Question:
Currently, I am a green card holder, my wife is carrying a B1/B2 VISA.
We have married 3 years. If I apply her immigration, it will take
approximately 5 years to be done. Currently, my biggest concern is
how can I keep her stay here in US? Her visitor status will be expired
soon and need to return back to HongKong, if I sponsor her now as my
currentl status green card holder, can she stay? and can I re-apply
her sponsorship after an year when I obtain my citizenship, will it be
faster? As I say, I need some suggestion on how can she stay here in
US for the time being? what is the best way to go?
Answer:
Did you think about H1B for your wife - can she qualify? She would have
to apply for H1b before her status expires.
Or have you given a thought to getting rid of your green card?
Or else have you given a thought to just living apart? I heard studies
suggest that your odds of not getting divorced when you live apart for
extended periods is more than 5%. So you would then have more than 5%
of chance of staying married when your ordeal is over.
What about living in Mexico in Tijuana and just commuting everyday to
the US for work. I heard you can apply for some commuter status. Would
Mexico accept that you & your wife live in Mexico for an extended
period of time? I heard that this way there could be some implications
on your citizenship.....
Also if your wife applies for example for Canadian green card - spouse
is immediately eligible for green card. But if you yourself obtain
Canadian PR - this might be a problem for your US green card. I am not
sure Canada will want to give Canada PR to just your wife and not to
you. Living in Canada also bears the same risks as living in Mexico.
BTW - theoretically if you got divorced your friend would be eligible
for visas like F-1. But I would check if this is fraud to get divorced
for the purpose of being eligible to stay together especially if after
divorce you will continue to see each other.
It seems to me that right now - very few people care about people in
your situation. If you get divorced - nobody will really care. But you
should always obey the law.
I am not attorney and you should do your own due dilligence and not
treat this as any advice here. Maybe some attorney can to pull a fish
out this mess.
I read sthg about such study. But it should have been more rigid and
covering people who live apart for 5-6 years and at the beginning of
the marriage. Maybe it could be lower than 5%.
I wonder also how the situation of being apart for 5-6 years influences
the lives of people who lived for such a long time seperately. Do they
have kids? Do they have psychological problems? Do they feel fulfilled
in life? Etc.
Also what is interesting - how does the spouse feel about being banned
from the US for 6 years and then gets a green card and starts a new
life from scratch in the US.
Since the US is one of the few countries out there that bans spouses of
green card holders - the study here would be very interesting. I am
sure some scientist would be willing to do this.
Maybe everybody from this newsgroup should bug professors from
sociology depts and ask them if they want to do this study. I think it
is exteremely interesting and there are very few situations that force
spouses to be apart for 6 years at the very beginning of marriage.
