microcebus

Thanks! I meant to ask: will she need to have biometrics taken again, given that she already did this for the I-751? We haven't applied for U.S. citizenship for her. She is not interested in becoming a U.S. citizen.

My wife is a citizen of Singapore, a permanent resident of Australia, and a green card holder in the U.S. She arrived in the U.S. on a K-1 visa, and we successfully adjusted her status (I-485). She is on a temporary green card, and we have a letter from USCIS stating that its validity has been extended into 2025 (48 months past our I-751 filing date). We have been waiting over two years for her Removal of Conditions (I-751). For several reasons, we intend to move back to Australia next month. We can’t postpone this move further due to Australia's Resident Return Visa (RRV) rules. Because my wife has been outside Australia for over 4 years, the Australian government has told us that they will require her to get another visa if we delay the move further. Currently, we are not considering this to be a definitely permanent move. We need to try living in Australia first and determine if living there will be a better fit for us. We need to sell our house and cars to be able to buy a house and car(s) in Australia, so for now our ties back to the U.S. will primarily be my job (as a full-time contractor of a U.S.-based company) and my parents (who live here). If our house here does not sell, we will still own it and will pursue renting it out. We will also continue to file U.S. tax returns — and Australia tax returns when we have become tax residents there. I have seen some topics here at VisaJourney (like this one) about this type of move, but they are from years ago. I am not sure if the laws have changed. I am trying to find out how she can get back to the U.S. if we need to come back. So far, she got an I-131 combo card (EAD/AP) during the Adjustment of Status process, and she has already had biometrics taken for Removal of Conditions. What is the re-entry permit that we need to get for my wife? (Is this the same as either the I-131 Advanced Parole for the combo card from our I-485 process, or the Returning Resident Visa for the U.S.?) Does my wife already have this re-entry permit based on having a conditional green card (plus USCIS’s extension letter and an I-551 Extension stamp in her passport)? How long does my wife need to be in the U.S. for this re-entry permit to be processed? (She already had biometrics taken as part of the I-751 process.) Can we make the deadline of moving to Australia by a month from now? If not, what is our best option? Can my wife be outside the U.S. while the re-entry permit application is being processed? Is my wife’s (future) job with an organization based in Australia or the sale of our house a red flag? We most likely do have a place to stay temporarily if we need to come back to the U.S. Do we need to buy round-trip flight tickets to Australia? (One-way and round-trip to Australia are currently about the same price. But I don’t see why we should get another ticket to come back to the U.S. when we would need a round-trip ticket from Australia in order to make a trip back here.) Will changing our mailing address with USCIS to my dad’s address have any tax implications for us? (His state has state income tax; our current state does not.) What would happen to our ongoing I-751 application if we leave the U.S.? Will it still be processed?

My wife and I were planning to go overseas for the holidays this year. We had to cancel the trip yesterday while we were at the airport because she had left her green card at home and we could not check her in for her flight. (She still has a Singapore passport and isn’t going to pursue U.S. citizenship.) Although we initially had the airline reschedule the trip to today, we ended up canceling the trip. Her green card has an expiration date of over a year ago (September 2021). The I-751 NOA, which we received in July 2021, says her conditional permanent residency is extended for 18 months from the date which is on the card (not the date which is on the NOA, so March 2023). She originally moved to the U.S. in November 2018 under the K-1 visa. Her original EAD/AP combo card expired in 2020. Two employees at the airline check-in, who are immigrants too, told us that the airports in Europe would not allow her to board the flight and she would be stuck in Europe. They also said the airline would be fined $15,000 for letting an “illegal” immigrant back into the U.S. After we found this thread, we were no longer confident that she could travel abroad even with the green card and the original of the NOA. If she is deported, that is a criminal offense which would kick her out of the U.S. and cancel her Australia permanent residency (which she also has). We want to move back to Australia, so a 10-day vacation to Europe is not worth the risk of losing that. So this raises several concerns for us (aside from trying to get a refund on our expensive travel)… USCIS processing times at YSC for I-751 are now 26 months. Our extension was only 18 months, and the USCIS case inquiry said we could not even ask them about the case until October 2023. How can my wife still legally be in the United States and be able to work while we are still waiting for USCIS? Why don’t the extension letters cover this entire lengthy processing time? We filed the correct papers and paid all of the fees… why would she be treated like an illegal immigrant? How do we get an extension that the airlines and customs people will actually, consistently, honor? With the documents we currently have, it’s luck of the draw and we can’t travel abroad without worrying about this. If she had a family emergency and had to go back to Singapore or Australia, how can she do even that travel without running the risk of not being let back in to the U.S.?