miami078

A quick question - I came to the USA a year ago on a marriage visa, permanent resident visa (I am from the uK) with conditions as we had been married less than two years. The conditions are due to be removed next April May 2012. I am not too sure of this process and as to whether I will need to attend another interview.

My quesiton is I am looking at starting a Masters course and the tuition fees over here are just to expensive for me to afford. I am therefore looking at applying to a Masters in the UK and going back periodically for a year. I am concerned however about my visa as I know you are not allowed to leave the USA for 6 months or more (although I will try to fly back in between semesters).

Does anybody know if I am allowed to do this, and also as I would be studying around the time the conditions are due to be removed do I need to be in the USA for this?

Many thanks

Miamia078

crg

That's not really true. You generally are allowed to depart and reenter for trips of up to one year if you have a resident alien card. There are other factors to consider before being out that long though. Long trips have other implications, but there is no blanket prohibition against them.

You may need to attend an interview or have biometrics taken. The receipt for the Form I-751 will extend the conditional card while the process is pending. I wouldn't depart unless I had the receipt in my hand. You file it 90 days before the 2 years are up.

ian-mstm

You no longer have a visa; you are a US permanent resident... you have a green card and can come and go as you please (well, with a few caveats).


Attending school overseas is a perfectly valid reason for being outside the US.


Yes, of course you are.


You have a 90-day window in which to file the I-751. Generally, there are no biometrics needed and most people are approved without an interview. Do not file too early and, for heaven's sake, don't file late!

Ian

dreamercon

Bear in mind that if you are no longer a resident in an EEA country for three years immediately before going to school in the UK, you will have to pay overseas fees, which are huge.

miami078

Hi all

Thank you for the comments. I guess it is confusing as some people seem to think I could be called for interview and others that I may not. I know it is very much the luck of the draw so I think the safest option would be waiting until the conditions have been removed.

With regards to the fees unfortunately the closest masters in my subject areas costs $35000 for two years and that’s with instate tuition. I am a little annoyed as in many other states in state tuition runs as little as $15000. I am therefore wondering if another option may be to move to another state, although you have to reside there for a year before you start your course. The only reason therefore I was considering the UK was because even the international fees are only $10,000 plus only a year to complete, so I can be back in work sooner. The biggest problem – its doesn’t necessarily translate for licensure over here so I may need to take further courses on my return but I am thinking that may be better than spending $35000 which we definitely cant afford.

So many decisions – I would be interested in hearing about anybodies experiences of the USA university system and how they have managed to fund – what seems to be the equivalent of a small mortgage!


Thank you again

Noorah101

Biometrics ARE required with the I-751, and they MUST be done in the USA. There is generally no interview, although you could be chosen to have one (for quality control purposes, or if USCIS has questions about your case).

Rene

Eric S

If the OP is going to be out of the US for a year, wouldn't it be a good idea to get a re-entry permit?

- Eric S.

Noorah101

Yes, I forgot to mention that. The OP should be aware that if he gets a re-entry permit, it normally allows one to be outside the USA for up to 2 years and is renewable. However, since he's a conditional PR, the re-entry permit will only be valid up to the expiration date of his 2-year green card - NOT 2 years from the date the re-entry permit was granted.

The I-751 can be filed to the USA from overseas. He must be back in the USA in order to do the biometrics portion of the process. If his green card expires while he is still outside the USA, and he doesn't yet have the 1-year extension letter in hand, the re-entry permit will also be expired, and he will be stuck outside the USA.

Rene

Michael

I have a son that attended college from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s. He initially attended the UC Santa Cruz and my ex and I paid for his tuition, books, and room and board. At that time tuition for the UC system was only about $4,000 per year so the cost wasn't a big burden. At UC Santa Cruz he was majoring in psychology and had issues with his girl friend so he took off to Texas to attend the University of Texas at Austin for one semester before returning back to UC Santa Cruz. While he was in Texas his tuition was less than what we paid for UC Santa Cruz. I never asked him how he got such inexpensive tuition.

After he graduated from UC Santa Cruz, he decided that he wanted to get a bachelors and masters in architectural design from the University of Minnesota and moved to Minnesota, worked for one year, and then enrolled to get in-state tuition. He eventually got both degrees.

The original agreement with my ex was that we would split the cost of schooling for the kids for their first degree and after that, they were on their own. However when he attended the University of Minnesota, I continued to pay for his tuition and some of his living expenses until the last year when he started talking about attending more colleges and said he doesn't mind paying for his last year at the University of Minnesota. I decided to stop paying to give him an idea of the costs since he loved school and would have likely remained in school forever if I continued to pay.

During the last year he applied for and received scholarships plus he took out a student loan. After that year he decided that maybe he should get a job instead of attending more classes.

Check with different colleges for scholarships and grants that may possibly be available to you.

crg

That's a lot of education. Did it pay off?

S Folinsky

OT -- which college did your son attend? One of my off-spring was a Banana Slug.

Ray

Nonsense ..biomtric are required ... you are going to get such a slap

Bob

Considered online?

Solves a lot of problems and most brick and mortar institutions have online sources...though would depend on the subject and the uni as to the quality.

Bluegrass Lass

Since you are a PR, you could qualify for Federal Financial Aid. Depending on your financial need, you could qualify for grants (no payback required), as well as the federal loans. Of course, you need to make sure you are comfy with the idea of taking out the loans to pay for a US degree.

My OH is studying online, with a brick-and-mortar uni, and using student loans to pay for it. While its scary to see the money keep stacking up, in the long run it'll be worth it so he can change careers. When he graduates in 2 years, we are considering a move to the UK for his grad degree because it does appear that international fees there just may be cheaper than paying out-of-state tuition fees here.

To answer your original questions, it may be worthwhile to wait until you have the approved I-751 before moving. That would reduce the chances of you adding complications with an expired GC. I would suggest you get the re-entry permit as well just to make sure you have all your bases covered.

Michael

He is doing OK. He lives in New York City and has worked for a couple of different architectural firms and taught a couple of semesters at NYIT. He seems to learn quite fast and has done a lot of architectural engineering as well architectural design work that he was trained as.

However, he has very strong opinions and his mouth usually gets him in trouble. As an example he designed the glass facade for the new Louis Vuitton store in Singapore and while he was on a visit to the project under construction he found out that the customer has requested minor cosmetic changes from the glass fabricator.

He didn't say anything at that time but when he flew over for the grand opening and was having dinner afterwards with the customers, the lead customer said that he thought that the facade looked great but my son couldn't resist responding "it would have looked better if the fabrication wasn't changed". When I asked my son why he said that, he said that the customer should know. When I said what does that accomplish since construction is already completed, his response was that "it was important that the customer knows he made a bad decision".

He never got into any problems for that but his opinions had created tension at work. However even though he was one of the more junior architectural designers at work, he missed all the layoffs since he is a hard worker and doesn't shy away from the architectural engineering work that the other designers do (they are short of engineers so any help from designers was greatly appreciated). He does all the engineering calculations for his projects (except the final where they redo all the calculations which has to be done and signed off by an engineer) where other designers have an engineer do the calculations at every stage of the design.

Finally about a month after he returned from Singapore, he opened his mouth once too often to his boss and was laid off. However two weeks later he was teaching a full schedule at NYIT.

If he can just learn to keep his opinions to himself, he will do very well.

In college I thought some of his antics were quite humorous but not suitable for the workplace. As an example he once had an assignment from his professor that my son thought didn't reflect what the professor really wanted from his students so my son changed the assignment to his liking. When he got a B for the assignment because it didn't reflect what the professor wanted, my son approached the professor every day after the class to argue his case and when the professor finally gave in and gave him an A, he assumed that the professor saw his point of view. I had to break the news to my son that the professor was beaten down so much with his relentless pursuit of an A that he finally gave him an A so that he wouldn't bother him anymore.