complexe issue with new immigration visa

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usfamily77

New Member
I am a US citizen (born & raised). My wife, a Chinese citizen, applied for a visa to visit my family. But, was turned down. Oddly, they recommended we apply for a green card so she could go to the USA for a visit. I work as a teacher and consultant in China. She received her 2-year green card at July 3rd 2006. I work teaching in China, and we only planned to visit my family (since they've never met her). We did visit for July 4th 2006, and returned to my job in China by about July 26th of 2006. We haven’t gone back since.

There are mixed signals at the Guangzhou consulate. First, there is a I-407 where she’d give up her green card and residency in the USA. But some people at the embassy (Chinese advisors), say she should use SB-1 visa form, pay 400 USD to be evaluated and likely ‘denied’ an extension. Where upon after a second fee, she’d possibly be THEN be told to do the I407, and ‘reapply’ for a new immigration visa.

We, my wife and me, would like to know how we should proceed to secure a New Green card when, in 2008, we plan to establish a permanent home stateside (my work in China will be mostly completed), so we can then start our own family (children).

Please advise as to if it is ‘wise’ to not go through the expensive SB-1 apply, denial, etc. process….and to simply go ahead and give up the current green card & residents (I407), and then reapply for a immigration visa?


Thank you for your advise and informative details.
 
she MUST reenter the US with her GC before July 26 2007 (less than a year of being outside the US). If she does not return to the US within a year of leaving the US the last time, she will be abandoning her GC. You should be travelling with her as to "vouch" that she actually lives in the States.

If she is applying for a non-immigrant visa (while she is a permanent resident of the US), she is abandoning her GC.

Do not forget to apply for conditions removal within 90 days of her GC's expiration date. If you don't, she won't have a GC anymore, and you will have a big mess on your hands exacerbated by the fact that you will need to apply for a new immigrant visa which takes about a year.

IN order to keep her GC, she needs to live in the States permanently. She can be travelling outside the US for up to a year (while maintaining residence in the US - a driver's license, address, bank accounts, credit cards and most importantly - FILE TAXES as a US resident). If she needs to stay outside the US for more than a year but less than two - she needs to apply for a reentry permit (for I-131) when she is physically in the US. Keep proof.
 
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While we are at this ... I'm considering in the future to live in Austria with my wife for a while, so I'm interested in keeping the GC too. What are the minimum requirements to keep the GC for someone living outside the country? Is a periodic return "visit" to the US enough?

OP, do you have a long-term plan to stay in China, and is your wife eventually interested in US citizenship? After 5 years of US permanent residency she is eligible for citizenship. In my understanding, after you have US citizenship, you can go live anywhere in the world and return to the US whenever you want, so if you have a long-term plan you may want to consider that your wife try to hold on to her GC until she is eligible for US citizenship ... of course, unless she doesn't want it or it disadvantages you in some way while you live in China.
 
austriacus said:
you may want to consider that your wife try to hold on to her GC until she is eligible for US citizenship ... of course, unless she doesn't want it or it disadvantages you in some way while you live in China.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that naturalization in another state is grounds for the loss of Chinese citizenship, but I am not an expert in Chinese law.
 
How exactly will the Chinese government find out? I am also from a country that does not allow dual citizenship :p :mad: but I am wondering, do I have to notify them of my US citizenship once obtained? :p
 
My country doesn't allow dual citizenship either, but recently they have started to relax these laws a bit in Austria. They now have a process in place to petition that you'd like to keep Austrian citizenship when accepting citizenship in another country, if you can prove that you still have strong ties to Austria or a good enough reason.

I don't know either how they would find out, but I can imagine it could come up in the future with taxes or retirement benefits that the two countries have an agreement on.

Praetorian, thanks for the LPR link!
 
PraetorianXI said:
How exactly will the Chinese government find out?
Click to expand...
You have to surrender GC when you got US citizenship, don't you ?(I'm not a USC and have no experience with this, but that is what I heard).
If you renew your passport in the US, your consulates/embassy finds out you obtain US citizenship.
 
Yes, we do plan to settle in the US next year. That's why we need to reapply for a new immigration visa.

read in the consulate Homeland Security website in Indian, UK, Finland etc, it clearly stated: Abandon the residence won't affect the new immigration visa in the future. But can't find such info in the consulate website in China. Should this policy be the same worldwide since it's under the section of Homeland Security online?

It's a very unusual case, I don't think the Chinese consulate ever faced it before.
 
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