Brazil- Permanent Residency an CR1

[Paper 0]

Hello!

The final plan is to have my Brazilian fiancé here in the US with me. I've visited him twice in the past year for a total of 4 months. He tried for a tourist visa -denied. Now we've been gathering documents for a K1, but things have changed. I'm going to move to Brazil in 3-4 months and stay there with him during the visa process (so at least 1 year). I have family at home who would notify me of any mail from USCIS. But now the problem is that I want to work while I'm in Brazil, which means we'll have to get married there and I'll apply for a Permanent Residency visa. So that throws the K1 out the window. We'll go for the CR1 once we're married in Brazil.

How long should I expect it to take to obtain a permanent residency there (São Paulo)? And what are the costs?

Since I'll quit my job here in the US, I won't look too good on the CR1 visa. My mom has an income of $65~70k and will sponsor him with an Affidavit of Support, but is that enough? If I do manage to get a job in Brazil, can I use that job on my i-134 Affidavit of Support, even though I'll be leaving that job once he gets the visa?

Note: We're prepared to live in Brazil for well over a year, it doesn't matter as long as we know we actually have a fighting chance to get a CR1 or K3 visa. I love Brazil and wouldn't mind living there permanently, but we want to have the freedom to be able to travel between the US/Brazil. Especially to meet my family.

Summary of Questions:

• Cost of Marriage Cert. in Brazil
  
• Time/Cost for Permanent Residency in Brazil
  
• Likelyhood of getting a CR1 visa (without having a job in the US, but parents as sponsors)
  

Thanks!

[amyjohans 4]

If you want to spend time with your significant other and speed up the process, you are making the right decision by moving to Brazil. Recently USCs living abroad have gotten their I-130 automatically expedited, eliminating about 5 months of the process. You need to put your foreign address on all forms you fill out. If everything goes smoothly and you get expedited the total process will take about 3-4 months, the regular processing time is usually around 8 months or more I think. The I-130 costs $420 and the Affidavit of support costs $88 and the DS-230 is $320 So the total cost is $828 for the paperwork plus the costs of getting documents, mailing from abroad (which can get expensive) etc.

You can't count your income in Brazil or your spouses income unless they are going to continue from the same source once you are in the US. Your mothers income should be fine to sponsor your spouse as long as she doesn't have a ridiculous amount of dependents. For a household of 2 I think the minimum is under $20,000.

If you don't want to expedite the process and you want to spend more time in Brazil, you can send in the I-130 and once its approved and sent to the NVC don't send the rest of the paperwork in right away. Once your case gets to the NVC it will stay open for a year since your last contact with them.

[Paper 0]

Thank you so much, that gave me a lot of reassurance. I just hope we won't have too many issues applying for the CR1 while abroad. Especially the payments, but thankfully I have helpful family.