Mother-in-law working maintaining permanent resident status

[tph10 0]

I am a US citizen and my wife was recently naturalized. We have filled out all the paperwork for my mother-in-law to sponsor her green card, permanent residence status. She is currently in the united states with a valid visa and will be staying until beginning of July 2012. We have not submitted the paperwork but was planning on doing it today; however...

Yesterday, I called USCIS to confirm some information about I-131 to apply for advanced parole because my mother-in-law needs to go back home to take care of my grandfather. After speaking with the representative, I started to research "maintaining permanent resident status" because we do not want anything to jeopardize the green card paperwork.

My questions:

1. My mother-in-law will need to make frequent trips back to Russia to take care of her step-father. These trips will not be more than 6 months duration, and she plans to make at most 2 trips a year. Will doing this have a negative impact on the paperwork and on her status once she receives her temporary green card? Will this be a "bad mark" in her records for the citizenship interview (looking ahead)?

2. My mother-in-law is also currently employed in Russia. When she goes back home (Russia), she plans to work abroad. Same questions as above: Will working abroad have a negative impact on the paperwork and on her status once she receives her temporary green card? Will this be a "bad mark" in her recrods for the citizenship interview (looking ahead)?

[aleful 1,905]

I am a US citizen and my wife was recently naturalized. We have filled out all the paperwork for my mother-in-law to sponsor her green card, permanent residence status. She is currently in the united states with a valid visa and will be staying until beginning of July 2012. We have not submitted the paperwork but was planning on doing it today; however...

Yesterday, I called USCIS to confirm some information about I-131 to apply for advanced parole because my mother-in-law needs to go back home to take care of my grandfather. After speaking with the representative, I started to research "maintaining permanent resident status" because we do not want anything to jeopardize the green card paperwork.

My questions:

1. My mother-in-law will need to make frequent trips back to Russia to take care of her step-father. These trips will not be more than 6 months duration, and she plans to make at most 2 trips a year. Will doing this have a negative impact on the paperwork and on her status once she receives her temporary green card? Will this be a "bad mark" in her records for the citizenship interview (looking ahead)?

2. My mother-in-law is also currently employed in Russia. When she goes back home (Russia), she plans to work abroad. Same questions as above: Will working abroad have a negative impact on the paperwork and on her status once she receives her temporary green card? Will this be a "bad mark" in her recrods for the citizenship interview (looking ahead)?

she won't get a temporary GC, she will get the 10 year Gc and yes, she is supposed to live and work here, she must reside here, it is not a tourist visa to live and work abroad and then visit here. If she doesn't plan to move and live here, then she shouldn't get one. she should only come to visit.

it's not citizenship, it's residency. and if she never resides here, she can never be a USC. to become a US Citizen, she needs 5 years of continous presence, meaning living in the US, every time she travels for more than 6 months, the continuous presence breaks and starts all over.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Note, once she receives a GC, she must file US taxes every year regarless where she happens to be working. Why complicate things, MIL can't legally reside in two places. Which will be her temp residence?

[tph10 0]

she won't get a temporary GC, she will get the 10 year Gc and yes, she is supposed to live and work here, she must reside here, it is not a tourist visa to live and work abroad and then visit here. If she doesn't plan to move and live here, then she shouldn't get one. she should only come to visit.

it's not citizenship, it's residency. and if she never resides here, she can never be a USC. to become a US Citizen, she needs 5 years of continous presence, meaning living in the US, every time she travels for more than 6 months, the continuous presence breaks and starts all over.

She does plan to live here and plans to maintain a 5 year presence before applying for USC. The reason I ask is because her step-father is still in Russia and needs some caring. In addition, she is retiring in 5 years from work in Russia. We also plan to file income tax when she gets her temporary green card on her foreign income. After she retires, she will no longer have foreign income and will get a job in the US and visit Russia as permitted by her employer subject to PTO. Her trips to visit her step-father will not be more than 6 months.

Will this prevent her from obtaining a green card or citizenship?

[tph10 0]

Note, once she receives a GC, she must file US taxes every year regarless where she happens to be working. Why complicate things, MIL can't legally reside in two places. Which will be her temp residence?

What is MIL? Military? Yes, we understand that she has to file income tax =) She will be staying with us and will maintain our address here in the US as residence during her GC status.

[benuk 18]

What is MIL? Military? Yes, we understand that she has to file income tax =) She will be staying with us and will maintain our address here in the US as residence during her GC status.

MIL= MOTHER IN LAW...

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Your MIL will have problems at the POE with the 6 months on and 6 months off. This is one of the red flaggs for a LPR.

[tph10 0]

MIL= MOTHER IN LAW...

Thank you.

Would waiting until my MIL retire be the best option?

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Thank you.

Would waiting until my MIL retire be the best option?

Yes, that would be the best and safest option.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

It would be a cleaner option, she would not be showing that she is residing and working in Russia. However most US employers only give a couple weeks time off for new employees and she may not have enough time to do any real travel back to Russia. Depending on her age she may never accrue enough work time in the US to qualify for governement benefits in her old age , you should check this out before you do anything. Living in the US without governement things like Social security and medicade can be ugly.

[tph10 0]

Thank you so much for all the responses!

How long does my MIL need to stay in the US per year to maintain permanent resident status?

[tph10 0]

The reason we want to get her paperwork started is because her visa will expire in August 2012. We know a handful of Russian families where all the parents' children are GC/citizens and parents are in the Russia. The parents' tourist visa are denied because there were speculations that the parents will stay in the USA and not return.

We do not want this to happen to my MIL. I hear that having a denied visa looks bad on record especially if her and our long time plan is to have her here with us in the USA as a citizen.

Is this common scenario for denial of visa?

[Reyan 56]

Another option is to get the GC, and upon returning to Russia your MIL turns the GC over to the US embassy. That would show she has no intent of staying in the US, and should be able to get a visitor visa easier in the future. This is just an idea, and I imagine others can provide further guidance if this is a good plan.

[tph10 0]

Another option is to get the GC, and upon returning to Russia your MIL turns the GC over to the US embassy. That would show she has no intent of staying in the US, and should be able to get a visitor visa easier in the future. This is just an idea, and I imagine others can provide further guidance if this is a good plan.

Thank you for the input. Sounds very risky to give up the GC, though.

A lawyer friend of ours informed us that it is ok for my MIL to keep the GC and continue to work and travel abroad. I spoke with a representative from USCIS about this and she informed me that there are two distinctions: continuous residency and physical appearance.

Continuous residency applies to permanent residency which will be at risk if she travels more than 6 months for EACH trip abroad. Doing so will result in breaking her continuous residency and raise a flag indicating that my MIL is abandoning her status. She can give justification as described here but one of the evidence includes her not having a job abroad.

Physical appearance applies to obtaining the USC which will be at risk if she travels for multiple trips that are more than 6 months each during previous 5 years prior to the USC interview. In most situation, the USCIS representative informed me that the USC will be denied if the aforementioned occurred.

We're going to talk to wife's lawyer friend tomorrow about this further because its seems that both sources are giving us conflicting information.

Can anyone confirm any of the information that we've received so far? Or, have some experience themselves considering a similar situation like ours?

Again, thank you very much for your responses.

[Boiler 46,110]

So after she gets her Gc how many months in a given year does she intend residing in the US, how many months in a given year does she intend visiting Russia?