general understanding

[crictor 0]

Hello Im seeking a little advice on where to begin in this very complex world of immigration. For a little background, Im a US citizen and I fell in love with my wife while we were finishing our degrees. She went home after graduation and came back shortly after on a tourist visa to spend the rest of the summer with me and our friends. We love each other very much so we decided to get married so we did a justice of the peace wedding.

From what I have been reading I feel confident that the immigration petition will go smoothly; we have lots of supporting documents from friends and family along with the trips that I have taken to her country to meet her family so that we should not be considered as a sham. The problem I'm having with everything at this point is understanding what that means for our lives now; we want our children to grow up fully understanding the two cultures that they come from so that means that throughout our lives together we want to spend time in both of our countries. As a newly wed couple with fresh degrees we are going to establish ourselves here and in a couple of years start a family. When we do will we be able to work and live in her county for one or two years at a time....

Sorry for being very ignorant about this whole process but this system is very rigid and inhuman, my wife and I are ready to start our lives together but honestly we don't fully understand what we have gotten ourselves into legally. Any advice on a good starting point would be fantastic, I have been reading through all of the paperwork that I need to file but what I need is a human explanation.

[Anh map 2,098]

Is she planning to stay or return home? Two different paths.

Slow down, do some reading here on VJ, look over the Guides section (top of every page) and it will all make sense.

Best plan for your stated long term goal is that your spouse becomes a US citizen. That will take several years. Then she can come and go as she pleases. At that point you have to figure out any sort of visa requirements to live and work in her country.

*Moved from US Citizenship forum to General Immigration as OP has not indicated what immigration path they will pursue*

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Complex problem.

If she becomes a permanent resident and gets a green card then she can stay in the US for as long as she likes. She'll get a conditional green card and have to apply to remove conditions in two years, but that's usually not a problem. You're a US citizen, so obviously you can stay in the US as long as you like.

Leaving the US can be a problem for a permanent resident. If they're absent from the US for more than a year then they've abandoned their residency unless they apply for a reentry permit before they leave. Even with a reentry permit they can't leave for more than two years without losing their resident status. She can overcome that by becoming a US citizen. She'll be eligible to apply three years after becoming a permanent resident as long as she's still married to you. US citizens can leave the US for as long as they like, but they still have to file tax returns in the US while they're gone.

Some countries will revoke the citizenship of a citizen if they become a citizen of another country. You'll have to check the laws in her country to see if she'll lose citizenship if she becomes a US citizen. If that happens then you'd both be entering her home country as visitors, so the amount of time you'd be able to spend there would be dependent on the immigration laws of that country. You are going to be subject to those laws, in any case.

If you do a google search you should be able to find a website for ex-pat Americans living in your wife's country. They should be able to give you to low down on your options for maintaining status in both countries. You can also check the regional forums here and see what other VJ members might know about it. Which hoops you'll need to jump through in order to do what you want depends very much on your wife's home country.