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Help moving my girlfriend to the US

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Charlesf
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Help moving my girlfriend to the US

Post by Charlesf » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:07 pm

Is there anyway to make this happen? I am a British Citizen that grew up in the USA and has permenant residence and a green card, I have gone to University in the UK which I will complete in June. I happened to have met the girl of my dreams while there and want to bring her back to the US with me, she is very willing and wants to immigrate. She will have completed her degree by then, and is a British citizen as well. what if any options can I explore? thanks in advance for any help.

Marco 72
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Re: Help moving my girlfriend to the US

Post by Marco 72 » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:26 pm

Charlesf wrote:Is there anyway to make this happen? I am a British Citizen that grew up in the USA and has permenant residence and a green card, I have gone to University in the UK which I will complete in June. I happened to have met the girl of my dreams while there and want to bring her back to the US with me, she is very willing and wants to immigrate. She will have completed her degree by then, and is a British citizen as well. what if any options can I explore? thanks in advance for any help.
From what you write it's not clear if you still have permanent residence in the US or not. How long have you been studying in the UK? Studying for a degree normally takes a few years, and a green card can be presumed abandoned if you have not been in the US for over a year. Have you kept ties with the US and made regular visits during these years? You may want to post in this forum, where I'm sure you can get better advice (a US immigration lawyer is a regular contributor there).

Even if your green card was still valid, you'd be looking at a long wait (about 5 years), unless you were able to obtain US citizenship before then.

Charlesf
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Post by Charlesf » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:39 pm

sorry for posting it in the wrong forum, and also for being unclear I have been back and forth to the USA regularly spending several months here in the summer as well as many holiday's. I still have permenant residency. The only way to get her here is to apply for American citizenship and wait?

Marco 72
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Post by Marco 72 » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:55 pm

Charlesf wrote:sorry for posting it in the wrong forum, and also for being unclear I have been back and forth to the USA regularly spending several months here in the summer as well as many holiday's. I still have permenant residency. The only way to get her here is to apply for American citizenship and wait?
This forum is perfectly ok to ask questions about US immigration, but in the other forum you'll find people who know a lot more than I do. If you can apply for US citizenship immediately, the best thing is to do so now and then petition for your girlfriend. If not, then I'm afraid it takes about 5 years for a permanent resident to petition for a spouse.

Daniel Green
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Post by Daniel Green » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:51 pm

Charlesf wrote:sorry for posting it in the wrong forum, and also for being unclear I have been back and forth to the USA regularly spending several months here in the summer as well as many holiday's. I still have permenant residency. The only way to get her here is to apply for American citizenship and wait?
If you don't have an abandonment issue (which I would hesitate to state either way, it's very case specific), file your N-400 and then file an I-130 for your wife. Once you become a USC, then your wife will become eligible for an iv immediately (save for time spent contacting the NVC/USCIS about your change of status from lpr to USC.)- she will be able to upgrade her status as the beneficiary of an lpr filed I-130 to that of a usc filed I-130.

-Dan

JAJ
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Post by JAJ » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:52 pm

Daniel Green wrote:If you don't have an abandonment issue (which I would hesitate to state either way, it's very case specific), file your N-400 and then file an I-130 for your wife.
I would just observe here that even if he doesn't have an abandonment issue, he may still have broken the residence clock for naturalization.

Daniel Green
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Post by Daniel Green » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:59 pm

JAJ wrote:
Daniel Green wrote:If you don't have an abandonment issue (which I would hesitate to state either way, it's very case specific), file your N-400 and then file an I-130 for your wife.
I would just observe here that even if he doesn't have an abandonment issue, he may still have broken the residence clock for naturalization.
Correct. Absences of over 6 months (or 6 months or more...I don't have the regs with me at the moment) will create a presumption of a break in continuous residence that the applicant can try to rebut.

I'm advising a client in that situation (he has an absence of over 8 months a year or two ago) to just wait until he hits 2.5 years within the prior 5 year period before he files his N-400.

-Dan

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