What Is the F2A Visa Category? Eligibility, Petition, and Green Card

The F2A visa category is the family-based second preference classification for the spouses and unmarried children under 21 of lawful permanent residents. It sits within the preference system created by the Immigration and Nationality Act, which means beneficiaries wait for a visa number to become available before they can immigrate or adjust status. Unlike the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, F2A beneficiaries share a capped annual pool of visas and take their place in a line ordered by priority date.

Who Qualifies Under F2A

A green card holder can sponsor two kinds of relatives under F2A: a spouse, and an unmarried child under the age of 21.¹ The word “child” is doing specific work here. An unmarried son or daughter who is 21 or older is not an F2A beneficiary; they belong to a separate, slower category called F2B. A child who marries at any point before receiving the visa drops out of F2A entirely.

Spouses need to show a legally valid marriage under the laws of the place where the ceremony was performed. Same-sex marriages qualify as long as the marriage was legal where it was celebrated.²

Stepchildren qualify when the marriage that created the step-relationship happened before the child turned 18. Adopted children qualify under stricter conditions: the adoption must have been finalized before the child turned 16, and the child must have lived with and been in the legal custody of the adoptive parent for at least two years. A narrow exception allows a child adopted before turning 18 to qualify if they are the biological sibling of another child adopted by the same parents before age 16.³

How the Waiting Line Works

Federal law allocates up to 114,200 visa numbers each year to the entire second preference category, and at least 77 percent of those are reserved for F2A.¹ Demand often outpaces supply, so the Department of State rations numbers through a monthly Visa Bulletin. Every petition receives a priority date, which is the date the I-130 was properly filed. That date is your place in line.

The bulletin publishes two charts. Final Action Dates say when a visa can actually be issued or a green card approved. Dates for Filing let applicants submit paperwork earlier so the case is ready when a number opens. Each month, USCIS announces which chart adjustment applicants should use.⁴ When a category shows as “current,” everyone in it can move forward regardless of priority date. When a cutoff appears, only people with an earlier priority date can proceed.

F2A has run “current” for extended stretches, meaning little to no wait. It has also backed up, particularly for applicants born in Mexico, India, China, and the Philippines. Those countries face additional per-country caps that limit any single nation to roughly 7 percent of available visas.⁵

Filing the I-130 Petition

The process begins when the permanent resident files Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.⁶ The form establishes the qualifying family relationship. A filing fee applies, and the current amount is on the USCIS website.

Two things need proof: the petitioner’s green card status, and the family relationship. A copy of the permanent resident card handles the first. A marriage certificate covers a spouse; a birth certificate showing both parents covers a child. For a stepchild, add the marriage certificate for the marriage that created the step-relationship, along with evidence that the marriage happened before the child’s 18th birthday. Both petitioner and beneficiary supply biographical details including addresses, employment history, and prior marriages. Any document not in English needs a certified translation, with the translator attesting in writing that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent in both languages.⁷

Proving You Can Support the Immigrant

Every F2A case requires Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support. It is a legally binding contract between the sponsor and the U.S. government in which the petitioner promises to maintain the immigrant at an income of at least 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Active-duty military members sponsoring a spouse or minor child only need to hit 100 percent.

For 2026, the 125 percent thresholds for the 48 contiguous states are:⁸

Household of 2: $27,050
Household of 3: $34,150
Household of 4: $41,250
Household of 5: $48,350

Alaska and Hawaii use higher figures. The household count includes the sponsor, the incoming immigrant, and any dependents. If income comes up short, a petitioner can use assets to close the gap, but those assets must equal at least five times the shortfall. A joint sponsor is the other option: a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who signs their own I-864 and takes on the same obligation, with their income and household size evaluated on their own. The obligation continues until the sponsored immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen, earns 40 qualifying quarters of work credit under Social Security, permanently leaves the country, or dies.

The Two Paths to the Green Card

Once the I-130 is approved and a visa number is available, an F2A beneficiary reaches the green card through one of two routes.

Consular Processing Abroad

If the beneficiary is outside the United States, the case moves to the National Visa Center, which collects documents and fees and schedules an interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate. The immigrant visa application fee is $325, with a separate fee for the Affidavit of Support review.⁹ The beneficiary completes the DS-260 online immigrant visa application, has a medical exam with an embassy-approved physician, and gathers police certificates from every country of nationality and any country of residence for more than a year (required at age 16 and older). At the interview, a consular officer verifies the relationship, reviews the evidence, and screens for grounds of inadmissibility such as certain criminal convictions, prior immigration fraud, and health-related concerns. Waivers exist for many of these grounds through Form I-601, but they require showing that a qualifying U.S. citizen or permanent resident relative would suffer extreme hardship if the applicant were denied.

Adjustment of Status Inside the U.S.

An F2A beneficiary already physically present in the United States may be able to get the green card without leaving by filing Form I-485.¹⁰ Eligibility requires that the beneficiary was inspected and admitted or paroled by an immigration officer, has a visa number immediately available at the time of filing and at the final decision, still has the qualifying family relationship, and is admissible or qualifies for a waiver.

F2A applicants hit a wall that immediate relatives of citizens do not: under INA 245(c)(2), you generally cannot adjust status if you are in unlawful immigration status on the filing date, whether because a visa expired, status was revoked, or you entered without inspection.¹¹ A narrow exception under INA 245(i) covers beneficiaries of a visa petition or labor certification filed on or before April 30, 2001, who can adjust regardless of entry, unauthorized work, or lapsed status upon paying an additional penalty fee.¹²

The Unlawful Presence Trap

An F2A beneficiary already in the United States on expired status faces a real danger with consular processing. Unlawful presence of more than 180 days followed by departure triggers an automatic reentry bar: three years for presence between 180 days and one year, and ten years for presence over a year. A waiver exists but is not guaranteed and can take months. Because leaving the country is what activates the bar, anyone in this position should talk to an immigration attorney before boarding a flight for an interview.¹²

Protecting Children Who Are About to Turn 21

A child inching toward their 21st birthday can age out of F2A while waiting. The Child Status Protection Act provides a formula that calculates an immigration age rather than an actual age.¹³ Take the child’s biological age on the date a visa number becomes available, then subtract the number of days the I-130 spent pending before approval. If the result is under 21, the child still counts as a child for F2A purposes even if their real birthday has already passed 21.¹⁴

Two strings attached. First, the child must have “sought to acquire” permanent resident status within one year of the visa becoming available, meaning filing for adjustment or taking concrete steps toward consular processing within that year; missing this can forfeit CSPA protection.¹⁴ Second, the child must stay unmarried. Marriage forfeits F2A regardless of CSPA age. A child who does age out keeps the original priority date when the petition converts to F2B, though F2B usually carries a longer wait.

What Changes If the Sponsor Becomes a U.S. Citizen

When a green card holder petitioner naturalizes while an F2A petition is pending, the petition automatically converts to an immediate relative classification.¹⁵ Immediate relatives have no annual cap and no priority date backlog, so for a spouse or a child under 21, the wait effectively disappears.

One wrinkle affects families with children listed as derivative beneficiaries on a spouse’s petition. When the petitioner naturalizes and the petition converts, derivative children lose their eligibility on that petition, and the new citizen must file a fresh immediate relative petition for each child.¹⁵ Extra paperwork and fees, but no annual cap.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part B Chapter 6 – Spouses
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1101 – Definitions
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1152 – Numerical Limitations on Individual Foreign States
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
7
U.S. Department of State. Information about Translating Foreign Documents
8
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
9
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Family Preference Immigrants
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part B Chapter 3 – Unlawful Immigration Status at Time of Filing
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through INA 245(i) Adjustment
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part B Chapter 2 – General Eligibility Requirements