Help getting a noob started??

[yesyjoe 0]

Hi everyone! I am new to the forums and I would really appreciate any advice regarding my situation. My wife is a USC and I'm Mexican. We've been married for a little over a year. My wife and I have always lived in Mexico but we've been thinking about moving to the US since we're both physicians and wish to do a residency there. I really want to get the ball rolling since we want to apply for residency by september next year and we don't want to get behind on what seems to be a very difficult process! What type of Visa would be ideal to apply to?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Ryan H 3,834]

There is only one visa type you will apply for, CR-1. Since you both live in Mexico, your wife may be able to file the petition at one of the USCIS field offices there.

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

CR1 is the visa to seek, it seems. The rest are far too complicated and would be extra complicated by the fact that you are married to a US citizen, interestingly enough. You can absolutely DCF through Mexico City, Monterrey, or Ciudad Juarez, whichever governs your area of residence, and it would be wise to do so, as you will experience much faster and somewhat simpler processing that way. You can check out the DCF section of this forum, or the DCF section of immigrate2us which contains mainly Mexico-specific DCF information and experiences:

http://immigrate2us.net/forum/showthread.php?85057-Direct-Consular-Filing-(DCF)

[yesyjoe 0]

CR1 is the visa to seek, it seems. The rest are far too complicated and would be extra complicated by the fact that you are married to a US citizen, interestingly enough. You can absolutely DCF through Mexico City, Monterrey, or Ciudad Juarez, whichever governs your area of residence, and it would be wise to do so, as you will experience much faster and somewhat simpler processing that way. You can check out the DCF section of this forum, or the DCF section of immigrate2us which contains mainly Mexico-specific DCF information and experiences:

http://immigrate2us.net/forum/showthread.php?85057-Direct-Consular-Filing-(DCF)

Thank you for the tip! Monterrey would be awesome since we have relatives there, but we live in Tijuana so maybe we would have to go to Juarez :S Quick question: why would being married to a US citizen make the process more complicated?

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

If you're married to a US citizen, the simplest visa to seek is an immigrant/spouse visa, CR1 for marriages younger than 2 yrs or IR1 for marriages older than that. This will also allow you to work anywhere and in any capacity almost immediately from the time of your entry to the US. The only other spouse-based "immigrant visa" option, K3, is obsolete in Mexico and pointless anyway because it's more expensive and requires that you wait for several months after entry to the US before you can start working legally.

If you seek any non-immigrant visa, such as H1B or whichever employment-based visa may be useful in your case, there are so many complications. For one thing, the non-spouse visas would require employer sponsorship, which means first you have to find an eligible employer to sponsor your visa. Not only are the fees and paperwork a lot more to deal with,but because these are considered "temporary" visas, there's another obstacle. You also have to beat the assumption that you ultimately plan to immigrate to the US, which is elevated by the fact that you have a US citizen spouse. Your careers and the fact that your spouse has been employed in Mexico could work in your favor, but I have a lot of non-US friends married to US citizens who weren't able to get non-immigrant visas to the US, and only had success once they went through the immigrant spouse visa process.

As far as DCF, Ciudad Juarez accepts mailed I-130s (see this page and scroll down to I-130). Everyone from all over Mexico has to go to Juarez for the immigrant visa medical and interview at the end, no matter where the petition was filed, so in the end, you'll have to go there no matter what, but at least you can get the petition filed without having to physically go to Juarez for that part. If you visit that link on immigrate2us, you should be able to find all the details on what documents you need in your I-130 packet to mail to Juarez. I would still try to contact Juarez to get some specifics, especially in relation to the form of payment they accept for the petition filing fee. Also make sure to include a copy of your wife's FM2/FM3 or other proof of legal residency in Mexico. Good luck!

Edited September 22, 2012 by GlobeHopperMama

[yesyjoe 0]

Thank you so much for the information!!!!!