GC for spouse of a GC holder?

[steffi]

Is the rule different for a spouse of GC holder and the spouse of a citizen?

ie. why is a spouse of a US citizen able to remain in the US whilst her GC is being processed whereas the spouse of a GC holder will be required to leave?

Is that the current law?

[LucyMO]

because there is a quota on a number of immigrant visas for spouses of LPRs, and there is no quota for spouses of USC.

Spouse of LPR is not required to leave. They are required to maintain their non-immigrant legal status until they are able to apply for adjustment of status (that's the moment they get their immigrant visa number). Or they can leave and wait outside the U.S.

[steffi]

Right now I'm a GC holder and I've just submitted my citizenship application and my spouse is with me. My lawyer tells me that when I file a GC for my spouse and I'll be refiling an I-130 at the time also but she says that it's best to start the I-130 as soon as possible...

What benefit is there in doing that? If we do that that immediately would establish immigration intent for my spouse would it not?

[jancdn]

Steffi -good question! I am in a similar situation and decided against filing the 130 until after citizenship. I was also concerned about being on record with immigration intent. This is mainly due to frequent visits as Canadian spouse continued to reside in Canada and would declare at border crossing "I am going to visit my spouse". This sets up enough alarms without being on record. It helped that Cdn spouse owned home in Canada.

Another concern we had on filing the 130 was potential paperwork or processing issues/errors down the road when it came to transferring the 130 to the ist preference catagory.

My research came up with cons and no pros. Others may know different.