Sponsoring GC for my wife

G

gc4mywife

Registered Users (C)
Please accept my apologies if this question has come up before. I could not find this situation in the forums..


I am a GC holder and will be eligible to apply for my citizenship in june 09(90 days before 5 years of GC). My wife is a new masters graduate with her OPT about to expire in Feb 2010(with 17 months extension from Oct 2008).

My plan is to apply for her GC as soon as I get my citizenship. Looking at some of the timelines here in the forums, it looks like its taking around 6 months these days to get a citizenship.

My request/question is to find out whether this is a good idea. If I start my citizenship application in June and become a citizen, when can I apply for my wife's GC based on my citizenship. Can I apply after I pass the test, or after I take the oath?

My plan is that my wife can continue on her OPT until March 2010. This way she does not need to apply for H1 and fight for the lottery.

Dear experts please post your suggestions, thanks a lot in advance.
 
You can apply after you take the oath AND you get U.S. citizenship certificate, not after you pass the test.

Passing the test doesn't mean you are officially a US citizen. Taking the oath and getting U.S. certificate does.
 
Hi USGC485
What do u think of my assumption that I will get my citizenship in 9 months from the date of eligibility. As you can see from my case, I am trying not to get an H1 for my wife.
 
The n400 proc time varies depending on your local DO. So check out the city timeline threads in this forum for your local area. Some of the major cities (NY, San Jose, SF)have very active threads and these are very informative in predicting the whole process.
 
gc4mywife said:
Hi USGC485
What do u think of my assumption that I will get my citizenship in 9 months from the date of eligibility. As you can see from my case, I am trying not to get an H1 for my wife.
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I am going through the same... I wish I can downgrade my status to H1 and then get my wife here...
 
It is impossible to predict the processing time of your application from the timelines posted by the USCIS. Using those timelines is based on the assumption that everything will go okay. THat is not always the case (lots of people here can testify to that). So go on with your process and if it comes out okay, then apply for your wife. I am not sure if your applying for citizenship will affect your wife's appliaction for H1 visa if needed.

gc4mywife said:
Hi USGC485
What do u think of my assumption that I will get my citizenship in 9 months from the date of eligibility. As you can see from my case, I am trying not to get an H1 for my wife.
Click to expand...
 
gc4mywife said:
Hi USGC485
What do u think of my assumption that I will get my citizenship in 9 months from the date of eligibility. As you can see from my case, I am trying not to get an H1 for my wife.
Click to expand...
She should try to get her H1 anyway in 2009 and again in 2010. Some people's naturalization takes more than a year (even more than 2 years). Citizenship in 9 months is a reasonable expectation but not a safe assumption.

Also, she can't travel and re-enter the US with her F1, now that she's married to you. The H1 would give her the freedom to travel without worrying about issues of immigrant intent.
 
There is an annual quota of just 65,000 H1 visas, and if I recall, these are typically oversubscribed by a factor of about 10:1. Getting one is pretty much a case of winning the lottery, albeit with somewhat better odds.

You can certainly try for the H1, but don't count on it being successful.
 
boatbod said:
There is an annual quota of just 65,000 H1 visas, and if I recall, these are typically oversubscribed by a factor of about 10:1. Getting one is pretty much a case of winning the lottery, albeit with somewhat better odds.

You can certainly try for the H1, but don't count on it being successful.
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If she has masters degree and she works for a decent enough company who can sponsor for H1 then It should not be a problem, but for all that you have to wait till next march now.
 
H1B's for educational institutions are not capped. If she can apply for jobs in Technical or Community Colleges, H1B quota will not be an issue.
 
Thanks for all the replies.
My wife has finished her masters degree and qualifies for H1 in the advanced quota, we applied for her H1 but canceled it because she wanted to extend her OPT and also with my citizenship approaching we thought there is no need for an H1.
She has recently started working in a company and most likely I can get them to sponsor an H1 with masters quota next year, that can start in March 2010 as a backup.

Also we traveled to India last year with me on GC and her on F1 for a wedding. There were no problems anywhere as both of us went through the immigration lines separately. I agree that now she cannot travel to India on her OPT because she has finished her graduation this may.

I sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions, please let me know if you have any other comments.

Thanks in advance
 
gc4mywife said:
Thanks for all the replies.
My wife has finished her masters degree and qualifies for H1 in the advanced quota, we applied for her H1 but canceled it because she wanted to extend her OPT and also with my citizenship approaching we thought there is no need for an H1.
She has recently started working in a company and most likely I can get them to sponsor an H1 with masters quota next year, that can start in March 2010 as a backup.

Also we traveled to India last year with me on GC and her on F1 for a wedding. There were no problems anywhere as both of us went through the immigration lines separately. I agree that now she cannot travel to India on her OPT because she has finished her graduation this may.

I sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions, please let me know if you have any other comments.

Thanks in advance
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I think you are alrite man... You should either get her H1 next year or let's see if your citizenship will be done soon coz there are many whose processing was done in 5 months. you are alrite.. enjoy.
 
GhantaBro said:
I think you are alrite man... You should either get her H1 next year or let's see if your citizenship will be done soon coz there are many whose processing was done in 5 months. you are alrite.. enjoy.
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Thanks!! Hopefully things get faster I can decide next march if I want to apply for her H1
 
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