GC for mother

A

atltodallas

Registered Users (C)
I am in dilemma. should I apply for green card for my mother or just visitors visa ?
she is 61 years old living with my brother and sister families in India. my mother never visited US before. now i want her to stay with me for more than 6 months. if i apply for GC, it will be difficult for her to keep the GC for long time because of travel restrictions. she may have to stay for more then 6 months in india in future. what are the benefits of having a US green card. she won't be working. I am the only son in US. My brother and sister are in India. so she will have to travel between US and India.
what are the benefits of having a US green card ? are there any other options like visa waiver ?
I am sure many people need this discussion. please share your knowledge. thanks.
 
Green cards should never be considered as a visa waiver scheme. Unfortunately the green card is abused to derive that benefit. It is obvious that your mother has no intentions of living permanently in the US. So in my opinion, she should apply for a B-2 visa and visit you whenever she needs to.

atltodallas said:
what are the benefits of having a US green card ? are there any other options like visa waiver ?
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Triple Citizen said:
Green cards should never be considered as a visa waiver scheme. Unfortunately the green card is abused to derive that benefit. It is obvious that your mother has no intentions of living permanently in the US. So in my opinion, she should apply for a B-2 visa and visit you whenever she needs to.
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yeah right. i am thinking the same. i think she( me. she don't understand visas) should just apply for B-2 visa. I hope she will not have problem getting B-2 visa.
 
I am in the same dilemna.
I want my mother to visit me for couple months, but not to stay here. My mother (55) was denied 3 times a B-2 visa to visit me in the US. The first time, it was for my graduation. The second time it was for to attend the birth of my daughter because my wife had to go through C-section. The last time it was to celebrate Christmas with the family. At the last interview, she was handed an I-130 form, and was told to have me fill it when I get my citizenship, so she can come and leave the US when she wants. But a green card means she has to stay here and that is not what we want. I had the feeling like the conselors are somehow forcing here to immigrate here, what she clearly told them she did not want.

Now, the only opportunity I have is to fill an I-130 so she can come in and stay for a while and go back afterwords.

So think about all that before applying
 
B-2 visa is not guaranteed. Thats the problem, and many will have this dilemma.

I suppose there is no good answer. Maintaining a GC will be very very difficult (if not impossible) for folks who need to spend majority of time in home country and only few months in US.


Advantage with Green card is that your parents need not worry about getting B-2 visa or not every few years. But, how do they maintain the GC, and if they lose GC after getting it, will it make getting B-2 visa EVEN HARDER than before!?
 
CrossHairs said:
Advantage with Green card is that your parents need not worry about getting B-2 visa or not every few years. But, how do they maintain the GC, and if they lose GC after getting it, will it make getting B-2 visa EVEN HARDER than before!?
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If the US govt forcibly takes the GC away, yes it probably will become harder to get a B2. But if the card is voluntarily and officially surrendered, that voluntary surrendering is good evidence of nonimmigrant intent.

So the strategy might work: File for her green card. Have her use it for a year or so, then surrender it. After surrendering it, she can apply for a B2 and mention that she had a GC and surrendered it. On renewing her B2 she can continue to point out that she had the opportunity to immigrate and gave it up, so she is not interested in immigrating.
 
but, are there any benefits to having parents have their green card and never apply for citizenship? my entire family (mom, dad, brother and sister) is back in the old country and none of them want to move to the US. they're all working in their field of expertise but getting a visa is next to impossible. they get a lot of annual leave so i am sure mine wouldn't mind spending a few months a year with us. plus, i'd love to have the grandparents involvement in my kids' lives.
i only get 12 days off a year, and hubby gets 3 weeks off, and while i miss my family, i really don't want to spend my annual leave every year going to visit my family. i still love the beaches too much.
i am wondering for all involved, having my parents have green card would be the best. any thoughts on this?
 
The visa decisions are random and very weird. It is a crazy policy to deny visas to parents especially when they are eligible for GCs.
 
aabbcc11 said:
It is a crazy policy to deny visas to parents especially when they are eligible for GCs.
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But that is partially why they would deny them ... that they might try to get a GC after entering on a tourist visa.

If the IO's are repeatedly issuing denials because they keep on wrongly assuming the immigrant intent, that basically forces the parents to apply for a GC in order to visit the US.
 
Jack, if they wanted GCs they would apply for it from the home country also, maybe the travel delay would be a yr. The consulate is forcing them to apply for GC which they don't want. This is a convoluted logic that makes sense only to the American bureaucrats.
 
Yes, they should issue B-2 visitor visas to parents more easily rather than not give it because the US Consulate "assumes" they have "immigrant intent". That only forces parents who otherwise dont have the intent to then be forced to apply for GC.

Give them visitor visa and in many cases thats all they want.

If they want GC, then they'll apply for it. Dont force them to apply.
 
atltodallas said:
I am in dilemma. should I apply for green card for my mother or just visitors visa ?
she is 61 years old living with my brother and sister families in India. my mother never visited US before. now i want her to stay with me for more than 6 months. if i apply for GC, it will be difficult for her to keep the GC for long time because of travel restrictions. she may have to stay for more then 6 months in india in future. what are the benefits of having a US green card. she won't be working. I am the only son in US. My brother and sister are in India. so she will have to travel between US and India.
what are the benefits of having a US green card ? are there any other options like visa waiver ?
I am sure many people need this discussion. please share your knowledge. thanks.
Click to expand...

We had the similar case and they asked to file I-130 when one of us(my sister or me) became a USC. My sister became a USC last year and they took a copy of her passport to the interview. They told the officer that they don't want to apply for a GC but just want to visit and if they dont want to give them a visa, then they will have my sister apply for I-130.

THey got a B-2 Visa and they have visited us twice since then. I don't think you need to go through the complicated process of getting a GC and then giving it up etc. Be honest and they would give them a visitor visa or an immigrant visa if they deny her..so the ball is in your court.
 
wantmygcnow said:
We had the similar case and they asked to file I-130 when one of us(my sister or me) became a USC. My sister became a USC last year and they took a copy of her passport to the interview. They told the officer that they don't want to apply for a GC but just want to visit and if they dont want to give them a visa, then they will have my sister apply for I-130.

THey got a B-2 Visa and they have visited us twice since then. I don't think you need to go through the complicated process of getting a GC and then giving it up etc. Be honest and they would give them a visitor visa or an immigrant visa if they deny her..so the ball is in your court.
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There are more hoops to jump through for the GC route but they have less discretion to deny.
 
I can say that it depends on what part of the world the visa is requested. I think conselors are not very friendly in some part of the world when it comes to visa application.

I know what I am talking about. I will never forget that my mother was denied a visitor visa to attend my graduation. She is 55 years old, married (strong tie) and had a house and many assets including house in our country. However, the consulor said she did not have enough ties to her home country. So, the only option I have for her to visit us here is to apply for a green card. I don't want to go though the same process of applying for a visitor visa.
 
fbanna79 said:
I will never forget that my mother was denied a visitor visa to attend my graduation. She is 55 years old, married (strong tie) and had a house and many assets including house in our country. However, the consulor said she did not have enough ties to her home country.
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Did she present all that evidence of her house and marriage and other assets at the interview? Or did she make the mistake of saying that you or another US-based relative would be providing the financial support for her trip to the US?
 
Jackolantern said:
Did she present all that evidence of her house and marriage and other assets at the interview? Or did she make the mistake of saying that you or another US-based relative would be providing the financial support for her trip to the US?
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Jackolantern,

Even if you show all the house and assets, the US Consulate does ask parents to provide "Affidavit of Support" from their children in USA. (children in USA - adult children who are working - are typically the "sponsors" of the parents' visitors visa).

The consulate will require this (atleast for India this is usually the case, anyone else who can confirm?)

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/us...toid=fe3647a55773d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-134.pdf
 
This is what i decided. i will apply for B2 visitors visa. if she get 10 year multiple entry visa, then we are fine. we don't apply for GC.
i am not excited about GC because it is better she live in india after few years. i will keep sending money to my brother to take care of her. we can buy medical insurance in india. here it is expensive in US.
While she is here in US, i don't think i can include my mother as dependent in my company's insurance. one advantage of having GC is, i can claim my mom as dependant when i file tax ( i am not sure about any other rules). if she lives in india, i can not claim her as dependant even though i take care of her.
this is the problem after marriage. you will have 2 families to think about. my dad passed away 4 years back. I want her to be here in US.
she has got property, my brother, sister and other relatives in india. she like to spend time with all 3 of us.
so visitor visa is the best option. we don't need visa to visit Europe , dubai and gulf. and same for Europeans to come to US. i don't know why we have restrictions for india.
 
CrossHairs said:
Jackolantern,

Even if you show all the house and assets, the US Consulate does ask parents to provide "Affidavit of Support" from their children in USA. (children in USA - adult children who are working - are typically the "sponsors" of the parents' visitors visa).
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Maybe it is an India-specific thing. Or you are assuming they always require it because in practice most Indian parents don't have enough money to qualify on their own merit, once you convert the rupees to US dollars.

My relatives from the West Indies apply successfully, showing their own income and assets and bank statements without needing anybody else to "sponsor" their tourist visa. And after I returned to my birth country after studying on an F-1, I was able to get a B1/B2 on my own merit.
 
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