Thanks for the info. Just to confirm, does this mean I do not need to fill out any other form for their green cards?
Depending on the papers that have already been sent in, there may or may not be more paperwork for them (not you) to do before going to the consulate. However, once approved at the consulate, that's it.
and their green cards will arrive within 6 months AFTER their arrival to the US?
Usually less than 2 months.
I heard that they will be eligible to apply for US citizens 5 years after their arrival. Can somebody comment on this? Is there any regulation on the amount of time they could spend outside of the US during this 5 year period?
Download the
Guide To Naturalization. Requirements can be complicated as there are various exceptions and room for interpretation, but the general rules whittled down to few sentences are:
- Be physically inside the US for at least 2.5 years total out of the last 5 years prior to applying for citizenship
- Reside primarily in the US for the 5 years prior to citizenship and continue to do so throughout the citizenship process. Generally this means no single trips outside the US of 6 months or more, and no extended series of consecutive trips each under 6 months (for example, trying to game the system with multiple trips outside the US of 5 and a half months each with only a few days in between).
- Be of good moral character. Generally this means committing no felonies EVER, and no offenses worse than traffic violations or very trivial nonviolent misdemeanors during the past 5 years (this part gets really complicated as there is a ton of legal literature surrounding which offenses would disqualify one from citizenship and which don't, so I won't get into the details here).
- Pay all applicable taxes.
- In order to get a headstart on the processing, applicants can apply for citizenship 90 days before reaching the 5 year mark, but cannot be actually granted citizenship until fully completing the 5 years.
Like I said before, those are just the general rules applicable to most people. There are exceptions to the above such as being married to a US citizen for 3 years, or being in the US military (the 5 year or 3 year waiting period doesn't apply if they've served in active duty), and more. But nearly all the unmentioned exceptions are about how to get approved despite violating one or more of the general rules, not exceptions that would make you get denied despite fulfilling the above rules.
