Applying for a Green Card, I need your help :)

[Ryan H 3,813]

Moved from Introducing Our Members to What Visa Do I Need - Family Based Immigration forum.

[*Snowdrop* 604]

Hi

So there are a couple of different issues here. The first is how you have been 'living' in the US.

Tourist visas are not for living in the US. Even for Canadians who get to stay a lot longer than the VWP countries like France. When you have been leaving the country and returning to 'reset' your length of stay have you been staying out of the US longer than you are in it?

If not, then you are using your tourist visa to get around immigration rules and you've been incredibly lucky that no one has picked up on the pattern and refused you entry.

That could happen at any time. If a border official suspects you are living in the US and spending more time in the US than out you can be sent back to your home country and refused entry. If you read enough on this board you will see this has happened to many people.

So with your current plan to marry and then go to France for surgery.

You have three options for getting your greencard.

1. Delay your surgery. Get married. Apply to Adjust your status from tourist visa to greencard (called AOSing on here) You will send in your forms here in the US and apply for Advanced Parole at the same time. Advanced parole (AP) will allow you to leave the US and return while the greencard is processing. You may have to wait up to 3 months after marrying before AP is granted.If you do this option, you will also need to examine the timeframes for AOSing to make sure that your surgery and recuperation fit in with the need for you to be back in the US for biometrics appointments and your greencard interview. You will also need someone reliable to forward you any mail you need urgently about the process while you are in France.

2. Get married. Go to France for the surgery. Have your spouse move over to France with you and once you have been there for the required time, pursue the greencard by Direct Consular Filing (DCF). You and your spouse will be able to stay in France together while everything is processing. Note that for this your spouse needs a legal resident status in France and must have resided there for at least six months. Only then could you apply and then it would probably take at least another six months to complete - so you are looking at least a year out of the US. Also bear in mind for this option your spouse is going to need to provide evidence of ability to financially support you once back in the US - job or assets.

3. Get married. Apply for greencard sending I-130 to US service center. You and your spouse leave for France for six months. He comes back to the US. You come back for a visit using your option as a Canadian (six months). You will both need to have reliable people picking up your mail in your respective countries so that you don't miss any vital correspondence. If things continue the way they are right now you will still probably be waiting for the first stage in the process to be approved. So then you will have to leave the country. You can always try to continue to do what you've been doing - leave and come back and 'reset' your status as visitor (BUT be aware if your luck runs out using this method, then you will be refused entry) Towards the end of the visa process you will need to return to your home country to complete a medical, and do an interview at the consulate/embassy.

* so on option three think very hard about which country you are going to call home for the sake of the immigration process. France or Canada. You will have to do the medical and interview in one of those two. And you will need to receive mail from the embassy about setting up appointments for those so that is a consideration.

You may think you have a fourth option which is to get married, get the surgery, return to the US and then apply to adjust status. The problem with this is that to travel to the US on a tourist visa with the intent to adjust status is considered fraud. So you run some serious risks attempting that option. No one on here will recommend you do so.

[Allwyna 1]

Hello Lynne,

Your message is really helpful and very positive.

Option 1 is out of the question. I will be lucky if I don't have to do it in the US on emergency (it's not aesthetic or anything).

Option 2 My husband only needs a visa as my spouse from the French consulate to be there for 6 months. He will be officially my husband with the French law on Feb 28. But for reasons that I didn't explain here, we must be back in October. No problem for the financial aspect.

I think Option 3 makes a lot of sense and is easier. So my "home" country will be France, and we can forward the mail so we get it, it's pretty reliable here.

Just FYI, my husband contacted 2 lawyers who advise option 4!!! But in this case we wouldn't start any process. Just getting married in a court and legalized "in" France. They BOTH said the whole process will take 4 to 6 months....

Please let me know if I misunderstood something. But thanks again

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hello Lynne,

Your message is really helpful and very positive.

Option 1 is out of the question. I will be lucky if I don't have to do it in the US on emergency (it's not aesthetic or anything).

Option 2 My husband only needs a visa as my spouse from the French consulate to be there for 6 months. He will be officially my husband with the French law on Feb 28. But for reasons that I didn't explain here, we must be back in October. No problem for the financial aspect.

I think Option 3 makes a lot of sense and is easier. So my "home" country will be France, and we can forward the mail so we get it, it's pretty reliable here.

Just FYI, my husband contacted 2 lawyers who advise option 4!!! But in this case we wouldn't start any process. Just getting married in a court and legalized "in" France. They BOTH said the whole process will take 4 to 6 months....

Please let me know if I misunderstood something. But thanks again

What is option 4?

Aren't you legally married already? (Married anywhere means married in the US.)

[*Snowdrop* 604]

Please just bear in mind with option 3 that you will be continuing to use your tourist visa in a way it is not supposed to be used and you could be turned back at the border at any time.

You also have to write down all your visits to the US - dates etc on one of the visa forms so you might get questioned at some point in the immigration process about how you were spending so much time in the US as a visitor.

You will find many lawyers suggestion option 4 as there are many people who manage to get away with it. The lawyer gets paid either way so they seem to see it as a 'grey area'. The basics though are that if you have intent to come back on your non immigration visa and then adjust to a green card you are committing fraud.

However if you are already in the US - entered with no intent to immigrate - and then decide to adjust and stay you are fine.

It seems as though because it's hard to prove intent that there are very few couples who get denied - although it does happen.

In your case you might have a struggle though because you seem to have been basically 'living' in the US for a while and if you look at the pattern of you coming and going I imagine it would look as though you definitely had immigrant intent. I'm not a lawyer or a customs official though.

You must do what you feel comfortable with.

What is option 4?

Aren't you legally married already? (Married anywhere means married in the US.)

Option 4 was the illegal option of coming back after the trip to France and then starting the AOS

[Allwyna 1]

I can try.... if they have a heart . I came and "lived" with my future (we will get married next week in Miami) husband, because he has been diagnosed with a cancer, then had a surgery then chemos and just had a hip replacement (we are seniors), and when he learned that I told him "I won't leave you until you are cured". Well.... Of course I wanted.... before meeting him, I tried hard to find a job. Even with my skills, nobody wanted to take the risk. I tried so hard that I had a heart problem (in France). Then I bought my house and last year a small apartment (maybe no need to tell them).

But they already asked me the dates of my previous visits in the US. so I am ready for that. Thanks

Sorry for all those details

[canadian_wife 1,823]

What was option 4 your lawyers suggested?

good luck

[Ryan H 3,813]

***One post advocating visa fraud removed along with another quoting.***

~~~"Option 4" that the OP alludes to is visa fraud which is illegal and a TOS violation. Any more posts advocating this will be deleted and the poster subjected to Administrative Action.~~~

[Boiler 45,690]

Actually, The duration of a tourist visa is up to six months after that we conformal leave that place. I think, In this duration you can apply for a permanent status citizenships.

Employment Immigration law firm

Albanian E2, Now that is unusual.

[Allwyna 1]

If I understand correctly, one comes to the US for 3 or 6 months, depending on their visa, spends one's money here, with NO intention of staying, of course because the US wants to kick one out. And all of a sudden, one files for a Green Card.

What hypocrisy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, what is the non-fraudulent path?

If I understand correctly too, all the posters did the process at a moment or another.... because all Americans are immigrants.

Many thanks to Lynne, the most helpful member.

[aaron2020 11,651]

If I understand correctly, one comes to the US for 3 or 6 months, depending on their visa, spends one's money here, with NO intention of staying, of course because the US wants to kick one out. And all of a sudden, one files for a Green Card.

What hypocrisy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, what is the non-fraudulent path?

If I understand correctly too, all the posters did the process at a moment or another.... because all Americans are immigrants.

Many thanks to Lynne, the most helpful member.

When I let a guest into my house for a short visit, and the guest decides to stay permanent against my rules - you are fine with this? Where is my hypocrisy when I kick this guest out?

Sorry about your situation. However, we have laws. Sorry that you failed to learn what was needed to follow our laws before you decided to make your plans.

Sorry that out laws do not fit your plans (or lack of planning).

Sorry that you as a foreign citizen feels ENTITLED to live in the US.

We are a nation of immigrants. It doesn't mean every one of the 6,000,000,000 non-US citizens in the world are ENTITLED to come here.

With your attitude, don't expect to get help when you whine about us being hypocrites when you behave as an ENTITLED . . .

Edited February 23, 2014 by aaron2020

[aaron2020 11,651]

By the way, you have been given three non-fraudulent options.

[Owen_London 65]

Albanian E2, Now that is unusual.

Going to Alaska.

It's a spammer who's just selected the first option alphabetically for everything.

[Boiler 45,690]

Ohhh yes