The aim of this research is to gain an in-depth understanding of involuntary immobility as it applies to American parents that aspire to migrate to Global North countries. It explores their reasons for desiring to emigrate, the obstacles rendering them involuntarily immobile, and examines how current research methods, models, and theories can be applied to these families. This qualitative study is based on six semi-structured interviews with American parents that have expressed aspirations to migrate but have not yet found a viable path to migration. It uses aspiration-ability/capability models to explore each family’s (im)mobility and the obstacles that render them immobile. The results of the research demonstrate the challenge of assessing (im)mobility at a single moment in time, and determine that the immobility of adult dependents can render an individual immobile.