Every family based green card San Antonio households pursue goes through one of two doors, and the door decides the wait. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens walk through a door with no line behind it. Everyone else enters a preference category with an annual cap and a queue measured in years. The statute drawing that line is 8 U.S.C. Section 1151, and it is short enough to read in a minute.
This guide covers who qualifies as an immediate relative, what the preference categories actually deliver, what the current Visa Bulletin shows for Mexico, and the two traps that end otherwise strong cases.
Who Is an Immediate Relative for a Family Based Green Card in San Antonio
Section 1151(b)(2)(A)(i) defines the category as the children, spouses, and parents of a U.S. citizen. One qualifier attaches to parents: the citizen must be at least 21 years old. The preamble to subsection (b) supplies the benefit. Aliens described there are not subject to the worldwide levels or numerical limitations.
“Children” carries a technical meaning. Under the definition at INA Section 101(b)(1), a child is unmarried and under 21. A 22-year-old son of a citizen is not an immediate relative. Neither is a married daughter of any age. Both fall into preference categories instead, and the difference is not procedural. It is measured in years.
The Four Preference Categories and Their Annual Numbers
Section 1153(a) sets the caps. First preference covers unmarried sons and daughters of citizens, at 23,400 visas a year. Second preference gets 114,200 plus any numbers left over above 226,000, with not less than 77 percent allocated to the F2A subcategory — spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents. F2B covers unmarried sons and daughters of residents who are 21 or older. Third preference, married sons and daughters of citizens, also gets 23,400. Fourth preference, brothers and sisters of citizens aged 21 or older, gets 65,000.
Per-country limits sit on top of those caps. That is why the wait for the same category differs so sharply by country of chargeability.
What a Family Based Green Card Applicant in San Antonio Faces on the Visa Bulletin
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin illustrates the gap better than any explanation. For all chargeability areas, the family final action dates read: F1 January 22, 2020; F2A August 22, 2026; F2B August 22, 2019; F3 October 22, 2014; F4 October 22, 2011.
For Mexico, the same categories read: F1 January 1, 2008; F2A August 22, 2025; F2B February 15, 2009; F3 July 1, 2001; F4 April 8, 2001. A Mexican national with an approved F4 sibling petition filed in 2002 is still waiting. That is roughly a quarter of a century, and it is the single most consequential fact for many families in Bexar County.
F2A carries a split. Numbers exempt from the per-country limit reach all countries with priority dates earlier than August 22, 2025. Numbers subject to that limit reach every country except Mexico, for dates from August 22, 2025 to before August 22, 2026.
The Widow and Widower Rule People Still Get Wrong
A surviving spouse of a U.S. citizen may self-petition and remain an immediate relative. Two conditions apply. The surviving spouse must file within two years after the citizen’s death. The benefit then lasts only until that spouse remarries. Legal separation at the time of death disqualifies.
What no longer applies is the old requirement that the couple had been married at least two years when the citizen died. Congress struck that language in 2009. It still appears in a great deal of secondhand guidance, and it is no longer the law.
Turning 21 in Line: How the Child Status Protection Act Works
For an immediate relative, Section 1151(f)(1) freezes the child’s age on the date the petition is filed. A child who turns 22 while the case is pending does not fall out of the category.
Preference cases work differently. Section 1153(h)(1) computes the age at the moment a visa number becomes available, then subtracts the time the petition was pending. That result holds only where the beneficiary sought to acquire permanent residence within one year of availability. One administrative change matters enormously here: since February 2023, USCIS has used the Dates for Filing chart rather than the Final Action Dates chart to determine visa availability for this calculation. The agency also treats that change itself as an extraordinary circumstance that can excuse a late filing.
Adjustment of Status or Consular Processing
Section 1255(a) sets the gate for adjusting status inside the United States. The applicant must have been inspected and admitted, or paroled, with narrow exceptions. An eligible immigrant visa must also be immediately available.
Section 1255(i) once offered a path for people who entered without inspection, and it still does — for a shrinking group. It reaches only beneficiaries of a petition or labor certification filed on or before April 30, 2001, and it requires a $1,000 payment, with exemptions for children under 17 and certain family members. That sunset date has not moved in a quarter century. Everyone outside it processes at a consulate abroad, which is where the next problem starts.
The Unlawful Presence Bars and the Waiver Trap
Section 1182(a)(9)(B) attaches a penalty to departure. Someone who accrued more than 180 days but less than a year of unlawful presence, then left before proceedings began, faces a three-year bar. A year or more triggers a ten-year bar. Leaving for a consular interview is a departure.
A waiver exists at Section 1182(a)(9)(B)(v), and it requires extreme hardship to the applicant’s U.S. citizen or lawfully resident spouse or parent. Note what is missing from that list. A U.S. citizen child is not a qualifying relative for this waiver, no matter how young or how dependent. Families routinely assume otherwise, and the assumption costs cases. The provisional waiver form carries a $795 fee under the current schedule.
Fees, and What Changed in 2026
Under the codified fee schedule at 8 C.F.R. Section 106.2, the I-130 petition costs $675, or $625 filed online. Adjustment of status runs $1,440 for applicants 14 and older, and $950 for children under 14. A standalone employment authorization application is $520, dropping to $260 where filed with an adjustment application after April 1, 2024.
A 2026 interim final rule created new fees tied to asylum filings, including a $100 asylum application fee and a $100 annual fee for each year a case remains pending, neither of them waivable. Those changes did not alter family petition or adjustment fees. Because form editions and fees are revised periodically, confirm both against the agency’s current schedule before filing.
Where a San Antonio Family Based Green Card Case Is Decided
USCIS assigns South and Central Texas to its San Antonio field office, covering Bexar County along with Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. The office schedules adjustment interviews for families in those counties. Consular cases go abroad instead, which is what makes the unlawful presence analysis the first question rather than the last. Our guide to who qualifies as an immediate relative walks the same federal categories from an Arizona vantage point.
The Bottom Line
The immediate relative category is the only part of family immigration that runs on processing time instead of a queue. Everything else runs on a priority date, a per-country limit, and a chart that moves a few weeks a month in a good year. For Mexican nationals in the third and fourth preferences, the current bulletin reflects petitions filed when the beneficiaries’ children were not yet born. The categories cannot be negotiated, but the timing of a filing and the choice between adjusting here and interviewing abroad can be — and those two decisions are where most of the avoidable damage happens.
Frequently asked questions
Under 8 U.S.C. Section 1151(b)(2)(A)(i), the spouse, the unmarried child under 21, or the parent of a U.S. citizen who is at least 21 years old. Immediate relatives are not subject to numerical limits.
The September 2026 Visa Bulletin lists Mexico final action dates of July 1, 2001 for third preference and April 8, 2001 for fourth preference — roughly a quarter century behind the current date.
No. Section 1182(a)(9)(B)(v) requires extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parent. A child does not qualify, regardless of age or dependency.
No. Congress removed that requirement in 2009. A surviving spouse must file the self-petition within two years of the citizen’s death, and the benefit ends on remarriage.
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This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration eligibility, fees, form editions, and Visa Bulletin dates change frequently, and the figures here reflect published sources as of September 2026. Anyone pursuing a family petition should consult a licensed immigration attorney or an accredited representative.
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