IR-1/CR-1 after K-1?

[ryna 132]

Hello,

I have a few questions for anyone who may have originally petitioned for a fiancee but later decided to petition for the same person only as a spouse. Not because the K-1 was denied, but because of a voluntary withdrawal of the K-1.

Now, I'm not at the point of abandoning our K-1 petition yet, but it seems to be taking longer than most others and, for lack of a better explanation, we don't have time for a prolonged K-1 battle with Uncle Sam if my fiancee and I want to realize our plans. While it is my preference that we live in the U.S., it is far more important to me that we live together, wherever that may be. My questions are:

1) If we were to live in Colombia (or even some other place) for a few years and apply for a CR-1 or IR-1 to return to the U.S.in the future, would an abandoned K-1 cause us any trouble? Would it explicitly have to be withdrawn or could it just die/expire naturally? Would two petitions for her be viewed as "immigrant visa shopping"? I've seen cases here on VJ where a second petition for the same person was viewed as such. She never had a passing thought of moving to the U.S. before we met. She only wants to be where I am and I just happen to live in the U.S.

and

2) I've lived my entire life in the U.S. but is there any chance that after being out of the country for 3-5 years that our (future) children could be denied US citizenship because I have lived outside of the USA for too long? I've heard that some children of USCs don't gain their parents' US citizenship because the parent didn't meet US residency requirements and can't pass along their citizenship automatically.

We're just thinking ahead right now because, like I mentioned, we really can't wait 15 or 18 months or more for a K-1 like some of the horror stories I've seen here.. We left plenty of flexibility in our plans for a normal or even slightly long K-1 process but not for one of horror story proportions. If we're going to have to go through that, I prefer that it be while we're married and living in the same place.

Thanks for any experience that you can share with doing this.

[bobby_kvisa 7]

In order for your foreign-born child to have claim to US Citizenship you must have resided in the US as a US Citizen for 5 years (2 after the age of 14).

http://travel.state.gov/law/info/info_609.html

However you should double check the verbiage yourself at that link and consult with others to make 100% sure that your child can have a rightful claim to US Citizenship based on your residency.

[LotofPatience 65]

In order for your foreign-born child to have claim to US Citizenship you must have resided in the US as a US Citizen for 5 years (2 after the age of 14).

http://travel.state....o/info_609.html

However you should double check the verbiage yourself at that link and consult with others to make 100% sure that your child can have a rightful claim to US Citizenship based on your residency.

Bobby, Any status is fine. At least 5 years residency of the parent in the U.S is mandatory.

When I did for my daughter, I had only 2.5 years residency as USC and before that it was GC status.

Loto

[ryna 132]

Thanks guys. It's good to know I won't have any issues on that front at least. Right now, I have 41 years of US residency, 27 after the age of 14. I just wasn't sure if there was "an X out of the last Y years" requirement and, apparently, there isn't..

Again, I'm just trying to learn about other visa processes so we can consider all possible scenarios should something unexpected happen.