Residence question for g-325a

[Tincho 0]

Hello Everyone!

Both my fiancee and I are biology graduate students, I study in the US and my fiancee in Argentina. She came to my university to do some lab experiments for her thesis (on a tourist visa), and stayed here for 5 months (she showed lots of papers to the immigration officers and they gave her 6 months!). With respect to the question of putting her residence of the last 5 years in the G-325a:

1. Should we include her stay in the US for those 5 months, or should we just include the places she's lived in Argentina? We will mention her trip to the US when we explain how we met, so I don't know if not mentioning this period of time in the G-325a will make it look suspicious.

2. I have a similar problem with respect to my addresses. For my theses, every summer I travel to different places for my field work, so I've been 3 to 4 months in Costa Rica, Spain and Texas in the last 3 summers. Does anyone have a suggestion if I should include the places I've temporarily lived, or should I just include my permanent addresses in my home state?

I'm sure they might appear dumb questions, but I wouldn't want to have my application delayed for small errors that can be easily fixed before sending in my forms

Many thanks for any suggestions and help that you could give me!!

[canadian_wife 1,808]

In my opinion, she did not reside in the US - she was in a tourist visa so she was a tourist. List her residence in Argentina during that time. Same goes for you, unless you were actually living in those places, list your residneces as the one in the US

Good luck.

[SunDrop 59]

Hello Everyone!

Both my fiancee and I are biology graduate students, I study in the US and my fiancee in Argentina. She came to my university to do some lab experiments for her thesis (on a tourist visa), and stayed here for 5 months (she showed lots of papers to the immigration officers and they gave her 6 months!). With respect to the question of putting her residence of the last 5 years in the G-325a:

1. Should we include her stay in the US for those 5 months, or should we just include the places she's lived in Argentina? We will mention her trip to the US when we explain how we met, so I don't know if not mentioning this period of time in the G-325a will make it look suspicious.

2. I have a similar problem with respect to my addresses. For my theses, every summer I travel to different places for my field work, so I've been 3 to 4 months in Costa Rica, Spain and Texas in the last 3 summers. Does anyone have a suggestion if I should include the places I've temporarily lived, or should I just include my permanent addresses in my home state?

I'm sure they might appear dumb questions, but I wouldn't want to have my application delayed for small errors that can be easily fixed before sending in my forms

Many thanks for any suggestions and help that you could give me!!

Time spent in any foreign country on a visitor/ tourist visa is not residence. It's visiting. What kind of visa did you have for Spain and Costa Rica?

[Tincho 0]

It actually makes sense not to include foreign addresses. My visas for Costa Rica and Spain were both tourist visas, so I won't include those places either.

Thank you everyone for your help and best of luck,

Martin

[K and L 27]

Honestly, I put down every place I have lived in the last 5 years, and I had to do a supplementary form. So what if I was only there for 3-7 months? I held a lease, paid utilities. It's trackable - every damn one shows up on my credit report, and they can and very well may do do credit checks on you both as part of the background checks. I know they do for security clearances.

So what if she was on a tourist visa? The point of the residential query is to know where they need to look, for background information. She was in the US, tell them that. They already know she was here on a tourist visa and how long she was here - they want to know where she lived during that time, to make sure she was a good girl.

Lying and misrepresentation is a SERIOUS offense in immigration, and it is always in your best interest to be honest. She was not physically in Argentina, and was not there for 5 months. For all purposes, she was residing in the US.

Also, IMO, showing she was residing in the US for those 5 months gives you more evidence that you'd met, that you'd established a real relationship, etc. Makes things easier later on.

Edited March 23, 2010 by K and L