Is there a chance?

[spmalone 0]

My daughter, a K2, has been in the USA for almost 4 years. USCIS really screwed up her AOS, cost us 13,500 in lawyers, so she has only had her green card for about 2 years is there way she can file for citizenship before having her green card for 5 years? The deal is she married her high school sweat heart and has filed the I130 form, but the wait is much shorter if you are a citizen. I am hoping that since the USCIS admitted that they were wrong there may be a way to cut the 5 year wait. Please, stop the laughter I understand we are dealing with the USCIS. The delay in getting her green card was due to her being older than 18. Yes, we know and you know the law says under the age of 21 and unmarried. Yes she was unmarried and under 21, but we had to fight it until one day in court the ICE lawyer told the Judge that they had made a mistake and they were issuing a green card. Say good bye to 13,500 in the process. So, back to the question is there any way to get citizenship before you have your green card for 5 years? Thank You for your responses.

[john_and_marlene 162]

My daughter, a K2, has been in the USA for almost 4 years. USCIS really screwed up her AOS, cost us 13,500 in lawyers, so she has only had her green card for about 2 years is there way she can file for citizenship before having her green card for 5 years? The deal is she married her high school sweat heart and has filed the I130 form, but the wait is much shorter if you are a citizen. I am hoping that since the USCIS admitted that they were wrong there may be a way to cut the 5 year wait. Please, stop the laughter I understand we are dealing with the USCIS. The delay in getting her green card was due to her being older than 18. Yes, we know and you know the law says under the age of 21 and unmarried. Yes she was unmarried and under 21, but we had to fight it until one day in court the ICE lawyer told the Judge that they had made a mistake and they were issuing a green card. Say good bye to 13,500 in the process. So, back to the question is there any way to get citizenship before you have your green card for 5 years? Thank You for your responses.

There's no provision for getting it in less time due to delays in getting permanent residence.

She can file the petition as an LPR and then upgrade it when she becomes a citizen.

[warlord 73]

The wait time for Citizenship will be based on the PR date aka the Green Card. Time before the card is not taken into account regardless. This is why INS is so much fun for people to deal with, you don't know if you're in for a good ride or like you a screwed up one. Either way, their mistake or not, you will still have to take that hit.

Only other thing is to spend 1000's more for more lawyers to take INS to court and see if they can alter the PR date which won't happen.

Why would getting married on a green card be different then if she was a USC? I guess I can't think of anything that would be different unless her finance doesn't have a GC, but if he was in highschool then I assume he was...

[lucyrich 20]

Why would getting married on a green card be different then if she was a USC? I guess I can't think of anything that would be different unless her finance doesn't have a GC, but if he was in highschool then I assume he was...

The OP said she filed an I-130, and the wait is less if you're a US Citizen. I'd assume the new spouse doesn't have a GC. I'd guess the OP's daughter probably married a sweetheart from her high school in the other country, but there are other possibilities.

Regardless, the other posters are right. It's a hard statuatory requirement to have the green card for five years before attaining citizenship, and no bureaucrat has the authority to waive that requirement, even if the GC was delayed due to a USCIS error. The only choices are to either wait the full five years (you can file the paperwork 90 days before the five years are up, provided all other requirements are met), or to try and fit into one of the categories for which the five year continuous residence requirement doesn't apply. You can scan the M-476 to see what special circumstances can shortcut the five year requirement, but from my memory, military service is about the only one that would seem likely to be possible, and that may not be palatable. Marriage to a US citizen would shortcut it to three years, but that doesn't seem to be a possibility in your daughter's case.

There might be some remote possibility of getting them to retroactively change the effective date of permanent residence, but that REALLY, REALLY doesn't seem likely. Speak to that expensive lawyer, and if there's any chance of trying this strategy, expect it to be expensive.