American Ex-Pat married over 10 years to foreign spouse. Automatically an US Citizen?

sjb

New Member
I bet this question has been asked before, but I cannot find anything threads on the topic, so here goes...

I was born and raised in the United States and moved to the UK in my mid thirties to be with my British wife. I never gave up my American citizenship, and I've become a dual citizen (I got British citizenship through my wife). We got married in Miami, Florida over 10 years ago (if it would help with her case) and we have a daughter (she too has dual citizenship).

My wife and I heard something to the effect that if we've been married such a long time, she could be eligible to become an American citizen and does not need a green card.

Is this true? If so, how do we apply for her to get American citizenship? And can it be done while still living outside the country?
 
I bet this question has been asked before, but I cannot find anything threads on the topic, so here goes...

I was born and raised in the United States and moved to the UK in my mid thirties to be with my British wife. I never gave up my American citizenship, and I've become a dual citizen (I got British citizenship through my wife). We got married in Miami, Florida over 10 years ago (if it would help with her case) and we have a daughter (she too has dual citizenship).

My wife and I heard something to the effect that if we've been married such a long time, she could be eligible to become an American citizen and does not need a green card.

Is this true? If so, how do we apply for her to get American citizenship? And can it be done while still living outside the country?
To keep it short : NO she doesnt autmatically become a citizen by just being married to you!!

If that was the case millions and millions of people around the world would become american citizens. Just by being married and not having to file any paperwork.

You would have to petition for her. When she comes to the states gets a GC then after 3 years she can apply for citizenship instead of the usuall 5 years seeing that she is married to an american citizen.
 
Just to add that not only does she not get it automatically, she can’t even get a green card unless you move back to the US - both for her to get it, and for her to keep it at least until she becomes a citizen which she can do after 3 years’ residence as a spouse of a USC (vs 5 years for everyone else). You’d need to be able to sponsor her on your own income or get a joint sponsor. I believe the UK has direct consular filing (DCF) for spousal visa so you should be able to complete the process before moving, and DCF tends to be much faster than filing from the US, but you would need to demonstrate intent to (re)establish domicile in the US. Part of the paperwork would be your tax returns so if you are not up to date with the IRS, that would probably be the first thing to sort out. If you don’t intend to move back to the US there is no point doing it as she would be unable to meet the requirements to keep her green card.

(Possibly what you heard was a distorted version of the fact that marriages that have existed longer than 2 years get an unconditional green card for the spouse, whereas those less than 2 years get a conditional green card.)

Also FYI unlike some countries, US family based visas are specifically for “family reunification” to prevent a situation where some of a family live in the US and some out. So if you all together with no intent to resume residence in the US, there is no basis for the visa to be issued.
 
Your wife is not automatically eligible for US Citizenship by virtue of being married to one; no matter how long you've been married.

She must first become a US Legal Permanent Resident, aka a green card. Being married ten+ years, she'd automatically get a 10-yr GC. After three years of living in marital union in the US (of which a majority of time must be physically within the US), she would become eligible to apply for US citizenship.
 
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