Married 4 years, getting over shock of visa wait times

[lucysmom 0]

Hello everyone, I've been browsing through this site which I just discovered a few days ago. Until then, I was not aware that married couples had to be separated so long while waiting for their permanent residency. I'm a US citizen. In 2006 my Aussie husband and I got married in the US while he was visiting on VWP. We immediately moved the Netherlands and lived there until 2008. When he got a short-term job offer in France, I moved back to the US for career and personal reasons. Now his French job has ended, and he is in Australia. We recently found out that a job option there isn't happening. He actually has a job offer in the US now and we were preparing for him to move here. He even bought a plane ticket.

Believe it or not, it never occurred to us that he wouldn't be able to enter the US and live with me while waiting for the IR1. He has formerly had H1b visas, and had no problem living in the US on the VWP, then re-entering from Canada to get his visa. I have formerly been married to a UK citizen, and there was never any question of us being separated while he waited for the green card. In fact he was able to work in about 45 days, which was what I had in mind for our current circumstance.

Sorry for the long story/rant. I'm hoping against hope that someone could point to something I've missed? We've been separated too much recently and I was really looking forward to actually living with my husband again. Because Australia is so far, it is a bit of a burden to be flying back and forth over there. With all this time waiting, he may also lose the job opportunity he was offered here.

[trailmix 77]

Hi and welcome,

Was he getting a visa to work in the U.S. this time, or did you just assume he could come over and live/work in the U.S. because you two would be filing for his permanent residency?

From a family immigration standpoint, you only really have 1 option, to file for the IR1 - with all that entails - him only being able to visit and he will have his interview in Australia.

Edited May 11, 2010 by trailmix

[Mintchip 0]

I don't think you are missing anything. My husband and I married in the UK (I'm a US citizen), where I lived with him for about 3.5 years. Two years ago, we decided that I should move back to the USA, get re-established, and he would follow. Well, it's been 13 months since we applied for his family visa, and we finally awaiting to be notified of his interview date with the American Embassy in London. It doesn't take everyone this long...we had some bumps along the way...but the long separation is very difficult. Fortunately, the UK is not as far as Australia, so we have had a few visits over the past 25 months. I suppose the key is to stay on top of your filing, but realize that you will need a lot of patience. Best of luck to you.

[lucysmom 0]

Hi and welcome,

Was he getting a visa to work in the U.S. this time, or did you just assume he could come over and live/work in the U.S. because you two would be filing for his permanent residency?

From a family immigration standpoint, you only really have 1 option, to file for the IR1 - with all that entails - him only being able to visit and he will have his interview in Australia.

thanks for your response. he could probably get another H1b, but I guess we didn't think that would be necessary. Yeah, I assumed he could live/work while filing. This is how it worked in my previous marriage, but he was already living in the US at the time under a valid but expiring visa. My current husband will come visit on the plane ticket he already bought and then probably return to Aus and look for work.

I don't think you are missing anything. My husband and I married in the UK (I'm a US citizen), where I lived with him for about 3.5 years. Two years ago, we decided that I should move back to the USA, get re-established, and he would follow. Well, it's been 13 months since we applied for his family visa, and we finally awaiting to be notified of his interview date with the American Embassy in London. It doesn't take everyone this long...we had some bumps along the way...but the long separation is very difficult. Fortunately, the UK is not as far as Australia, so we have had a few visits over the past 25 months. I suppose the key is to stay on top of your filing, but realize that you will need a lot of patience. Best of luck to you.

thanks, I'm sorry you have to wait so long. It's a shame the US immigration system works this way. In other countries you might have to wait a similar length of time, but you usually wouldn't be forced to be separated. Bummer all around.

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

Two suggestions:

- File now for the spousal visa. He can then come visit on the visa waiver program for 90 days, or a tourist visa for 6 months (not working of course), by which time it'll be almost time for his interview back home. Fly home, do interview and medical, hopefully get visa, come back.

- Would you consider moving abroad again? There is something called DCF (direct consular filing) for a spousal visa, which is much shorter, usually takes 1-3 months rather than 8+ months- see my timeline! But it requires the US spouse to have lived legally in the foreign country for 6 months before filing, so in your case there would be no or little time saving over filing in the USA. However, it would mean you can be together during the process.

[Deb+Steve 13]

You're lucky in one respect - Sydney is not a backlogged Consulate. The longest wait is for the initial I-130 to be approved through USCIS. The NVC stage can be relatively quick as long as you have all your documents ready to go when the time comes. It sounds like he will need a few police checks from different countries so he should do that while you're waiting for the I-130 to be approved.

Our I-130 was approved in January but we took our time through NVC to fit more with my commitments in Aus. Really, we could have had everything submitted to the NVC by the end of Feb.

Best of luck ...

[lucysmom 0]

thanks everyone! Yes, my husband is preparing to enter on a visa waiver in just a couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll have our I-130 done by then. We weren't sure he'd have time to apply and receive a visitor's visa before his flight. We were a bit trigger happy in purchasing a plane ticket, but also the decisions have been coming fast and furious. I don't think the direct consulate is going to work for us unless our plans change again, but good to know about the Sydney consulate not being too backlogged.