Green Card for spouse -- I am a Citizen

[mickyji]

Hello Immigration Gurus:

I am expecting my citizenship in two weeks (Oath ceremony is scheduled for end of the month). My wife is (obviously) in USA and her employer had filed her Green Card 4-5 years ago and her I-485 is pending for over 3 years. She has been renewing her EAD and Advance Parole for over 3 years now.

Question is, is there someway I can speed-up the original I-485 application (make use of the fact that the spouse is a citizen) or do I have to apply another I-130 + I-485 etc? Also, if I have to file everything fresh, would I need to go over medical, etc all over again?

Best,
MickyJi

[austriacus]

Can you tell me if I'm right, her I-485 is pending due to retrogression (as opposed to a pending name check)?

You can make use of the fact that you'll be a citizen by filing a complete immediate relative family based concurrent AOS application (I-130, I-485, etc.) with your wife. Yes, your wife needs a new medical because it is only valid for one year from filing I-485.

An immigrant number will be immediately available for your wife so retrogression will not affect your family based case. However, if she's stuck in name check, it can happen again in the second application.

In case you're wondering, both her EB and FB based AOS cases can be pursued simultaneously until one of them gets approved first.

How long have you been married?

[mickyji]

Thanks, austriacus.

From what the INS told my wife, they were waiting for Visa numbers to be available. So I am assuming they cleared the name? Her priority date is Aug 2002 (Texas Service Center).

Do you think she might get the employment based Green Card earlier?

Thanks again!
M

[austriacus]

"Waiting for visa numbers" means she applied at some point when her priority date was current (a visa number was available) and subsequently during processing of her I-485 priority dates retrogressed (visa numbers became unavailable).

You can check here how close she is to her PD coming current again. It depends if she applied in EB2 or EB3 category, and if she's from China, India, Mexico, Philippines or another country. Looks like either way her PD should be very close to being current or maybe already current.

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