I have already have green cards but my father is sick in Australia. I am needed there - help?

[daphneandtom]

I have been living in the us for 6mths now, my family migrated from Australia.
My father is chronically ill and getting worse and I am needed there to help him.
I would like to stay there and help him in his last days but worried about
the loss of my Green Card. I have 3 kids that will travel with me. My husband
wants to continue to stay in the US and get his citizenship? What can I do
to keep the Green Card and not destroy his dreams? Help - any advice is appreciated?

 

[BigJoe5]

Get re-entry permits for every greencard holder who will go. File I-131 and get fingerprinted then you can go and have them delivered to a U.S. Consulate in Australia. You can remain abroad up to 2 years then return and can renew the permit(s) for another 2 years. After that you MIGHT get a 3rd permit for one year.

The time spent abroad will lengthen the time to qualify for naturalization. The greencard holder children can get citizenship through the father when he naturalizes and they return to the U.S....see a lawyer for their N-600 applications if you keep them abroad when the dad naturalizes.

 

[Jackolantern]

My husband
wants to continue to stay in the US and get his citizenship? What can I do
to keep the Green Card and not destroy his dreams?

Have him stay in the US, with only short trips overseas until he gets citizenship.

Get reentry permits for you and the kids. That will preserve your green cards, but not your eligibility for citizenship.

 

[CalGreenCard]

I have been living in the us for 6mths now, my family migrated from Australia.
My father is chronically ill and getting worse and I am needed there to help him.
I would like to stay there and help him in his last days but worried about
the loss of my Green Card. I have 3 kids that will travel with me. My husband
wants to continue to stay in the US and get his citizenship? What can I do
to keep the Green Card and not destroy his dreams? Help - any advice is appreciated?

You say that your father is "chronically" ill and that you have only been in the USA for six months. Presumably this means that you knew about his health problems when you came to the USA and knew there was a possibility things could get worse.

What was your family's plan for dealing with this potential situation when you came to the USA? I assume you must have thought about it. I personally feel that everyone should stick with whatever the family agreed to when you moved to the USA. People on here can't advise you on family matters but they can probably help better if they have a clearer sense as to the family's intentions.

What were the circumstances that led to your having green cards after just 6 mos in the USA? Most people go through a longer process to get their green cards. If your husband has only been here for 6 mos too, then he is about 5 years away from citizenship. That is a long time for a father to be separated from his 3 kids, although I don't know your father's prognosis. Is there anyone else in the family who can help?

The advice you've been given about re-entry permits is correct but there might be other options depending upon the exact circumstances.

 

[Jackolantern]

What were the circumstances that led to your having green cards after just 6 mos in the USA? Most people go through a longer process to get their green cards.

Living for 6 months in the US doesn't mean their GC process took 6 months or less. Most people (other than immediate relatives of USC) who obtain family-based green cards have waited outside the US for years during the green card process.

 

[CalGreenCard]

Living for 6 months in the US doesn't mean their GC process took 6 months or less. Most people (other than immediate relatives of USC) who obtain family-based green cards have waited outside the US for years during the green card process.

Do Australians (who are, after all, eligible for immediate E-3 visas) often go the family-based GC route?

What I was trying to get at was this: if it IS a family-based case, that means there is another family member in the picture. If so--could that person possibly be persuaded to help out with the ailing father some of the time?

 

[Jackolantern]

Do Australians (who are, after all, eligible for immediate E-3 visas) often go the family-based GC route?

Yes. Merely being Australian is not enough to get an E3 visa; the applicant must have the necessary educational and/or work experience qualifications, and must find an employer willing to hire them with the E3.

What I was trying to get at was this: if it IS a family-based case, that means there is another family member in the picture. If so--could that person possibly be persuaded to help out with the ailing father some of the time?

The family member who sponsored them would be a US citizen who has been living in the US for several years after obtaining citizenship. A person like that is unlikely to be persuaded to leave the US for an extended time. But it's still worth pursuing that option, if that family member is a son or daughter of the same ailing father.

 

[CalGreenCard]

Yes. Merely being Australian is not enough to get an E3 visa; the applicant must have the necessary educational and/or work experience qualifications, and must find an employer willing to hire them with the E3.

You can go to school and get a degree much faster than a lot of family-based cases take.

A person like that is unlikely to be persuaded to leave the US for an extended time.

But they would also take on much less risk in doing so.

 

[Jackolantern]

You can go to school and get a degree much faster than a lot of family-based cases take.

Yes, but not everybody has the money to afford to study in the US or a good enough academic/athletic to get a scholarship, and when they get the degree it doesn't mean anybody will hire them with an E3 visa.

But they would also take on much less risk in doing so.

They won't lose their citizenship by leaving, but they could lose their house and other assets by giving up their US job to go to Australia. And upon returning to the US they might never get a job as good as the one they left. A family that has been in the US for just 6 months usually doesn't own a house or have other strong ties to the US that would be particularly difficult to give up.

 

[CalGreenCard]

Yes, but not everybody has the money to afford to study in the US or a good enough academic/athletic to get a scholarship, and when they get the degree it doesn't mean anybody will hire them with an E3 visa.

I thought tuition was free in Australia for Australian citizens. An Australian degree will do just as well. I agree under such a scenario the E-3 won't be instantaneous but getting a degree and doing the networking to get a USA job is still going to take a smaller number of years than a family-based green card--which is why I asked whether Australians ever go the family-based route (except for marriage of course).

I mention the E-3 because I know that in some cases like this one, although it is a difficult decision, the family sometimes goes back to nonimmigrant visas because it can actually make it easier to come and go. Without that much time vested in the GC yet, I wonder if that would be an option in this case.

They won't lose their citizenship by leaving, but they could lose their house and other assets by giving up their US job to go to Australia. And upon returning to the US they might never get a job as good as the one they left. A family that has been in the US for just 6 months usually doesn't own a house or have other strong ties to the US that would be particularly difficult to give up.

True--we may need to hear more from the OP to know what to suggest in this case.

 

[Jackolantern]

I thought tuition was free in Australia for Australian citizens. An Australian degree will do just as well. I agree under such a scenario the E-3 won't be instantaneous but getting a degree and doing the networking to get a USA job is still going to take a smaller number of years than a family-based green card--which is why I asked whether Australians ever go the family-based route (except for marriage of course).

It is very difficult to get hired into a US job while living in Australia. Much easier if one studies at a US university and can attend interviews locally (especially on-campus interviews when the recruiters visit the campus) and the employers can make domestic phone calls to contact you. And in some occupations they almost never hire foreigners without green cards, because there are so many American candidates to choose from.

And still, most Australians don't have bachelor's degrees from anywhere (the same is true of most Americans and probably every country in the world), and aren't going to expend the effort to get one.