with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which is the agency that runs the immigration courts, and speaks fluent Japanese. Both are members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Households split across the border, and sailors at Naval Base San Diego bringing back a spouse they met overseas, are both routine here. The reduced military income threshold applies to many of those service members, and it is rarely mentioned to them.

Full backgrounds for Harun Kazmi and Clifford Sakata are on their profiles, and families who have been with us for years can be found in what clients say.

Talk to a San Diego family immigration attorney

If you’re not sure which category you’re in, start there. One phone call settles it, and it costs considerably less than one wrong filing.

Kazmi & Sakata Attorneys at Law, 4909 Murphy Canyon Rd. Suite 400, San Diego, CA 92123. Call (858) 874-0711.

You can also schedule a consultation online, or read about consulate processing and temporary work visas if your situation may not be a family case at all.

We can assist with document preparation for: