I am right now debating with myself...so some advice from fellow forum members is very much appreciated.
I have had green card for more than 5 years, but I have been holding off on becoming a citizen (I'm from China and still have some business there and being a Chinese citizen is more convenient).
I got married last year and my wife is a student on F-1. She is probably going to graduate sometime in 2014, and may get a job and use OPT (which is at least 12 months, and can be extended for another 17 months) or even H1B afterwards. We are in California.
I have two options. First is to become a citizen myself, and apply for a greencard for her, which might happen within 9 months so I heard. This seems safest and fastest.
Another option is to apply as a permanent resident by filing I-130, and see how things go. I can always become a citizen myself and upgrade the I-130. This seems flexible because I don't have to make a decision now, and chance is we could still get the greencard before she loses status. The current priority date for Chinese is about Oct 2010 (2 years and 3 months), so I'd expect she could get greencard without me being a citizen in about 2 years and 3 months (am I wrong?).
There are some risks, however:
1) This assume she could keep her status for that long. She should be safe for at least 1.5 years, and if she gets a job it should be fine too. Even if she couldn't, she could probably postpone graduation or become a postdoc. There are things we could do.
2) If I have to be a citizen and upgrade I-130, there might be some additional delays, not even mentioning the delay it takes for me to become a citizen.
I certainly want to choose the safe approach if the risk is too high, but I'd like to hear some advice from people who have had similar experiences. Does this sound crazy? What would you do in this case?
Thanks in advance!
I have had green card for more than 5 years, but I have been holding off on becoming a citizen (I'm from China and still have some business there and being a Chinese citizen is more convenient).
I got married last year and my wife is a student on F-1. She is probably going to graduate sometime in 2014, and may get a job and use OPT (which is at least 12 months, and can be extended for another 17 months) or even H1B afterwards. We are in California.
I have two options. First is to become a citizen myself, and apply for a greencard for her, which might happen within 9 months so I heard. This seems safest and fastest.
Another option is to apply as a permanent resident by filing I-130, and see how things go. I can always become a citizen myself and upgrade the I-130. This seems flexible because I don't have to make a decision now, and chance is we could still get the greencard before she loses status. The current priority date for Chinese is about Oct 2010 (2 years and 3 months), so I'd expect she could get greencard without me being a citizen in about 2 years and 3 months (am I wrong?).
There are some risks, however:
1) This assume she could keep her status for that long. She should be safe for at least 1.5 years, and if she gets a job it should be fine too. Even if she couldn't, she could probably postpone graduation or become a postdoc. There are things we could do.
2) If I have to be a citizen and upgrade I-130, there might be some additional delays, not even mentioning the delay it takes for me to become a citizen.
I certainly want to choose the safe approach if the risk is too high, but I'd like to hear some advice from people who have had similar experiences. Does this sound crazy? What would you do in this case?
Thanks in advance!
