If your spouse or another family member wants to immigrate to the U.S, you have the right to sponsor them via an immigration petition. You can technically sponsor all family – this includes parents, unmarried children, and in some cases stepchildren.  What happens is you apply for your spouse’s visa via the Immigration and Nationality Act, and then it goes to the USCIS. The USCIS, United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, will review the petition and decide whether to approve the visa.

Say you’re just married, your spouse is British, and you already have children. You can sponsor both your spouse and your children, but you’d have to file an I-130 petition for each member. This means you’d have to file this petition more than once.

The visa petition for your spouse or other family members is the first step in getting a green card. Upon marrying, the current U.S permanent resident would sponsor the spouse for a visa. Using the British example, say you just married your spouse, and want her to be able to live in the U.S. In order to do that, you must start the process for your wife by sponsoring her. She cannot do this herself; you have to file a visa petition. In legal terms, you would be the petitioner because you’re sponsoring your spouse, and she would be the beneficiary (which pretty much sums it up: they benefit from the petition).

A visa petition can seem complex, but in most cases sponsoring your spouse for a visa is relatively easy. The best thing you can do is consult legal information like this and hire a professional immigration attorney.

Once you marry, it’s time to file a visa petition for your spouse, or for your spouse to sponsor you if you’re not a resident. You need proof of marriage in order to sponsor or be sponsored. It’s the same with family member. If you just married, proof of a legal marriage is enough. If you’ve been sponsored by your mother for a family based visa, your mother could show your birth certificate as proof of relation. It may seem odd that this proof is needed before the process starts, but really should not be a problem if you’re your completely honest.

The final step can be the most time consuming – you have to wait. Although family members and spouse visas are given priority, you will be put on a waiting list in order to finalize your permanent resident status. The problem is only a certain number of green cards are awarded each year, and you’ll have people ahead of you. However, for a spouse visa, the process is much faster. You are given a priority and you can save months in waiting. It’s the same case if you are sponsoring a child or other immediate relative.