Visas for Spouse AND NonUSC children

[LauraDP 10]

I am a UK citizen, my husband (of 16 years) is a dual US/UK citizen and our four sons (all under 18) are UK citizens.

I am trying to get to grips with what order things need to be done in and also what the timescales involved are so please forgive me if my questions right now are quite basic.

I intend to file a CR-1 application for my own immigration and my husband will apply for I-130 immigration for our four sons. Will the USCIS cluster these applications together and process them simultaneously or will they be regarded them as individual applications? My concern with the latter is that the timescales will differ to the extent that the children are granted immigration status at a different time from me and create all sorts of complications for us as a family.

Does anyone have experience of applying for a spouse and children at the same time?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Laura

[canadian_wife 1,819]

I am going to assume that the children do not have claims to US citizenship?

Send the petitions as one package and make sure they know that it is one package containing separate petitions, that way they 'should' be done together.

Good luck - a foreign address should fast track the petition

[Anh map 2,098]

I am a UK citizen, my husband (of 16 years) is a dual US/UK citizen and our four sons (all under 18) are UK citizens.

I am trying to get to grips with what order things need to be done in and also what the timescales involved are so please forgive me if my questions right now are quite basic.

I intend to file a CR-1 application for my own immigration and my husband will apply for I-130 immigration for our four sons. Will the USCIS cluster these applications together and process them simultaneously or will they be regarded them as individual applications? My concern with the latter is that the timescales will differ to the extent that the children are granted immigration status at a different time from me and create all sorts of complications for us as a family.

Does anyone have experience of applying for a spouse and children at the same time?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Laura

Your husband petitions for you, you don't file the I-130 on your own.

[cathy2904 97]

Your husband will have to file the I-130 petition for you, only a USC can file to bring an immediate relative to the US. He would file for the children at the same time and in the same package I believe.. However, if the children have a claim to US citizenship through their father they will not be issued visas but will need to establish their citizenship and then apply for US passports.

Sorry, others beat me to it. I type too slowly!

[kelad 8]

Your husband will have to file the I-130 petition for you, only a USC can file to bring an immediate relative to the US. He would file for the children at the same time and in the same package I believe.. However, if the children have a claim to US citizenship through their father they will not be issued visas but will need to establish their citizenship and then apply for US passports.

Sorry, others beat me to it. I type too slowly!

My son was born in Jamaica and he is a US citizen. his father filed a crba which your husband can do for your children. They will get passport, a certificate and a social security number, it cost about US$205. He would then have to file for you which takes up to a year but seeing that he is living abroad with you, i think it goes a lot faster. As for proving domicile, i think he will be able to use a relatives address in the US, use a bank account statement (to show that he has maintained one). There is alot of information on this site so you can research.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Laura, you are right about the I-130. She said in another thread her kids do not have a claim to US Citizenship (I guess father did not live in US long enough).

Have you looked into filing directly with the embassy in London?

[LauraDP 10]

I apologise for not making our context clear in each post. I appreciate that not everyone is, of course, going to read everything I write so I should have explained the status of my children in this post.

Our children are not entitled to USC status as my husband, a dual national, is not able to pass his citizenship on to them as he was not resident in the US for long enough - annoyingly he just missed it by a couple of months. We have the option to naturalise them as USC but would have to do that once in the US - it can be started at the Embassy but not completed - and so I think the I-130 process might actually be easier. There is also the risk that they give up their UK status and I do not get immigrant status or we otherwise find we cannot go to live in the US and things would then be very problematic for our kids living here in the UK as foreign nationals.

It is, therefore, the case that my husband has to file the I-130 for both myself and the four kids. (I misread something earlier on that led me to think I had to file my own documents but, of course, Chris is the petitioner)

As I now understand it, from a bit more research on the interwebs last night, all applications from the same location and on the same date get bundled together so that means the kids and I should all get processed at the same time. That certainly alleviates some of my worries.

I think the first stumbling block we need to get to grips with is the evidence of the intent to domicile. We are not in a position where we can risk placing all of our eggs in one basket only to fall flat on our faces because something in the system glitches. We, therefore, cannot have Chris accept a job until closer to the kids and I being granted status - the maximum we could fund living apart would probably be three months - and, for that reason, we could not sign a rental lease agreement. Chris' family are in CA and we plan to settle in VA or MD so I don't know if they would be able to act as any sort of support. We have a friend in MD with whom Chris would initially be staying in the months before the kids and I emigrate but he would be there as a guest and not as a paying tenant since the friend is renting himself and obviously cannot then sublet - though I wonder if he could be placed on the tenancy agreement as a room mate - but I don't know if that would be enough. Can friends even count for this purpose? We have a loose plan to visit the US on vacation next year so Chris could probably open a US bank account.

I am in awe of you who are much further into this process than I am as, despite having two university degrees, my brain power is struggling with all of this. Thank you so very much for loaning me some of your knowledge!

[Nick1980 11]

I apologise for not making our context clear in each post. I appreciate that not everyone is, of course, going to read everything I write so I should have explained the status of my children in this post.

Our children are not entitled to USC status as my husband, a dual national, is not able to pass his citizenship on to them as he was not resident in the US for long enough - annoyingly he just missed it by a couple of months. We have the option to naturalise them as USC but would have to do that once in the US - it can be started at the Embassy but not completed - and so I think the I-130 process might actually be easier. There is also the risk that they give up their UK status and I do not get immigrant status or we otherwise find we cannot go to live in the US and things would then be very problematic for our kids living here in the UK as foreign nationals.

It is, therefore, the case that my husband has to file the I-130 for both myself and the four kids. (I misread something earlier on that led me to think I had to file my own documents but, of course, Chris is the petitioner)

As I now understand it, from a bit more research on the interwebs last night, all applications from the same location and on the same date get bundled together so that means the kids and I should all get processed at the same time. That certainly alleviates some of my worries.

I think the first stumbling block we need to get to grips with is the evidence of the intent to domicile. We are not in a position where we can risk placing all of our eggs in one basket only to fall flat on our faces because something in the system glitches. We, therefore, cannot have Chris accept a job until closer to the kids and I being granted status - the maximum we could fund living apart would probably be three months - and, for that reason, we could not sign a rental lease agreement. Chris' family are in CA and we plan to settle in VA or MD so I don't know if they would be able to act as any sort of support. We have a friend in MD with whom Chris would initially be staying in the months before the kids and I emigrate but he would be there as a guest and not as a paying tenant since the friend is renting himself and obviously cannot then sublet - though I wonder if he could be placed on the tenancy agreement as a room mate - but I don't know if that would be enough. Can friends even count for this purpose? We have a loose plan to visit the US on vacation next year so Chris could probably open a US bank account.

I am in awe of you who are much further into this process than I am as, despite having two university degrees, my brain power is struggling with all of this. Thank you so very much for loaning me some of your knowledge!

Its not about how educated you are, it just takes time to understand everything fully, but it all comes together. Believe me, my wife and I ask what seem to be some pretty silly questions.It seems at the turn of every page there are so many different ways of interpreting what is written.

[cathy2904 97]

Just as an aside, the children will not lose their UK citizenship when they become USCs. The US does not officially recognize dual citizenship but it tolerates it (if that is the right word). My husband became a USC lousy over a year ago and he went through some angst before we clarified that. He still holds two passports and remains very proud to be British.

*just - not lousy!!

[LauraDP 10]

Is that really the case that the kids would become dual nationals? Even though my husband is himself a dual national? From my reading it seemed to suggest that naturalisation in the US required the kids to revoke their UK citizenship. I shall need to investigate that further, though it seems like it might actually be a more complex route than even the I-130 anyway.

Thanks for your response

Laura

[cathy2904 97]

I think you are right that you will probably have to do the I-130 for the children first since if they cannot claim citizenship through their father, I guess they will have to do it based on residency in a few years. But I found this:

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html

DUAL NATIONALITY

Dual nationality can occur as the result of a variety of circumstances. The automatic acquisition or retention of a foreign nationality, acquired, for example, by birth in a foreign country or through an alien parent, does not affect U.S. citizenship. It is prudent, however, to check with authorities of the other country to see if dual nationality is permissible under local law. Dual nationality can also occur when a person is naturalized in a foreign state without intending to relinquish U.S. nationality and is thereafter found not to have lost U.S. citizenship: the individual consequently may possess dual nationality. While recognizing the existence of dual nationality and permitting Americans to have other nationalities, the U.S. Government also recognizes the problems which it may cause. Claims of other countries upon dual-national U.S. citizens often place them in situations where their obligations to one country are in conflict with the laws of the other. In addition, their dual nationality may hamper efforts to provide U.S. diplomatic and consular protection to them when they are abroad.

and this:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship/dualnationality/

If you become a national of another country

You will not normally lose your British nationality if you become a citizen or national of another country. If you are a British subject otherwise than by connection with the Republic of Ireland you will lose that status on acquiring any other nationality or citizenship. If you are a British protected person you will lose that status on acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.

If you are becoming a citizen or national of a country that does not allow dual nationality, you may be required by that country to give up your British nationality.

[velrich 50]

my children and I (spouse) were applied for at the same time and we are being processed together. You just have to send all the I-130 together in the same package and they will link them.