Who can be included in my EB-5 application as my dependent children?

All the children can come in. However, there will be questions on the children and be ready to explain them. Under no circumstances should there be any misrepresentation about this issue.

In 50 years of practicing immigration law, no one has ever asked me that question before. I know that if you have two wives, for U.S. immigration, you can only sponsor one of them. If your home country allows two wives, then I would think the children of the 2nd wife are considered your legitimate children and you could sponsor them as well. But I must do more research before I can give you a certain answer.

All of your children can be dependents for the EB-5 process based on your EB-5 investment.

Only the first marriage is legally recognized for immigration. All the children under 21 should be eligible but you need the consent of the other parent to immigrate.

A spouse and all your biological children under 21 years old and unmarried may be included in the petition. If you have any children due to a marriage with someone other than the biological parent of your children, those children are also included as long as the marriage with their mother occurred before they turned 21 years old.

All of your children who are unmarried and under age 21 may be included as derivatives in your I-526 petition if you have birth certificates showing you are the father. Keep in mind that the U.S. does not acknowledge polygamy.

Only one spouse can be included, but all children can be included if you are their father or stepfather.

All of your minor children should be eligible to being counted as your dependent from both spouses. Under U.S. law, you cannot qualify both spouses. The presumption would be that your first spouse would be your lawful spouse since under U.S. law, you would not be eligible to remarry if you were still married. Your children would have to be unmarried and under the age of 21.

Your spouse and all your kids under 21 can be included as derivative beneficiaries to your processing. Your kids can be from another marriage, stepkids and/or adopted kids. They do not need to be only kids from your current marriage, as long as you have proof of relationship (i.e., birth certificate listing you as the father) and permission from the mother to have them accompany and move with you abroad.

The United States does not acknowledge polygamy. The immigration benefits will be to the investor, his wife and their children as a nuclear family. However, if all your children are registered as your children and can be proven by DNA testing, perhaps they could benefit. This is a hard issue for a U.S. official to grasp, as things are not done this way here.

You should discuss this with a lawyer with whom you have a client-attorney relationship.