Greencard and moving back to the US

J

jsjohansson

New Member
Hi,
I received my Greencard back in 2000 when I married my husband who is a US citizens. Prior to that I had a student visa for 4 years and and H1B for one year. We moved temporarily to Europe with our then 6 month old daughter in 2005. We have been living and working here since then but are now looking at moving back to the US. Both my husband and two daughters are american citizens. My question now is what I need to do in order to return to the US?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Jenny
 
Did you get a reentry permit before departing? From what you wrote, I doubt it. So your green card/permanent residency status is dead and cannot be resurrected. You have to start the process anew through consular processing. If you try to come back with your current green card, you will be turned away from the airport because your status is expired, void even though the date on the card might not have expired.

Read up on this which gives you an excellent treatise on the process and steps:

http://legalimmigrationstatus.blogspot.com/2010/02/steps-in-consular-processing.html

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/us...nnel=62280a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

After that if you have any more detailed questions, feel free to ask.

Cheers.

jsjohansson said:
Hi,
I received my Greencard back in 2000 when I married my husband who is a US citizens. Prior to that I had a student visa for 4 years and and H1B for one year. We moved temporarily to Europe with our then 6 month old daughter in 2005. We have been living and working here since then but are now looking at moving back to the US. Both my husband and two daughters are american citizens. My question now is what I need to do in order to return to the US?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Jenny
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you so much for your quick reply.

We just found out that our embassy doesn't allow for direct filing. Does anyone know if I could enter the US on a normal tourist visa and immediately file for the Green card once we are in the country? We were married in the US 13 years ago and have two children that are US citizens. I would not be looking to work the first year but would stay home with the kids. We still have bank accounts, credit card, driers license and own a timeshare in the US. Not sure if maintaining holdings in the US would make a difference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
 
If you don't already have a tourist visa, you may be unable to get one because you're married to a US citizen.

If you're from a visa waiver country, you might be able to use that, but if they know or suspect your plans to immigrate (which they may suspect if they know about your USC spouse and children) you'll be refused entry.

Do it the right way via consular processing. Have your spouse file I-130 soon, with a US consulate in your country selected for question 22. Then he'll need to move back to the US within 6 months to reestablish domicile so the Affidavit of Support and other paperwork can be filed to complete the process. Once the I-130 is approved and the rest of the formalities are done you'll interview for the green card at the consulate.

For the I-130 and any other paperwork, use the same A-number you got from your original green card, otherwise if you leave it blank it can create delays. If you still have the old green card, bring it to the consular interview to give it back.
 
We absolutely want to do this the correct way, just trying to find out what our options are. So there isn't a way to do this without separating our family over x number of months? Our hope is to keep us all in the same country and move back to the US together, but that doesn't seem feasible. We are currently living in Sweden.
 
Be glad that the separation would only be for some months. Other family situations involve separations of over 10 years.
 
I read somewhere a couple of months ago that a memo has been circulated which essentially says not to give Visa Waiver people hell for trying to adjust status.

Aliens admitted under the Visa Waiver Programs are eligible to adjust status to permanent residence pursuant to the authority in Section 245(c)(4) if they file for adjustment as an immediate relative.
USCIS actually clarified this issue in its “interim final rule,” also known as the Conforming Rule, which was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 27, 2009. The Conforming Rule amends the wording of the then-existing immigration regulations, to conform to the immigration law changes that apply to the CNMI.

A USCIS Q&A Fact Sheet is available at http://tinyurl.com/36dxawx. One of the specific amendments referenced in the Q&A is that the Conforming Rule is that “those [immediate relatives] who will be admitted under the new Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program may apply for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident.”

In your case it does not apply because you clearly will fall short of the prior intent hurdle. If you do not want to be apart for x number of months and since you do not plan to work for the first year any way, you can plan your entries and filing in a way which will minimize drastically your time apart.

Husband files I-130 now. In a few months he moves to the US with the kids to establish domicile. You come separately on the VWP a few days ahead of them [so if questioned at the port of entry, you can truthfully answer your American spouse and kids live in Switzerland]and stay your 90 days and return to Switzerland or wherever.

In another month or so your I-130 is approved and you proceed with consular processing. Just trying to be creative here, that's all.
jsjohansson said:
We absolutely want to do this the correct way, just trying to find out what our options are. So there isn't a way to do this without separating our family over x number of months? Our hope is to keep us all in the same country and move back to the US together, but that doesn't seem feasible. We are currently living in Sweden.
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