Advice Needed on Sponsorship of Wife

M

Mr_Z

New Member
Hi all,

I am a US citizen, currently living in Cananda. I'm planning to head on south in a couple of months to start a new business.

I wish to sponsor my fiancee, also currently living in Canada, so that she can come over and join me in a few months time.

Before I speak with a laywer, I was hoping the kind people on this site could share some of their experiences as to what options are available to me and shed a little light on the process.

My questions are:
  1. Should we get married here and then sponsor her out right before she comes over or apply for the fiancee visa and get married in the US?
  2. How long would the sponsorship process take for a married couple applying from Canada?
  3. How long would the Fiancee visa path take all the way to the obtention of the Green Card?
  4. If she came to the US through the Fiancee visa, Would she be able to leave the country in case of an emergency?

Thanks for your help!
 
The fiancee visa generally takes about 3-6 months (may be somewhat faster or slower for some countries ... I don't know the specific statistics about Canada). Then after arrival in the US with the visa, there is a 90-day deadline to get married. Then after getting married and filing the I-485 paperwork (Adjustment of Status), another 3-6 months to green card approval.

The spousal immigrant visa takes about 6-12 months, but once approved and she enters the US with it, she is instantly a permanent resident and the physical green card will be delivered within a month. If she needs to travel before receiving the plastic card, the stamp in her passport will serve as a temporary green card.

However, if she wants to travel back and forth before green card approval, that creates a dilemma. If you file for the spousal immigrant visa and she attempts to enter the US while that process is pending, she could be refused entry if the officer at the border or airport realizes she is married to a US citizen and has an immigrant petition filed for her. But at the Canada-US land border they tend to be less thorough with reading information in the computer system than they do at airports, so if she travels separately from you and uses a land border, there's a good chance they won't know about the marriage or her immigration process. Once she enters the US successfully, going back to Canada during the process will not be a problem whatsoever.

Whereas with the fiancee visa, it's a one-use visa, and leaving the US before completing the combination of getting married + filing for adjustment of status + receiving the Advance Parole document could cause a huge setback, possibly having to restart the whole process.
 
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Quick Question:

My fiancee is in UK. She has a visitors visa. If she comes here and I sponsor her as a spouse, then she goes back immediately, Can she enter USA with her visa if she does not apply for advanced parole?
 
If you're sponsoring her with the consular processing option (i.e. she'll be fingerprinted/interviewed at the US consulate in the UK), she won't get or need Advance Parole and she can leave the US as soon as she wants.

The problem is that once you get married and file for her, she may be unable to enter the US again before the process is complete at the consulate, because spouses of US citizens have a very high rate of overstay.
 
Advance Parole is for people who are already in the US, have filed for (or are in the process of filing for) Adjustment of Status, and they plan to remain in the US to pursue the green card process to completion but want to exit the US temporarily during the process. That doesn't seem to fit her situation. She's not supposed to arrive in the US with a tourist visa while having a plan to stay in the US for adjustment of status.
 
Advanced parole

The reason I am asking for advanced parole is she currently works in UK and has to go back.
 
The reason I am asking for advanced parole is she currently works in UK and has to go back.
Click to expand...

Advance Parole in the context of a marriage-based green card process is not given to people who are pursuing the process through a consulate. It is for people who are already in the US and will stay in the US to follow the green card process to completion, but want to exit the US temporarily during the process. For those people, exiting the US without Advance Parole would cancel their adjustment of status (with the exception of certain types of dual-intent visa holders).

But if you file for her and choose a consulate in the UK for question 22 of the I-130, she won't need Advance Parole to go back to the UK. When she's ready to go back to the UK, she goes, and the process will continue normally. Visiting the US again with a tourist visa after marrying you may be problematic, but Advance Parole is not given for such a situation.

If hassled at the port of entry on her second visit because of her marriage to you, she can point out that consular processing was selected on the I-130, and that she got married to you in the US on her previous visit and left the US without overstaying. Hopefully that will convince the officer to let her in. But if she is refused entry because of her marriage to you, it won't affect her green card process. She'll just return to the UK to await her interview at the US consulate.
 
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Jackolantern said:
The fiancee visa generally takes about 3-6 months (may be somewhat faster or slower for some countries ... I don't know the specific statistics about Canada). Then after arrival in the US with the visa, there is a 90-day deadline to get married. Then after getting married and filing the I-485 paperwork (Adjustment of Status), another 3-6 months to green card approval.

The spousal immigrant visa takes about 6-12 months, but once approved and she enters the US with it, she is instantly a permanent resident and the physical green card will be delivered within a month. If she needs to travel before receiving the plastic card, the stamp in her passport will serve as a temporary green card.

However, if she wants to travel back and forth before green card approval, that creates a dilemma. If you file for the spousal immigrant visa and she attempts to enter the US while that process is pending, she could be refused entry if the officer at the border or airport realizes she is married to a US citizen and has an immigrant petition filed for her. But at the Canada-US land border they tend to be less thorough with reading information in the computer system than they do at airports, so if she travels separately from you and uses a land border, there's a good chance they won't know about the marriage or her immigration process. Once she enters the US successfully, going back to Canada during the process will not be a problem whatsoever.

Whereas with the fiancee visa, it's a one-use visa, and leaving the US before completing the combination of getting married + filing for adjustment of status + receiving the Advance Parole document could cause a huge setback, possibly having to restart the whole process.
Click to expand...

Hi Jacko,

Thanks much for your reply. We would prefer for her to enter the US with her GC in hand, because she she may have to go back and forth for a while due to family reasons.

The question then becomes whether it'll be processed more quickly if I file the I-130 from within the US or while I'm still here in Canada!

I know you mentioned you didn't have the statistics on Canada. I was wondering if you knew how I can obtain current processing times for Toronto, Ontario and also the Southern California region (I don't know if there is one or multiple offices handling that region).

I tried browsing the USCIS site. I visited the Processing Time Information page but couldn't find anything for my type of case!
(h t t p s ://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do;jsessionid=abclcyXFh0Cg04cDtdm9s)

Thanks again!
 
Mr_Z said:
Thanks much for your reply. We would prefer for her to enter the US with her GC in hand, because she she may have to go back and forth for a while due to family reasons.
Click to expand...

It's a case of pick your poison. There is no available option that provides total freedom to travel in both directions during the process. If she does consular processing, she might have a problem entering the US during the process because they'll suspect she's going to overstay and immigrate. But if she is allowed to enter, she can exit as soon as she wants.

Whereas if she does adjustment of status in the US, exiting the US before having Advance Parole would mess things up. And she also has to be in the US for fingerprinting and interview.

So it comes down to a choice of the certainty of being stuck inside the US for some time, vs. the possibility being stuck outside the US.
 
Jackolantern said:
It's a case of pick your poison. There is no available option that provides total freedom to travel in both directions during the process. If she does consular processing, she might have a problem entering the US during the process because they'll suspect she's going to overstay and immigrate. But if she is allowed to enter, she can exit as soon as she wants.

Whereas if she does adjustment of status in the US, exiting the US before having Advance Parole would mess things up. And she also has to be in the US for fingerprinting and interview.

So it comes down to a choice of the certainty of being stuck inside the US for some time, vs. the possibility being stuck outside the US.
Click to expand...

Hi Jacko,

Weighing both options, it would seem that applying for the GC outright would be a better solution in our particular situation. In other words, I don't want to go the fiancee visa path and get married in the US and file for the adjustment of status. I want to get married in Canada and petition for her while she is still in Canada, so that she can enter the US with her permanent residency in hand. That would afford her the freedom to travel back to Canada if necessary, once in the US.

So as the next step , I would need to find out which is the fastest way to accomplish the above: a) to petition for her through the US embassy in Canada or b) to petition for her from within the US (southern California).

Hence I was asking you if you knew how I can find out the current processing time for both locations.

Thanks again for your input!
 
Mr_Z said:
So as the next step , I would need to find out which is the fastest way to accomplish the above: a) to petition for her through the US embassy in Canada or b) to petition for her from within the US (southern California).
Click to expand...

For (a) it looks like you're referring to DCF (Direct Consular Filing), where you file the I-130 directly with the consulate, whereas (b) is the usual procedure where you file it with an immigration center in the US and then they forward it to the consulate after approving it.

Option (a) is almost always faster. But consulates have rules and restrictions surrounding DCF (e.g. the US citizen spouse must have lived in the given country legally for a certain number of months and still be living there when it's filed), and many consulates don't allow it at all. I think only one consulate in Canada allows it (Montreal?). Read their web site, and contact them to find out which consulates in Canada offer DCF and to inquire about your eligibility for it.
 
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