How to Bring Parents and Children to the USA on IR-5 and IR-2 Visas

Only a US citizen can bring a mother, father, or child to the US on an immediate relative visa, and these visas have no quota backlog. Parents come on an IR-5 visa. Children under 21 come on an IR-2 visa. Both arrive already holding a green card. This article covers who counts as a parent or child under immigration law, how the case moves from the I-130 petition to entry, what changed for sponsors of older parents on September 18, 2026, and what it costs and how long it takes.

Who Can Bring Parents and Children to the US

Everything depends on the petitioner's status. For IR-5 and IR-2 visas, the petitioner has to be a US citizen. A green card holder cannot petition for parents at all, and can only bring children through family preference categories with a wait.

IR (Immediate Relative) visas have no annual quota. All five categories are covered on our page about IR-1, IR-2, IR-3, IR-4, and IR-5 visas. The case still takes more than a year, but that time goes into processing paperwork, not waiting for a priority date in the Visa Bulletin.

Siblings and adult children move through the F1-F4 preference categories. Other paths to the US are covered in our article on 6 legal ways to move to the US.

IR-5 Visa for Parents of a US Citizen

A mother or father of a US citizen gets an IR-5 visa once the citizen turns 21. If the citizen is 20, the family has to wait for the birthday. USCIS will not accept the petition earlier.

Not everyone a person calls "mom" or "dad" counts as a parent for immigration purposes. USCIS looks at the relationship during the petitioner's childhood (USCIS rules for parents):

• Mother - proven by the citizen's birth certificate listing her. If her name changed, USCIS needs a document showing the change.
• Father - if the citizen was born in wedlock, the birth certificate is filed together with the parents' marriage certificate. If the citizen was born out of wedlock, the father needs proof of legitimation before age 18, or proof of a genuine parent-child relationship that existed before the citizen turned 21 and before any marriage - money transfers, school records, letters, photos from that time.
• Stepfather or stepmother - counts only if the marriage to the biological parent happened before the citizen turned 18. A stepfather who entered the picture when the citizen was 19 does not qualify.
• Adoptive parent - qualifies if the adoption happened before age 16, with two years of legal custody and two years living together.

If a child was adopted, the biological parents cannot get a visa through that child unless the adoption has been legally terminated.

USCIS requires a separate petition for each parent. IR-5 has no "plus one" - the mother and father each need their own Form I-130, their own fee, and their own case. A citizen's younger siblings do not travel with the mother either. Once she has her green card, she can file for them herself under the F2A category, which has a wait.

The most common problems here are paperwork mismatches. A mother's birth certificate shows her maiden name. A father's name is spelled differently on the marriage certificate. A document was recently reissued. All of this can be fixed with name-change certificates, archival records, and translations, but it is better to collect them before filing than in response to a request for evidence.

IR-2 Visa for Children Under 21

IR-2 is for the unmarried child of a US citizen who is under 21. The law recognizes a child as:

• a biological child, born in or out of wedlock (the same rules for fathers apply as above);
• a stepchild, if the parent's marriage to the citizen happened before the child turned 18;
• an adopted child, if the adoption happened before age 16, with two years of legal custody and two years living together.

If the citizen's marriage to the child's parent is less than two years old on the date the visa is issued, a stepchild gets a CR-2 visa instead of IR-2 - a conditional green card valid for 2 years, just like the CR-1 visa for the parent. The conditions are later removed with Form I-751. Spouse visas are covered in detail in our article on CR-1 and IR-1 visas.

A spouse's children are not automatically covered by the petition for the spouse. The citizen has to file a separate I-130 for each child, or the interview will reveal that the child was never part of the case at all.

Before filing, check whether the child is already a citizen. A child of a US citizen born abroad may already have citizenship at birth, and needs a US passport rather than a visa. And a child under 18 who enters on a green card and lives with a citizen parent becomes a citizen automatically - no I-864 is required for that child.

What Happens When a Child Turns 21

For children of US citizens, age is "frozen" on the date the I-130 is filed. That is how the Child Status Protection Act works. If the petition was filed when the child was 20 and the visa arrives at 22, the child stays in the IR-2 category. If the petition is filed the day after the 21st birthday, it moves straight into the F1 category, which has a wait. The rule is simple - file before the child turns 21.

Marriage works differently. If the child marries before entering the US, the protection disappears and the case moves into the F3 category for married children of citizens, where the wait runs past 10 years. It is better to wait on the wedding until after the green card.

How the Process Works - From I-130 to Entry

Every applicant needs a medical exam, at any age, and only with a doctor the embassy has approved. Police certificates are valid for 2 years from the date of issue, and the originals go to the interview. If the applicant does not apply for the visa within a year after NVC notifies them it is available, the State Department stops the petition's registration.

The interview takes place in the country where the applicant lives, at the US embassy or consulate handling immigrant visas there. Check the State Department's list of posts before you apply.

An immigrant visa is valid for up to 6 months. After entry, the parent or child is a permanent resident right away, can work immediately, and the physical card arrives by mail. Parents on IR-5 and children on IR-2 get a regular 10-year green card - there are no conditions to remove.

Sponsor, Income, and Public Charge - the Big Change for 2026

The citizen who filed the petition has to sign an affidavit of support, Form I-864. Income has to be at or above 125% of the federal poverty guidelines for the whole household, including the relatives being sponsored. For how to calculate income and complete the form, see our I-864 guide.

Alaska and Hawaii use higher numbers - see the I-864P page. Say a citizen lives with a spouse and one child and is sponsoring both parents. That is a household of 5, so the income has to start at $48,350. If it falls short, a joint sponsor can add their own income, a co-resident relative's income can count through Form I-864A, or assets can fill the gap.

Starting October 1, 2026, USCIS accepts only the new I-864 edition dated August 24, 2026 (08/24/26 on the form).

A new public charge rule took effect on September 18, 2026. Before, a sufficient I-864 was almost enough on its own to answer the question of whether someone would depend on public benefits. The form is still required, but now the officer decides how much weight to give it. They look at age, health, family, money and assets, and education, and for people who are no longer working because of age, retirement income, savings, and the ability to pay for medical care become the deciding factors (the rule in the Federal Register).

USCIS itself gives an example. A 70-year-old mother with no job and no insurance, with a serious diagnosis found at the medical exam, lives with her citizen son, who already has three dependents. The son filed a sufficient I-864, but the officer still concludes the mother is likely to become a public charge, because there is no visible money for her treatment.

For older parents, this changes what to prepare. Health insurance, a pension, personal savings, and health records now count alongside the son's or daughter's income. The State Department looks at the same factors during the interview, and on a pilot basis asks a small number of applicants to post a public charge bond.

There is no separate requirement to carry health insurance for the visa. The 2019 proclamation that introduced one was revoked in 2021, and there is no new one as of September 2026.

Timeline and Costs in 2026

According to USCIS data for April through June 2026, the median processing time for an I-130 for an immediate relative is 13 months. That figure covers spouses, children, and parents together, and it is not a promise. After that comes NVC processing, fees, documents, and the wait for an interview slot at a specific post, so the whole path usually runs well past a year.

Government fees per person:

Figures are from USCIS fee schedule G-1055 and State Department rates for September 2026. For two parents, the petition fee, the visa fee, and the Immigrant Fee are each paid twice. Add translations and apostilles, certificates, and flights, and after the move, health insurance - a private policy in the US is expensive for people over 60.

If Parents or Children Are Already in the US

A parent or child who entered the US legally, for example on a B-2 visitor visa, technically does not have to leave for the interview and can adjust status inside the country instead. The citizen files I-130, and the relative files I-485 ($1,440 by mail, $1,390 online) with a medical exam on Form I-693, at the same time. For immediate relatives of citizens, an expired visa alone does not close off this path, as long as the entry itself was legal.

But since May 2026 this path carries real risk. USCIS memo PM-602-0199 treats adjustment of status as a discretionary measure, not a substitute for consular processing, and openly counts it against an applicant who entered on a nonimmigrant visa and stayed. Consular officers, for their part, watch closely for behavior inconsistent with the visa in the first 90 days after entry.

Inviting parents to visit with a plan to file for a green card right away is a poor strategy. If they are already in the US, the decision to stay or go home for the interview is better made before filing, based on how and when they entered.

2026 Restrictions - Check If They Apply to You

Between January 21 and August 21, 2026, the State Department paused immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries. IR-5 and IR-2 visas were not exempt. A court lifted the pause on August 21, but on September 10 the government filed an appeal and asked the court to stay that decision. Check the State Department's page before you file.

Separately, Presidential Proclamation 10998 has been in effect since January 1, 2026. It restricts entry for nationals of 39 countries and no longer carries the earlier exemption for children and parents of US citizens. Check whether your country of citizenship is on the list before you apply.