Immigration help

Question

I am in dire need for help. I was living in the States and in the process of getting my permanent residence from my mother who got hers from my brother, who is American. But my mother passed away and never finished the paperwork and the case was closed. I voluntarily left the States for Trinidad and found out that I got banned for several years. I am in Trinidad now and experiencing hardship and I am being harassed. I need to get back to my home and want to know: What steps do I have to take to get my status and documents fixed? Please help. I am in dire need and not got any support in Trinidad.

Answer 1

If your mother hadn't filed an I-130 petition for you, there is nothing you can do. Even if your mother had filed an I-130 petition for you, it would have automatically become void with her death.

If your mother had filed an I-130 petition for you, there is something called INA 204(l) reinstatement, which allows the reinstatement of a petition after the petitioner died, but it requires that at least one beneficiary had been living in the US at the time the petitioner died, and continues to be living in the US now. However, you are no longer living in the US, so you would not qualify for this anyhow.

There is also humanitarian reinstatement, but that requires that the petition have been approved before the death, and is only for rare and special cases with a strong humanitarian factor, so I don't think you qualify for this either.

Alternatively, your brother can also petition you to immigrate. As a sibling of a US citizen, you will be in the F4 category, which according to the latest visa bulletin currently only has visa numbers available for priority dates 14.5 years ago (or even longer ago for people born in India, Mexico, or the Philippines). If your brother files an I-130 now, the priority date will be now (when he files the I-130).