moving to Austria, then DCF

[Dr. Obvious 49]

If your intention is to move permanently to Austria, then I wouldn't worry about US immigration period right now.

Your major problem as I see it is that you cannot just get a CR-1 visa here, 2 year green card, then leave and go to Austria for unknown amount of time. His status will be considered abandoned and you have to go through the process all over again if they find for abandonment of status. That is why we are stuck here for 3 years. We just can't decide tomorrow, screw it we go back to Germany for a few years, and come back in 5 years because he had 10 year card issued. Doesn't work like that. If you want to go through the process then some kind of serious commitment has to be made to the US, preferably through naturalization. Otherwise, it is kind of a waste of time and money.

[tokori 0]

If your intention is to move permanently to Austria, then I wouldn't worry about US immigration period right now.

thats the whole issue. we don't know what our intentions are.

in the perfect world we would live in austria half the year and half the year in the US but it seems both countries assume you only want to be in their country and no where else (at least the US won't let us be gone for more then a year without my husband losing his green card according to our lawyer).

Our careers pretty much call for us to be jet setting on a regular basis and I know people who do do that- its just a question of how and for how often.

I assume once we have kids and they have to start school we will have to settle down a bit, but until then, we are sort of in this black hole of not knowing what is the best thing to do or how to do it.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I guess it could be good to keep in mind that he is generally the only one able to possess dual citizenship in this. Austria does not allow dual citizenship to naturalized citizens. Germany is the same way, so I know how lame that is. If he got citizenship, then at least one problem is solved. The other one can only be solved I guess by eventually moving to another EU country that allows dual citizenship for naturalized citizens.

Anyway, I hope you are able to figure something out. Ideally, I would like to live half the year in Germany, 3 months in Denmark, and 3 in the US, but that ain't gonna happen right now.

[tokori 0]

I guess it could be good to keep in mind that he is generally the only one able to possess dual citizenship in this. Austria does not allow dual citizenship to naturalized citizens. Germany is the same way, so I know how lame that is. If he got citizenship, then at least one problem is solved. The other one can only be solved I guess by eventually moving to another EU country that allows dual citizenship for naturalized citizens.

Anyway, I hope you are able to figure something out. Ideally, I would like to live half the year in Germany, 3 months in Denmark, and 3 in the US, but that ain't gonna happen right now.

interesting. i didnt realize Austria wouldn't do that.

i guess right now, we need to worry about me being able to get into austria, then go one step at a time from there

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Yeah, both countries have waivers for their own born or blood citizens, but none for immigrants unless there are extremely unusual circumstances. Wiki spells it out pretty well for Austria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_nationality_law

I bet Austria will be great. I hope everything works out for you all.

[tokori 0]

I bet Austria will be great. I hope everything works out for you all.

I hope so. After reading about the whole process in the US I am already afraid and fearful of what is going to happen once I get off the plane in austria.

Hopefully I can find someone who has been through the Austrian process and can tell me what to expect