J1 physician married to green card holder - visa renewal

[Asker1234 0]

Hi,

 

i have a green card, which I received via work about 2 years ago.

 

Last year, I married a J1 visa holder.

 

My wife wants to go back home for a visit, and because her stamp is expired, she is planning to apply for a fresh stamp.

 

My wife is subject to the 2 year requirement and we intend to move back home anyway (same home country for both of us). She has a couple of years training left.

 

would renewing her J1 stamp cause issues because she is now married to a green card holder?

 

please help

 

 

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

Are you planning to abandon your green card to move back home?  A green card comes with US residency requirements. 

[NancyLyz 58]

4 hours ago, Asker1234 said:

Hi,

 

i have a green card, which I received via work about 2 years ago.

 

Last year, I married a J1 visa holder.

 

My wife wants to go back home for a visit, and because her stamp is expired, she is planning to apply for a fresh stamp.

 

My wife is subject to the 2 year requirement and we intend to move back home anyway (same home country for both of us). She has a couple of years training left.

 

would renewing her J1 stamp cause issues because she is now married to a green card holder?

 

please help

 

 

If you have not filed for adjustment of status, then her status will not be affected by the marriage. However, I don't think as a permanent resident, you can live outside the States as a resident. Chances are you'll have to be in the States or you will have to abandon your green card.

[Asker1234 0]

thanks for the responses

 

It’s a good question, and I’m not sure of the answer myself.

 

the plan is a minimum to accompany my wife for her 2 year period. By the time she finishes training and leaves, I’ll be pretty close to 5 year mark and may well get citizenship before we head back. 

 

And then after her 2 year period is over, who knows, maybe we decide to come back to the us.

 

if this is the plan, will the visa officer doubt her non immigrant intent and not renew her visa?

[Roel 7,192]

If you're planning to move abroad for 2 years, you'll loose the green card. Even with re-entry permit, you can only be abroad for 1 year.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

6 hours ago, Asker1234 said:

the plan is a minimum to accompany my wife for her 2 year period. By the time she finishes training and leaves, I’ll be pretty close to 5 year mark and may well get citizenship before we head back. 

 

And then after her 2 year period is over, who knows, maybe we decide to come back to the us.

1. You’ll need a reentry permit to stay abroad for 2 years without losing your green card. REPs have a 2 year expiry so if by “minimum “ you mean you might be gone longer than 2 years then you will definitely lose your green card 

2. You need to understand the physical and continuous presence requirements for citizenship. You won’t be anywhere near it & certainly won’t get it before you get back, in fact, your absence of longer than 6 months will make any previous residence irrelevant for your naturalization count, and your 5 year clock will start all over again when you re-enter the US.  

6 hours ago, Roel said:

If you're planning to move abroad for 2 years, you'll loose the green card. Even with re-entry permit, you can only be abroad for 1 year.

REP is 2 years. 

Edited July 10, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[Roel 7,192]

@SusieQQQ

Edited July 10, 2018 by Roel
Lol can't edit the post body. Anyway, yeah, you're right! Not sure why I thoughts its just for a year!

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

8 hours ago, Asker1234 said:

thanks for the responses

 

It’s a good question, and I’m not sure of the answer myself.

 

the plan is a minimum to accompany my wife for her 2 year period. By the time she finishes training and leaves, I’ll be pretty close to 5 year mark and may well get citizenship before we head back. 

 

And then after her 2 year period is over, who knows, maybe we decide to come back to the us.

 

if this is the plan, will the visa officer doubt her non immigrant intent and not renew her visa?

Yours posts and assumptions make your ties to the US sound tenuous, particularly the bold above. 

 

Forget US citizenship, your green card could be at risk the way the post is worded. 

[Asker1234 0]

Thanks for the responses.

 

Perhaps because of the way I have phrased the question, seems like the answers are getting side-tracked.

 

1) I understand the 5 year wait, path, and constraints for applying for citizenship

2) I understand that the whole point of green card is to become and stay a permanent resident (as an aside, there are several people whom I know, who have taken up international assignments for their US-based company, and have no issues with green card)

 

As in any real-life situation, there is a lot of gray. For example, while my wife is completing her 2 year requiremwnt in our country, I can try to take an international assignment.

 

So, back to the real question -- it's about the immediate question for my wife. If she goes back home and files for J1 visa renewal, will the visa officer reject her because she is married to me, an immigrant with a green card, even if she currently has every intention to return to her country? ....Or are you seriously suggesting that they are going to revoke my green card (which sounds rather draconian and unrealistic)

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

16 minutes ago, Asker1234 said:

Thanks for the responses.

 

Perhaps because of the way I have phrased the question, seems like the answers are getting side-tracked.

 

1) I understand the 5 year wait, path, and constraints for applying for citizenship

2) I understand that the whole point of green card is to become and stay a permanent resident (as an aside, there are several people whom I know, who have taken up international assignments for their US-based company, and have no issues with green card)

 

As in any real-life situation, there is a lot of gray. For example, while my wife is completing her 2 year requiremwnt in our country, I can try to take an international assignment.

 

 

I don’t think you do on (1). There is no way you can get citizenship while being resident outside the US, as you implied in an earlier post. Are you absolutely certain you are familiar with the continuous residence and physical presence requirements for naturalization? And with the residence requirement for the area in which you apply?

re (2), how many of them have been outside for a “minimum” of 2 years with no re-entry permit? Do you understand that there are residence requirements for maintaining a green card, and what they are?

 

Do you honestly  people never get their green cards revoked for spending too much time outside the US?

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[Asker1234 0]

Seems like everyone is latching on the wrong point....what about the following situation -- assume it's hypothetical:

• X received green card in 2016, and will have resided continuously in the US (less than one month a year abroad) until 2021
• X will then apply for citizenship
• X met and married Y, well after receiving green card. Y is on J-1, with a 2-year requirement
• Y does not intend to stay in the US long-term
• Y's program ends in 2020, but, as physicians frequently do, she thinks she will stay on for perhaps another 1-2 years doing additional specialization or research, on her J-1 status

Now, Y wants to renew her J-1 visa stamp, and she goes out of the country for that. Y does not have immigrant intent, and has never made plans to stay in the US beyond her training.

 

Question: will visa officer reject her J-1 visa renewal, because he/she'll doubt whether Y truly has no immigrant intent?

 

Please focus on the situation above, and it's especially helpful if you know someone who has been in this scenario. If you don't, and only have comments on obscure technicalities, or to vent some vigilante biases, then please move on to troll another thread!

 

Thanks!

 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

 

Hmm... well it wouldn’t be the first time someone hasn’t realized they are going down a dangerous path immigration-wise and it gets pointed out to them on here, sorry you think that’s being “vigilante” (lolwtf)

 

Hypothetically, calling people trolls doesn’t get you too far. Also, TOS.

 

Good luck with finding as you require people who have been in your hypothetical situation.  

[arken 4,197]

There is a very good chance she gets denied at the interview because by marrying you, she has cleary shown the immigrant intent when J1 is purely a nonimmigrant visa (marrying a GC holder with no immigrant intent doesn’t fly with anyone especially the COs). There is also some chance that she gets approved.

 

If I were you, I would tell her not to go out of US before finishing her J1 course.

Edited July 11, 2018 by arken

[WeGuyGal 1,052]

13 hours ago, Asker1234 said:

Thanks for the responses.

 

Perhaps because of the way I have phrased the question, seems like the answers are getting side-tracked.

 

1) I understand the 5 year wait, path, and constraints for applying for citizenship

2) I understand that the whole point of green card is to become and stay a permanent resident (as an aside, there are several people whom I know, who have taken up international assignments for their US-based company, and have no issues with green card)

 

As in any real-life situation, there is a lot of gray. For example, while my wife is completing her 2 year requiremwnt in our country, I can try to take an international assignment.

 

So, back to the real question -- it's about the immediate question for my wife. If she goes back home and files for J1 visa renewal, will the visa officer reject her because she is married to me, an immigrant with a green card, even if she currently has every intention to return to her country? ....Or are you seriously suggesting that they are going to revoke my green card (which sounds rather draconian and unrealistic)

You're asking.. whether she gets rejected.. no one on this forum can say with certainty what the visa officer will decide. Each case/scenario is different, and is decided on it's own merit. Best not to compare your case with the other "several people" whom you know. As always, there would be disparities between your case and theirs, and they may have have been assigned to different COs than you(r wife). Therefore, apples to oranges. 

 

You seem set on a particular approach, and unwilling/uninterested in advice when it runs contrary to your needs. Rather than practice the use of terms like vigilantes and trolls on this thread, suggest have your wife apply. Roll the dice and see. 

 

Honestly speaking, very few of those on green cards + US visas end up moving to another country for good. You received an EB-category green card having spent xx number of years in the US, married to a spouse in training in the US; good luck convincing the CO your wife, aka, a NIV applicant, has no immigrant intent. Her "currently" having every intention to return to her country is unlikely to fly with a visa officer. But who knows, she may obtain a visa. There's only one way to find out..

[Asker1234 0]

Thanks arken for your perspective.

 

For others, having been a user of other immigration forums, I'm a bit surprised by the mean-spirited attitudes, and the inability to apply simple logic on this forum. But then again it makes sense since the primary audience is one that entered into a marriage to get a green card...so, yeah...

 

As for "WeGuyGal" -- if you're saying that couples in my/my wife's situation will rarely move back, then why stop there? Why not look at J1 physicians in general? Vast, vast majority stay and eventually get green cards. I know of no examples where the person chose to go back, unless it was triggered by a family emergency. Is the visa officer blind to these statistics?