There are other criteria useful for determining immediate family besides blood and lineage. Some of the more common are:
How Does Immediate Family Work?
The composition of immediate family for a person may vary for different legal or financial purposes. For example, if you have a family member receiving care at the hospital, you may be required by hospital rules to be an immediate family member in order to have visitation privileges. Here are some more of the most common situations where you may encounter an immediate family requirement.
Bereavement
Depending on the terms of your employment, you may be entitled to bereavement days for the death of immediate family members. Human resource departments of companies administer their bereavement leave policies and who constitutes an immediate family member. There are no federal laws governing bereavement days or bereavement leave. If there is an employee handbook, the number of bereavement days provided is usually stated there. If the company is unionized or under a collective bargaining agreement, then bereavement leave is typically covered in that agreement. Many companies will follow the federal government’s guidelines when it comes to defining who is considered an immediate family member. If employees need more time off for bereavement than established in company guidelines, the company may ask them to take sick leave, vacation leave, or, in extreme cases, unpaid leave. This may again hinge on whether or not the deceased is an immediate family member.
Immigration
If you came to the U.S. as a refugee or were granted asylum during the last two years, you may petition for your spouse or your dependent child under the age of 21 to come to the U.S. as a derivative refugee or seeker of asylum. You must have been married to your spouse and the child must have been conceived or born prior to your coming to the U.S. They are considered the only members of your immediate family for immigration purposes.
Family Medical Leave
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that requires employers to grant an eligible employee a total of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period for one of the following five reasons: In the case of family medical leave, the only persons defined as immediate family are the spouse, child, and parents.
Stock Market Transactions
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has specified some areas in which securities brokers and dealers have to be careful when dealing with immediate family. The first is the issuance of initial public offerings (IPOs), particularly those that are “hot” or particularly popular. Immediate family cannot participate in these IPOs or it is considered insider trading. The definition of immediate family by FINRA is much broader than defined by FMLA. Immediate family for the purposes of these types of stock transactions includes just about everyone from spouses, children, and parents to grandparents, cousins, and in-laws.
