marcsred

Ha, I JUST got off the phone with my fiance at work, and he hold me to do the same thing, so here I go, shutting down the computer until later.

Thanks for the tip on the Australia forum!

AlanR

Here's the full link (about halfway down)
http://www.dmv.org/tx-texas/other-license-info.php
Oz has recip[rocity with the US.

Noorah101

Marcsred, you are talking in the same breath about 3 or 4 different ways of doing things....and now after reading more, I'm not sure you even WANT him to immigrate to the USA! You said you want to come home for your graduation, but might only stay a few months and then live permanently in Australia, NOT the USA.

You must first decide where you want to live permanently (or at least for the next 5 or 6 years). No sense going through all this immigration hassle if you're only going to stay a few months and then move back to Oz.

If you just want him to be in the USA for your graduation, perhaps he can just get a visitor's visa to spend some time with you in the USA. Or if he's eligible to use the VWP, then that would work too.

Addressing another question you had, the K-3 process is a bit outdated now and is no longer the fastest or best way to bring a spouse to the USA (In my opinion...people are still doing it, though, so you wouldn't be alone). If he IS going to immigrate to the USA, I suggest you stick to either the K-1 fiance visa or the Immigrant Visa.

I don't know how all this will affect his quest for Australian citizenship, but it might be a good idea to let that happen first, before immigrating to the USA. You wouldn't want his immigration to the USA to cancel out his status in Australia which lets him naturalize over there. At least give that a good amount of research.

Rene

Folinskyinla

Hi:

No offense meant, but this has me ROFL. I've been at this for three decades and I have a file called "quotes of frustration" on my computer. These are from JUDGES and I think it needs updating. You are not alone. Enjoy:

"...we are in the never-never land of the Immigration and Nationality Act, where plain words do not always mean what they say." Yuen Sang Low v. Attorney General, 479 F.2nd 820 (9th Cir. 1973)

"We have had occasion to note the striking resemblance between some of the laws we are called upon to interpret and King Minos's labyrinth in ancient Crete. The Tax Laws and the Immigration and Nationality Acts are examples we have cited of Congress's ingenuity in passing statutes certain to accelerate the aging process of judges. In this instance, Congress, pursuant to its virtually unfettered power to exclude or deport natives of other countries, and apparently confident of the aphorism that human skill, properly applied, can resolve any enigma that human inventiveness can create, has enacted a baffling skein of provisions for the I.N.S. and courts to disentangle. The fate of the alien faced with imminent deportation often hinges upon narrow issues of statutory interpretation. The instant petition, which requires us to determine whether the petitioner is ineligible for the discretionary relief afforded by Section 212(c) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. s 1182(c), because he has not accumulated seven years of residence in this country since his admission to permanent resident alien status, is no exception. Emboldened by Thesean courage and fortified by a close examination of the statutory language, we believe that the Board of Immigration appeals erred in denying the petitioner relief on the ground that it did, and remand for consideration on a proper basis." Tim Lok v. INS, 548 F.2nd 37 (2nd Cir. 1977).

"In its brief the INS states "the public, of course, has a right to obtain guidance from the regulations for its dealings with the Service." We devoutly hope the INS and those who draft the regulations and Operations Instructions under which it operates will take this statement to heart. Whatever guidance the regulations furnish to those cognoscenti familiar with INS procedures, this court, despite many years of legal experience, finds that they yield up meaning only grudgingly and that morsels of comprehension must be pried from mollusks of jargon. There is nothing esoteric about the subject matter. The regulations concern simple matters of great concern to human beings, most of them of limited education. They should be so written as to be comprehensible by intelligent laymen and unspecialized lawyers without the aid of both lexicon and inner-circle guide." Kwon v. INS, 646 F.2nd 909 (5th Cir. 1981)

"It would seem that should be a simple issue with a clear answer, but this is immigration law where the issues are seldom simple and the answers are far from clear." Alanis-Bustamante v. Reno 201 F.34d 1303 (11th Cir. 2000)

"This case vividly illustrates the labyrinthine character of modern immigration law-a maze of hyper-technical statutes and regulations that engender waste, delay, and confusion for the Government and petitioners alike. The inscrutability of the current immigration law system, and the interplay of the numerous amendments and alterations to that system by Congress during the pendency of this case, have spawned years of litigation, generated two separate opinions by the District Court, and consumed significant resources of this Court. With regret and astonishment, we determine, as explained more fully below, that this case still cannot be decided definitively but must be remanded to the District Court, and then to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), for further proceedings." Drax v. Reno 338 F.3d 98 (2nd Cir. 2003).

marcsred

Honestly? We will more than likely be settling in America, and have talked this over heaps of times, and it's what we BOTH want, however we tell his family, and I tell him when he starts to get nervous about moving to a country on the other side of the Earth, where he knows no one besides my family, that once I get my diploma in December of 2008, we can talk about things again.

I think it's a way of not getting his family to panic that they don't know when they'll see him again unless they visit us (it'll take us a while before we can afford to go back, even just for vacation), and a way to keep him from panicking about the same thing. We've talked about jobs and what we want to do, and that means settling in Austin, Texas, where I am from. Still, we are both relatively young, and it's good to keep talks of where we will be forever (or at least the forseeable forever) flexible rather than concrete. It works for us, anyway.

However I have no doubt that to get what we both want, and where we both want, we will have to settle in America, for at least the next several years, so this immigration thing is serious. I only don't want to screw up his Australian Citizenship because it's been such a long journey, and to me (and him, I'm sure), losing that would be like one door being pretty firmly shut. I'm also positive that his little brother and mum would go nuts (just as mine would) and feel that I am, truly, stealing him away from them, and that's just not good for family relations...

The K-1 fiance visa is form I-129f and the immigrant visa form I-130, correct?

Cheers for the response.

Noorah101

The petition for the K-1 fiance visa is I-129F, correct. And the petition for the spouse immigrant visa is the I-130, correct.

So you are looking at living in the USA, then. First thing to straighten out is whether him applying for permanent residency in the USA will disrupt his current status in Australia and affect his naturalization there. Also find out if he needs to spend any amount of time after becoming an Aussie citizen before he can immigrate to another country. Next, see if you can get married in Australia and qualify for DCF. That's by far the quickest method. Then go from there, once you find out those answers, and decide which route and how to proceed.

I am not sure you'll make a May deadline on his immigration, but at least he could come for a visit, and then go back to complete his immigration process, if need be.

I think you asked about a joint sponsor before, too. Any US Citizen or US Permanent Resident over the age of 18, who lives in the USA can be a joint sponsor. They have to meet the income requirements for their houshold size plus the immigrant.

Best Wishes,
Rene

JAJ

No minimum time.

He just needs to avoid complications until he is sworn in as an Australian citizen. He should not make any plans to leave until after that date.

Folinskyinla

Hi Rene:

The consulates in Australia have always been the most hospitable to "DCF" in its conventional sense of allowing simple physical presence of the AmCit to invoke it. For a while this year, there was a problem of adjudication abroad and that has now been resolved from what I understand. I would not be surprised if "residence" in the sense of student status will do the trick Australia.

Noorah101

Excellent news for the OP.

marcsred

That WOULD be excellent news, but this is the only info I've been able to find about it:
It seems like there's always some little thing that makes us ineligible...:curse:

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Call them -- or make an inquiry via e-mail.

If not, perhaps get married and submit the I-130 to US. If it is taking time, don't lollygag.

Noorah101

Pursue it anyway. What they write and what they do can be very different sometimes. If they somehow feel you don't qualify for DCF, they will return the whole packet and fee to you within a week or two, and you can then send it to the service center in the USA. So you won't be out any money, and only a short amount of time. It would be worth pursuing anyway, in my opinion.

Rene

meauxna

I wish you would read the links I've been trying to give you...

Forget what you read there; contact them directly.

But you should also decide the priorities of your timing for the various objections you've brought up, like the school funding (don't really understand what you're trying to achieve with that) and where you want to get married and where you want to live.

These are multi-thousand dollar proposals you've got on the table, so hopping around without a plan can get expensive.

Just Jenney

I was thinking the same thing. I'm getting the impression that having her fiance attend her graduation ceremony is at the top of her list of priorities, when really it's such an insignificant matter compared to the other things she should be considering. Just based on the limited information that's been provided, I would probably list the priorities this way:

1. Get his Australian citizenship in the bag, no matter what.
   
2. Make sure she doesn't become ineligible for financial aid by getting married at the wrong time.
   
3. Make a final decision as to where they intend to spend the next 5-6 years. Going through US immigration, only to turn right around and go through Australian immigration, is a waste of time and money. Pick one, and run with it. In either case, #1 and #2 need to be taken into account first.

NOT a priority: Having him attend her graduation ceremony. It's one day in a lifetime, it's long and tiring, and ultimately will end up being only a blur. I'm not saying that graduation isn't important, just that it's not important enough to plan your life and future around.

I'm also curious as to what her fiance's current citizenship is -- that is, what country is he originally from? Not that it matters, but you never know...

~ Jenney

marcsred

He is a UK citizen (from Scotland). Our priorities, when it comes right down to it, are pretty much like you said. I would love to have him there for my graduation, but number one is making sure he gets his Australian citizenship. I would rather wait an extra month or so, if need be, just so that goes through. If he misses my graduation, that sucks, but just a bit of delay so we can ultimately be together is worth it. We're just trying to see if we can get both things done.

Does anyone know about this? I've heard all interviews for the purposes of immigration to the States are conducted in Sydney. Is that correct?