K1 - AOS timing

[Rictodd 0]

Hi all,

I hope someone can remind me of the site I saw where a K-1 can leave the USA (2 weeks I thought) before recieveing an AOS for a short time for family emergencies. Both of her parents are over 70. Her mom is doing better, but dad is not as well. He wants me to go there to meet his family in Hebei before my Fiance comes here. He's afraid he may never see us again.

If I remember my research correctly, my fiance can go back for two weeks during the two years time period to AOS in the cases of deaths or emergencies. I guess I want a place I can reference for this. Can anyone help?

Mom's doing better, but dad has been failing. I can't go there, but will agree to a visit as soon as we can (2 years?).

My question is if she can go back before the AOS and what the regulations and criteria are.

Thanks,

Rictodd

[Anh map 2,098]

I am not sure where you heard about some 2 week travel period.

Need to apply for Advance PArole to be able to reenter the US prior to the Green Card being issued. Advance Parole is typically applied for along with the Adjustment of Status.

If you need an expedited AP the best step is to go to your local USCIS office to request the AP.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Anh map

[HeatDeath 430]

Let me see if I'm understanding this right. Your fiancee has received her visa, but has not yet entered the US, yes?

From the way you are using certain terms, you appear to have received some very confused information. Let me describe how the next year or two is going to work for you:

Your fiancee's visa has an expiry date on it. She needs to enter the US before that date.

Once she enters the US, you two should get married as soon as possible.

She needs to file for AOS as soon as humanly possible after the wedding. You should, in fact, have all of the forms completed, dated for the day after the wedding, and have made personal backup copies of all of them (send signed originals), so that the instant you get a certified copy of your marriage certificate from the county, you can slip it in the envelope, seal it, and send it off. You will need to include a check for $1070 with this application. Note that this is not done two years after the wedding, this is done (as close as possible to) two days after the wedding.

A few weeks after you mail off the AOS forms and documentation, your fiancee will receive a letter from USCIS telling her to go to a specific USCIS local office near you at a specific date and time to have her picture and fingerprints taken. This is mandatory. She must attend this appointment, or reschedule it in a timely manner.

Part of your AOS filing will have been an I-131 form, which is an application for an Advance Parole document. Once that document arrives, which will be about 4-6 weeks after you send it off, your now-wife can return home for a temporary visit. She must not leave the country without either an Advance Parole document or a Green Card in her hand. She will need to return to the US if she is called for an AOS interview. Either way, she must return before the Advance Parole document expires, which is typically one year after it is issued.

If she is called for an interview, and all goes well, she should get her Green Card a few weeks later. She may not get called for an interview at all - many people don't. Either way, if all goes well she should have her green card between 4 to 6 months after you filed for AOS. Which, as I said, should be as soon as possible after the wedding, which must be within 90 days of entry.

Once she has her green card, she can go home for temporary visits any time she wants. She is required to spend at least 50% of her time in the US, and to maintain a US residence on an ongoing basis. Within those limits, she can visit as often as she likes, and stay as long as she wants. There is no "2 week" limit of any kind.

Her green card will expire after 2 years. 90 days prior to that, the two of you together must file a form I-751 to convert her green card to a non-conditional, permanent green card, which will have a 10 year expiry date. She must be in the US at the time of filing, I believe, and will have to be in the US to attend another photo/fingerprinting appointment, and a possible interview. Once her 10-year green card is approved, the same rules as before continue to apply. As long as she spends at least 50% of the time in the US, and maintains a US residence, she can visit home anytime she pleases.

To answer your specific question the way you worded it, she cannot go back before AOS at all. But since AOS occurs immediately after the wedding, and not 2 years later, this should in all likelihood not be a problem. In fact, she cannot go back at all without having an AP document in her hand. [Which is to say she can leave, but will not be allowed back in without a spousal visa.] If you, as you should, file AOS immediately after the wedding, she will have an AP document, in all likelihood, within 6-8 weeks. She can return home for a visit at that time. As long as you request on the I-131 that the AP document be for multiple trips, there is no formal limit to how many short trips she can take. She must be back in the US for any interview, and if she spends the whole time back home the interviewing officer will obviously wonder what is going on, but that's beside the point.

In regards to the "Deaths or emergencies" issue, what you've probably heard is that if there is a death or emergency after you file for AOS, but before the AP document is approved, you can arrange to have an "Infopass" meeting with an immigration officer at your local USCIS office, and get the AP document approved right away [within 3-4 days] so she can travel. The is the only way to get an AP document faster than the above mentioned 4-6 weeks. It bears repeating that she must not, under any circumstances, leave the US without either an AP document or a green card in her hand.

If a death or emergency occurs after she arrives in the US, but before you file AOS [immediately after the wedding], there is nothing you can do. She is stuck here.

If a death or emergency occurs after AOS, but before the AP document arrives p6-8 weeks after filing AOS], you can do an Infopass appointment and get an AP document within 3-4 days.

If a death or emergency occurs after the AP document arrives but before the AOS is approved [4-6 months after filing AOS], she can travel, and will use the AP document to reenter the US.

If a death or emergency occurs after AOS is approved, she can travel, and will use her GC to reenter the US.

I hope that this information clears things up for you, and can be used to put everyone's mind at ease. The window during which she will be "stuck" in the US is really only a few weeks. Once she has an AP document, she can visit several times a year for weeks at a time. There is no "2 week" limit of any kind.

Edited March 12, 2011 by HeatDeath

[Darnell 8,478]

she needs AP, advanced parole -

and there is no charge for this form WHEN FILED with the I-485.

Please read the AOS guide in the GUIDE section (train yer eyeballs up, click the word 'Guides' , choose the appropriate guide, and go forth)

AP may be granted on an emergency basis

IF

after receiving the NOA-1, I-797-C on the AP form, ya go to an INFOPASS appointment and request emergency AP.

good luck !

---

more time and timing issues -

just because the K-1 visa is stamped into the passport - it doesn't mean she has to leave immediately.

Typically she'll have 6 months of visa validity (to travel ONE time into the USA) on a K-1 visa -

so

plan!

Have her come into the USA 4 to 5 months after she gets the visa - and this will give you time to actually get to china, meet the dad - she can spend time caring for her father, then the two of you travel to USA together.

Good Luck !

Edited March 12, 2011 by Darnell