when to file AOS for my wife ?

[mjakub76]

Hi all
In January 2008 I got married. Accordingly to the March visa bulletin my PD is again current. In a meantime my wife obtained H-4. She is out of USA, and she will not be able to come to USA for permanent living until mid June 2008. I want to file AOS for her, and it generates some questions:
1. Can she come to USA for a week (let's say in April), get the physical exam and sign the papers with the lawyer, and leave?
2. Can she stay out of USA for next 2 months after filing, without any problems?
3. What would happen if her application gets approved while she is out of USA?
4. What is the chance that my application may be approved before June 2008? Maybe we should wait until June to file the AOS for her?

Thank you for your help, if you have other ideas feel free to share them

 

[tammy2]

Hi all
In January 2008 I got married. Accordingly to the March visa bulletin my PD is again current. In a meantime my wife obtained H-4. She is out of USA, and she will not be able to come to USA for permanent living until mid June 2008. I want to file AOS for her, and it generates some questions:
1. Can she come to USA for a week (let's say in April), get the physical exam and sign the papers with the lawyer, and leave?
2. Can she stay out of USA for next 2 months after filing, without any problems?
3. What would happen if her application gets approved while she is out of USA?
4. What is the chance that my application may be approved before June 2008? Maybe we should wait until June to file the AOS for her?

Thank you for your help, if you have other ideas feel free to share them

Once your GC is approved her H4 will not be valid. So She has to go with approved AP. She can stay out as long as AP is Valid. Also She is required if she is called FP.
She may enter US with AP even if GC is approved.

 

[fromnaija]

1. Can she come to USA for a week (let's say in April), get the physical exam and sign the papers with the lawyer, and leave?

Yes she could do that.

2. Can she stay out of USA for next 2 months after filing, without any problems?

She could stay out of the US but I'd advise that she applies for and obtain Advance Parole before she leaves.

3. What would happen if her application gets approved while she is out of USA?

She would need AP to get back in.

4. What is the chance that my application may be approved before June 2008? Maybe we should wait until June to file the AOS for her?

Only USCIS can answer that with any degree of certainty. I even doubt they could give you a definite answer on that!

 

[TheRealCanadian]

Once your GC is approved her H4 will not be valid.

She can still be paroled in. In the over half-decade since H/L holders were allowed to leave and re-enter the US without AP, I haven't heard of a single case where the I-485 was approved when abroad and the alien was denied entry on the old NIV.

 

[manwithnoname]

Hi all
In January 2008 I got married. Accordingly to the March visa bulletin my PD is again current. In a meantime my wife obtained H-4. She is out of USA, and she will not be able to come to USA for permanent living until mid June 2008. I want to file AOS for her, and it generates some questions:
1. Can she come to USA for a week (let's say in April), get the physical exam and sign the papers with the lawyer, and leave?
2. Can she stay out of USA for next 2 months after filing, without any problems?
3. What would happen if her application gets approved while she is out of USA?
4. What is the chance that my application may be approved before June 2008? Maybe we should wait until June to file the AOS for her?

Thank you for your help, if you have other ideas feel free to share them

Reading your post it seems that your application may get approved soon. I think, your wife should join you in the U.S. on H-4 then file for I-485 along with AP (since the PD is current for you). If she waits for the AP approval before returning to home country, then she can be paroled in even if your application gets approved (her H-4 will be invalid in that case). There are other ways too but to me the above strategy seems easiest.

 

[mjakub76]

what do you think about this scenario ?

Thank you all for your inputs.

We have idea like this:
She comes to US in early April for a week. Doctor, lawyer etc. She is filing I-485, AP, EAD. She comes back to her country for next 2 months - she needs to take care of our church wedding and the party. I join her there at the end of May, and we are comming back to US together early June.
Do you see any problems in this solution? We may get our I-485 approved in a meantime, but it seems not to be a problem, since I have my AP valid until August, and she will be able to use AP or H-4 to reenter (Am I right?)

Another concern, is staing out of US for 2 months after filing AOS, is raising any "red flag" for the application?

thx again
MJ

 

[nelsona]

Because she has H4, she can do this. It does not matter how long she is out of country. If you do get approved, You will need someone to send the AP to her, because if your GC is approved, your H1 and H4's are dead of course at that point. And you need to be sure that someone can answer any RFE and FP appointments.

Just a note that while YOUR AOS might get approved soon, there is NO chance that hers will be if she is only submitting now. It still takes over 6-8 months to approve an I-485 submission. The namecheck change has not miraculously transformed bureaucrats, nor has it removed the yeatly quota.

If she files in April, she *might* get her GC in early 2009. Only when couples file together or nearly at the same time do they get AOS approved at the same time. hers will be in lione after ALL those other June/July filers which have still not been processed.

 

[voldemarv]

Thank you all for your inputs.

We have idea like this:
She comes to US in early April for a week. Doctor, lawyer etc. She is filing I-485, AP, EAD. She comes back to her country for next 2 months - she needs to take care of our church wedding and the party. I join her there at the end of May, and we are comming back to US together early June.
Do you see any problems in this solution? We may get our I-485 approved in a meantime, but it seems not to be a problem, since I have my AP valid until August, and she will be able to use AP or H-4 to reenter (Am I right?)

Another concern, is staing out of US for 2 months after filing AOS, is raising any "red flag" for the application?

thx again
MJ

The only problem could be a fingerprint appointment for her. But you can postpone it if she is not in the US.
When we filed our 485 back in 2004 my son went back to home country to finish his education soon after fingerprinting. He was out of US for more than 6 mo. There was no problem to come back and his GC was approved with all others form our family.

 

[nelsona]

Again, remember that she has not filed I-485 at the same time he did. So her approavl simply will NOT happen at the same time his is approved. It still takes 6-8 months for a GC to be approved, even in the best of times.

Indeed, the FP appointment is the sticking point here, as i mentionned above

 

[mjakub76]

Hi all
I wasn’t planning to do anything until she comes to US in June, but in last visa bulletin my PD became current again, and I’m afraid that waiting for 3-4 months may result in receiving my GC before we were able to file her AOS, and it would be not good at all. I understand her petition has to go thru the whole process, and we are OK with that. She has H-4 now, by the time she starts living here, she will (hopefully) receive AP and EAD, and so we can wait next 9-12 months for her GC. If it is necessary, I can postpone her FP several weeks.

Thank you for your posts, very helpful.

 

[nelsona]

I would expect that EB RoW would become unavaliable by summer, so you are right to have her file asap.