Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

My husband and I have been together from 2002 and married four years later. He received his green card in 2005 and filed for our son and I in 2007.

We are unable to get any information via the Internet or telephone number which was given to us on the I-797C form about the status of the process.

We have not lived as a family since my husband migrated - except for four to six weeks out of the year during summer.

I am a teacher in Jamaica and am currently on four months' leave, which I have decided to spend in the United States (US) with my husband and son.

How do we go about making a request for us to live in the US and, hence, get a tax ID for our son so he can attend school in that country?

We would like him to attend school during the Christmas term.

Can you please advise us?

- K.J.H.

Dear Mrs K.J.H.,

A permanent resident who petitions for his spouse and minor child has to wait approximately four and a half years before a visa is available to his family.

Such a filing would be placed in the category of spouse and minor child, F2A preference category. For the fiscal year 2009, there were 87,934 visas in the F2A preference category. If all you have received is a receipt notice, Form I-797C, then you should go to www.uscis.gov and go to 'case status online', enter your receipt number and it will tell you what the status of your particular petition is. If it says that it is pending and you will be notified with any updates, you can go to 'visa processing times' to see what dates the service centre that has your petition is currently processing. The service centre information should be on the lower left-hand corner of the receipt notice.

If in addition to the receipt notice you have also received a second notice on Form I-797C approval notice, you would have been assigned a priority date. This date needs to be monitored on the State Department's website www.travel.state.gov/visabulletin monthly. At the approach of your priority date, you will be contacted by the National Visa Center (NVC) and the second phase of the processing of your files will begin.

In the meantime, there is no filing that allows you to legally live in the US until your priority date becomes current and a visa is available for you and your son. If you enrol your son in public school in the US at this time, he will be illegally in the country.

Permanent visa petition

You can apply for a student visa that would allow you to pay to go to school to further your education and be with your husband while the petition is pending. A student visa is a non-immigrant visa and as such you must convince the consular officer in Jamaica that you intend to return to Jamaica at the end of your studies. If your husband is in the US and a permanent visa petition has been filed for you, the consular officer may or may not be convinced that you intend to return to Jamaica at the end of your studies.

Your husband is close to being eligible for US citizenship since he received his green card in 2005, and assuming that he migrated at the same time. He is allowed to file for his US citizenship 90 days before the five-year anniversary of his green card. Once he receives his citizenship, he should attempt to upgrade your file to the immediate relative of a US citizen, and if he did not file a separate petition for your son, he should file one at that time. It should take a little less time for you to be together as a family once your husband becomes a US citizen - depending on exactly when he is eligible for US citizenship.

Whatever you do, please do not overstay in the US because the spouse of a green card holder cannot adjust their status in the US if the petition was filed after April 30, 2001.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises law in Florida in the areas of immigration, family, corporate and personal injury law. She is a mediator, arbitrator and special magistrate in Broward County, Florida. Email: info@walkerhuntington.com