The result. then. is that we are unnecessarily keeping families apart by excluding minor siblings from the definition of immediate relative. For example. one family in my home State of Wisconsin is truly a textbook example of what is wrong with this law. Effiong and Ekon Okon. both U.S. citizens by birth. requested that their parents. who were living in Nigeria. be admitted as "immediate relatives." The law clearly allows for this. Their father. Leo. had already joined them in Wisconsin. and their mother. Grace. was in possession of a visa. ready to join the rest of her family. However. Grace was unable to join her husband and sons in the United States because their 6yearold daughter.