Green Card holder How to bring girlfriend here in the States

[Soap141 0]

Hi visa journey. Im planning to bring my girlfriend from the Philippines here in America. I do understand that we need  to get married first before we can do anything. My question is, what steps that needs to be done after the wedding? Can we apply her application in the Philippines? Do I need to be physically present here in the states to do that? How long does it take for her to get her green card? Thanks all.

[geowrian 22,338]

You are correct - as an LPR, you can only bring a spouse, not a fiancee. So the first step is to get married, which you can do anywhere. Once married, you need to file an I-130 for her. As an LPR, there is no visa immediately available, so once the I-130 is approved, you will get a priority date (PD). When your PD becomes current (check the monthly visa bulletin), you can work on the next part at NVC and schedule the interview and such. In your case, you are looking at roughly 18-24 months for the PD to become current. Then a couple months to get the visa after that.

 

You can marry anywhere and file the I-130 from anywhere.

 

Best wishes!

 

Edit: You still need to retain permanent residence within the US, as @Transborderwife noted. Thanks for the reminder!

Edited February 20, 2017 by geowrian

[Transborderwife 4,666]

32 minutes ago, Soap141 said:

Hi visa journey. Im planning to bring my girlfriend from the Philippines here in America. I do understand that we need  to get married first before we can do anything. My question is, what steps that needs to be done after the wedding? Can we apply her application in the Philippines? Do I need to be physically present here in the states to do that? How long does it take for her to get her green card? Thanks all.

Seeing as the process takes up to two years, yes being physically present in the USA is important as you could effectively abandon your greencard without a re entry permit