For more than 30 years, the United States' legal immigration system has prospered thanks to family-based immigration. Family-based immigration has benefited the U.S. economy, both on a local and a national level. Immigrants employ their hard-working skills to boost their personal financial situation while also boosting our domestic economic worth. Under current immigration law in the U.S., citizens or permanent residents are allowed to bring family to the U.S. This policy benefits our country in the following ways:
Families become a social and economic corporation of immigrants. Immigrant families have often acted together as a community—as a cohesive intuition that functions as one. Ethnic families often provide resources for new, incoming immigrants, providing opportunities of employment and financial help. When immigrants arrive as a family, they often have access to resources to help them become self-employed.
Family immigration contributes positively to business development. Families often form their own communities with other immigrants, which becomes a great environment for business growth and development. Studies show that extended and close-knit immigrant families promote the formation of businesses. Many technology firms have been started by foreign-born entrepreneurs.
Immigrants who come over on family-based visa move up more on the economic ladder. Family-based immigration has been associated with lower entry earnings but higher earnings growth than the occupation-based immigrants. Immigrants who come over on family visas have the highest rate of post-immigration financial wealth. This benefits not only the immigrants themselves, but also the U.S. economy as a whole.
Family immigrants tend to have a higher employment and financial growth. Immigrants whose siblings are U.S. citizens have a higher initial earning than family-admitted immigrants in general.
With an attractive means for immigration, the U.S. has benefited its economy by enabling immigrants to bring their families here to join them. Economist Harriet Duleep has said:
“Family visas are…an important complement to high-skilled visas; skilled immigrants have families too. In considering which country to move to, will an emigrating scientist be more likely to move to a country where his family members, including siblings, parents, and adult children, can also live, or to a country where only certain family members are welcome? Would Einstein have continued to live in the U.S. had he not been able to bring over his sister Maja? A family-friendly policy may be one reason the U.S. has been able to attract immigrants with stellar qualifications.”
As one of the most compassionate and empathetic family law and immigration attorneys in Cleveland, I am very passionate about keeping families together, and I hope to help you bring your family over to the U.S.. Family-based immigration is a nuanced process, and most people lots of questions. If there is one burning question, I’d be happy to answer it for you—for free. Use the form below to ask any question, and I’ll reply with an answer!