F4 Immigrant Visa: Eligibility, Wait Times, and Costs

The F4 visa for siblings of U.S. citizens is the family-based green card category that lets an adult U.S. citizen sponsor a brother or sister for lawful permanent residence. Federal law caps this category at 65,000 visas per year, and demand vastly exceeds that supply, so wait times currently run from about 18 years for most countries to roughly 25 years for beneficiaries born in Mexico.¹ The process itself is straightforward on paper. The waiting is what makes it hard, and small mistakes made early can undo years of patience.

Who Can File and Who Counts as a Sibling

The petitioner must be a U.S. citizen and at least 21 years old. Lawful permanent residents cannot sponsor siblings at all.² The sibling being petitioned for can be married or single and can live anywhere in the world.

Immigration law recognizes several kinds of sibling relationships:

Full siblings who share both parents.
Half-siblings who share one parent.³
Step-siblings, if the parents married each other before both children turned 18.⁴
Adopted siblings, if the adoption was finalized before the child turned 16. That age moves to 18 if the child is the biological sibling of another child already adopted under 16 by the same parents.⁵

The sibling’s spouse and unmarried children under 21 can come along as derivative beneficiaries on the same petition, so no separate I-130 is needed for them.⁶

Proving You Are Siblings

Birth certificates showing at least one shared parent are the primary evidence. Half-siblings need certificates that establish the shared parent. Step-siblings must add the parents’ marriage certificate plus proof that any earlier marriages ended, such as a death certificate or divorce decree. Adopted siblings need a certified copy of the final adoption decree.

Where birth records don’t exist or aren’t reliable, USCIS accepts secondary evidence like school records, medical records, and religious documents created around the time of the event. Sworn statements from people with firsthand knowledge can round out the file.⁷

If the paper trail still falls short, USCIS may suggest DNA testing. For sibling-to-sibling DNA, the result must show at least a 90 percent probability of the claimed relationship to count as strong evidence. A lower result doesn’t prove the relationship is false; it just means the DNA alone is inconclusive, and USCIS weighs it alongside everything else in the file.⁷ Testing through an AABB-accredited laboratory typically costs $245 to $625. Any document not in English needs a certified translation, generally $25 to $40 per page.

Filing Form I-130

The case starts when the U.S. citizen files Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with USCIS.⁸ You can mail a paper petition to the designated USCIS lockbox or file online. Fees differ between the two options and change periodically, so check the current schedule at uscis.gov before you submit.

USCIS will mail back a receipt notice with a case number you can use to track progress. Approval of the I-130 means USCIS has accepted the sibling relationship as genuine. It does not give your sibling any status, any right to enter the country, or any right to work. Siblings are not “immediate relatives” under immigration law, so nothing else happens until a visa number becomes available under the annual F4 cap.⁸

How Long the Wait Is

Every approved F4 petition gets a priority date, which is simply the date USCIS received the I-130.⁹ That date is your sibling’s place in line. The Department of State publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin showing how far the line has moved. Two charts matter: Dates for Filing (when you can start submitting paperwork to the National Visa Center) and Final Action Dates (when a visa can actually be issued).

Wait length depends on the beneficiary’s country of birth, called chargeability. The April 2026 Visa Bulletin lists these Final Action Dates for F4:

Worldwide (most countries): June 2008, roughly an 18-year wait.
India: November 2006, roughly a 19-year wait.
Philippines: March 2005, roughly a 21-year wait.
Mexico: April 2001, roughly a 25-year wait.¹⁰

These dates shift each month, sometimes forward and occasionally backward. Watching the bulletin is the only reliable way to know when your case is close.

Cross-Chargeability Can Shorten the Wait

If the beneficiary was born in a heavily backlogged country but their spouse was born somewhere with a shorter line, the case can sometimes be charged to the spouse’s country instead. A beneficiary born in the Philippines with a spouse born in Canada, for example, could potentially move to the worldwide queue, cutting years off the wait. Both spouses must enter the United States together for cross-chargeability to work.¹¹ It is one of the most underused tools in the F4 category and worth raising with an immigration attorney if it might apply.

Protecting Children Who May Age Out

Because F4 waits routinely stretch beyond 15 years, children listed as derivatives often turn 21 or marry before their visa number arrives. Either event normally strips derivative status. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) can preserve it, but the math has to work.

The formula: take the child’s biological age on the date a visa number becomes available, then subtract the days the I-130 was pending before approval. The result is the CSPA age. If it is under 21 and the child is still unmarried, the child stays protected.¹²

An example. A child is 19 years and 6 months old when the priority date becomes current, and the I-130 was pending for 2 years before approval. Subtracting 2 years gives a CSPA age of 17 years and 6 months. That child is protected. If the petition had been approved in 6 months, the CSPA age would be 19 years, still fine. The subtraction only helps when the petition itself took a long time.

For families whose children were young when the petition was filed, even a generous CSPA subtraction rarely overcomes a 20-year F4 wait. Talking to an immigration attorney early about backup options is often the difference between a child immigrating with the family and being left behind.

Keeping the Case Alive During the Wait

Two decades is long enough for lives to change several times. Petitioners should update USCIS whenever they move. A petitioner who has already filed an affidavit of support for someone must file Form I-865 within 30 days of any move.¹³ Once the case has moved to the Department of State, address changes for the beneficiary go to the National Visa Center rather than USCIS.

Naturalization by the petitioner is not a problem, since F4 already requires citizenship. Loss of citizenship, though, would kill the petition. Beneficiaries should also gather refreshed civil documents as the interview approaches, since police certificates and other records issued many years earlier may need to be replaced.

Finishing the Green Card: Two Paths

When a visa number becomes available, the beneficiary takes one of two paths depending on where they are living.

Beneficiaries abroad go through consular processing. The National Visa Center collects fees and documents, the beneficiary completes Form DS-260 online, and eventually a consular officer conducts an interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.¹⁴ Each applicant pays a $325 immigrant visa processing fee, plus a $120 affidavit of support review fee, so a family of four pays $325 four times plus one $120 charge.¹⁵ Applicants 15 and older need a medical exam by a panel physician, and those 16 and older need police certificates from any country where they have lived long enough to require one. An approved visa is stamped in the passport, valid for six months of travel. On admission at a U.S. port of entry, the beneficiary becomes a lawful permanent resident, and the physical green card arrives in the mail weeks later.

Beneficiaries already inside the United States can instead file Form I-485 to adjust status without leaving. Family preference applicants must have continuously maintained lawful status.¹⁶ Overstaying a visa or working without authorization generally bars adjustment, with one narrow exception under INA section 245(i) that requires a qualifying petition to have been filed on or before April 30, 2001.

The Affidavit of Support and 2026 Income Requirements

The petitioner must file Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, committing to maintain the incoming family at 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. For 2026 in the 48 contiguous states, that means household income of at least $27,050 for a household of two or $41,250 for a household of four, with roughly $7,100 added per additional member.¹⁷ Household size includes the petitioner, dependents, anyone previously sponsored, and the people now being sponsored.

If the petitioner’s income is short, a joint sponsor can file their own I-864. The joint sponsor must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, at least 18, living in the United States, and must meet the income threshold for their own household plus the immigrants they are co-sponsoring.¹⁸ The affidavit is a legally enforceable contract that lasts until the sponsored immigrant naturalizes, earns 40 qualifying quarters of Social Security work credits, permanently leaves the country, or dies.

If the Petitioner Dies Before the Case Finishes

A petitioner’s death does not automatically end the case, but the path depends on where the beneficiary lives.

Under section 204(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the petition can continue if at least one beneficiary was residing in the United States when the petitioner died and continues to reside there. “Residing” means primary home; routine travel does not break it.¹⁹ When one beneficiary qualifies, others on the same petition can benefit as well. The beneficiary submits the petitioner’s death certificate, the I-130 approval notice, and proof of U.S. residence, and a substitute sponsor files a new I-864. That sponsor must be a qualifying relative of the beneficiary who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, 18 or older, and living in the United States.¹⁸

If the beneficiary was abroad when the petitioner died, section 204(l) generally does not apply. Instead, the beneficiary can ask USCIS for humanitarian reinstatement. Reinstatement is discretionary and decided case by case, weighing the impact on family in the U.S., the beneficiary’s age and health, government processing delays, and ties to the home country. Given how much time an F4 case represents, filing this request quickly and with strong supporting evidence matters.

What It All Costs

The total cost of an F4 case is more than the initial filing fee. For a single beneficiary with no derivatives, budget for:

Form I-130 filing fee, at the current rate posted on uscis.gov (paper and online rates differ).
National Visa Center immigrant visa processing fee of $325 per applicant.¹⁵
Affidavit of support review fee of $120.
Medical examination, roughly $200 to $500 per person depending on the country and required vaccinations.
Police certificates, which vary by country and may or may not carry a fee.
Certified document translations, about $25 to $40 per page.
USCIS immigrant fee, paid after visa approval and before entry to produce the physical green card.

Add DNA testing at $245 to $625 if relationship evidence needs reinforcement. A spouse and children multiply most of these costs per person. Attorney fees, if you hire one, vary with the complexity of the case, and complexity in an F4 case usually turns on aging-out children, a petitioner’s death, or gaps in the documentary record rather than on the petition itself.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Bringing Siblings to Live in the United States as Permanent Residents
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part B Chapter 2 – General Eligibility Requirements
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Immigration, Adoption, and Citizenship for Stepchildren of US Citizens and LPRs
5
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 502.3 – Adopted Child Classification
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. DNA Evidence of Sibling Relationships
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Visa Availability and Priority Dates
10
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for April 2026
11
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 503.2 – Chargeability
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How to Change Your Address
14
U.S. Department of State. Consular Electronic Application Center
15
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence
17
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Affidavit of Support
19
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Basic Eligibility for Section 204(l) Relief for Surviving Relatives