In certain instances the holder of a valid green card (who is not yet a U.S. citizen) may also sponsor a visa application for an overseas spouse or child to come to the U.S. prior to issuance of US Resident Alien status. This is called V status. This law providing for V status was created in part due to the long delays (which can be 5 years or more) from the time of initial application for Resident Alien status, so that the immediate relatives of the green card holder, can come to the US while the application is pending.
In order to qualify for V status, the persons must be married, and children must be born to the US green card holder, adopted before the age of 16, or a stepchild when the marriage to the biological parent took place before the child was 18 years old. A significant caveat to this category is that in order to be eligible for V status, an Immigrant Relative (I-130) Petition must have been filed for the overseas family member(s) on or before December 21, 2000, the I-130 must have been pending for at least 3 years, and the green card is unavailable.
A V status petition is processed by US CIS Regional Service Center and either approved for the family in the US (change of status) or completed at the US Embassy/Consulate abroad where the foreign national resides. It is very important to remember that the 3 and 10 year bars to US reentry can still apply to family members who have spent significant time in the US while out of status.