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Q: My husband filed an immigrant visa petition for me when he was a Legal Permanent Resident. Now that he has become an American Citizen, will this affect my visa petition?
If the petitioner naturalized (become an American citizen), he may ask the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to change the petitions he filed for family members when he was a lawful permanent resident (LPR) from one category to another. This is called upgrading. For example, a petition for a spouse will be changed/upgraded from F2A to IR1. The petition changes from a preference category with numerical limits to an immediate relative category without numerical limits. The applicant no longer has to wait for her/his priority date to be reached.
The petitioner must inform the National Visa Center (NVC) by sending proof of his/her citizenship (either a copy of the biodata page of the petitioner’s U.S. passport or a copy of the certificate of naturalization) in order to effect the upgrade.
Q: What will happen to our children, who had derivative status under the F2 visa classification?
Upgrading a petition sometimes has consequences. A preference petition for a spouse (F2A) permits derivative status for children. A child is included in his/her parent's F2A petition. However, a child does not have derivative status in an immediate relative (IR) petition. Therefore, the petitioner would need to file separate petitions for each child. If the child is under the age 21 and is unmarried and is the biological child or legal step child of the petitioner, he/she will qualify as an “immediate relative” just like a spouse.
Please visit the following website for more information on petition upgrades: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_2991.html#Upgrading
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