obtaining a green card through marriage

M

mehnik

Registered Users (C)
hi,

I am a GC holder and applied for my citizenship in NY. I am getting married later this year and my fiance holds a canadian GC. What would be the best and the fastest way to apply for her US GC once we get married. Can I file for her GC while she continues to stay in Canada and visit on a tourist visa till she gets the GC or should she just move here and apply while being in the US?

Your help and thoughts greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
best thing would be to wait till you become citizen. You can apply now but make sure you upgrade her application after you become citizen. If you apply now when you are on GC, it won't make any sense because it will take forever for her to get the greencard. You will have to upgrade the appl.

NOTE: This is not a legal advice
 
It depends on your marital status once you get citizenship.

If you are married at the time of application, then you will bring your spouse over on either a K3 or an immigrant visa. These both take approx 10-12 months to get a visa to enter the US and live.

Here are the instructions on how to obtain a K3
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k3guide

Here are the instructions on how to obtain an immigrant visa
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=i130guide1


If you are unmarried at the time of application (and will be remaining unmarried throughout the process), then you will be applying for a K1 fiance visa. Here are the instructions for this visa.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k1guide


With all the visas, your spouse/fiance will not be moving to the US until the visa has been approved. Yes, she will be able to visit during the process, but she will not be able to reside here.
Out of all the 3 visas I have mentioned, in my opinion, the immigrant visa is by far the best visa. With this visa, once your wife enters the US, she will immediately become a permanent resident and her green card will be delivered to her. With K1 and K3, once she enters the US, she will then have to apply for adjustment of status to get her greencard which takes approx 8 months from application. So the immigrant visa is definitely the way to go :)
 
mehnik said:
...or should she just move here and apply while being in the US?
Click to expand...
Can't do that, because you are not a US citizen. She may also have difficulty obtaining a tourist visa if she's married to you, because they will assume she will try to immigrate to be with her husband. So if you want to minimize problems traveling back and forth across the border, don't get married until you become a citizen.

For more details ask here:
http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39
 
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