tface

My wife is a LPR who is also a british citizen.
We have both been resident in the UK for a long time, should we apply for I-130 at the london office or should we apply in the USA.
What are the processing times involved?.
She is a british citizen and got a green card through the green card lottery and has been "maintaining" her green card by visiting the US every year and getting a re entry permit.
We are now concidering going to the USA.

meauxna

Stop considering it.

Your wife's own residency is probably in jeopardy. She is meant to be living in the US and visiting elsewhere.

Permanent Residents are not allowed to petition through the USCIS Field Office (because they are supposed to be living in the US).

The current wait for a visa for the spouse of a Permenant Resident is about 5 years.

Noorah101

Are you SURE she's still an LPR? You might want to have a consultation with an immigration attorney experienced in PR abandonment, just to make sure. "Visiting" the USA once a year is not enough, she must live in the USA and visit overseas. Having the re-entry permit helps, but doesn't solve everything. You say you've both been resident in the UK for a long time. SHE can't be resident in the UK and the USA at the same time. How long has she been in the UK?

The processing time for the spouse of an LPR is about 5 years or so, depending on how many people are ahead of you, etc.

When your wife becomes a USC, the petition can be upgraded and a visa number becomes immediately available to you. However, with her being in the UK so long, there's no way of knowing how close she is to getting US citizenship.

I do not know if an LPR is allowed to file the I-130 in London. (Edit to add, meauxna cleared that up for me!)

Rene

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Out of idle curiosity, who is the relative who would file the I-130 on behalf of you and your wife? You don't say. Without more information, it is impossible to determine. Even if the US Citizen relative is currently residing in the UK, they would have to file the petition in the US via the Chicago lockbox. And both the FB-3 and FB-4 categories have pretty long backlogs.

Good luck.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

This post is badly mis-captioned and is obviously in the wrong forum. The caption and the placement suggests that the post is about the wife filing an I-130. However, the body of the post is quite clear that OP must be talking about an I-130 for a US citizen parent or sibling.

Perhaps it should be moved.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

FYI: http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/vol17/2813.pdf

Still good law. Her LPR has yet to be tested, but that I-130 probably won't go anywhere on the facts he posits and assuming he is talking about his wife petitioning. Of course, lot of the law on this is 25-38 years old and the word hasn't got out yet into the general community. Of course, there may be other facts that OP can't be bothered to disclose.

ian-mstm

Your wife must be a USC to file an I-130 in London. What ties has she maintained to the US? Has she filed taxes each year as she is obligated to do? Does she maintain an address in the US? A bank account?


You understand, don't you, that this is largely a myth! Your wife must be *living* in the US to maintain her status as a PR with only *brief* visits outside the US. If, in fact, she has "been resident in the UK for a long time", then it's quite possible that she has already lost her status... yes, despite having re-entry permits.

Seriously, you have a lot of catch-up learning to do about US immigration.

Ian

Folinskyinla

Hi:

As a general rule, you have hit the nail on the head. However, there are exceptions. Perhaps OP's wife falls in one of those exceptions. However, I've seen no indication that would suggest an exception.

However, one must remember that the "mother" case on abandonment came out only recently in 19-seventy-5 -- so there really hasn't been all that much time for the myth to be dispelled.

Just Jenney

It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to ignore the "resident" part of the term "US permanent resident".

~ Jenney

Folinskyinla

Hi:

Actually, "residence" is a legal "term of art" and is not to be confused with "domicile." The Immigration & Nationality Act does not use the term "domicile" but uses a slightly altered version of residence:

101(a)(33) -- "The term 'residence' means the place of general abode; the place of general abode of a person means his principal, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to intent."

However, the term "residence" is used in a very different fashion in the definition of "lawfully admitted to permanent residence":

101(a)(20) "The term 'lawfully admitted for lawful permanent residence' means the status of having been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing in the United States as an immigrant in accordance with the immigration laws, such status not having changed." [emphasis added]

The language of 101(a)(20) stands in marked contrast to the requirement for a "B" visitors visa under 101(a)(15)(B) -- "...having a residence in a foreign country which has no intention of abandoning..."

Accordingly, it is possible to have LPR status while having no present residence in the United States. In contrast, the "B" visitor must currently have a "residence" in a foreign country.

There is nothing unremarkable about this.

That said, the abandonment cases focus on the phrase "such status not having changed."

Bill_S

Five sentences, three "howevers". That tells me that the OP's case isn't straightforward

Folinskyinla

Hi:

The law is not all that straightfoward. However, application of the law to the facts in a particular case is often quite straightforward. We certainly don't know the facts -- but absent additional facts, I believe OP has problems.

tface

my wife got her green card in the visa lottery when she was a student in the united kingdom. She has not had a chance to live there since she got her green card
She does not pay taxes in the USA but she does have a bank account there. I dont know what the legal stand on this is? As i previously said she still has a "valid" green card as she has not stayed outside the usa for more than one year.
Is there any other information needed?
So though she is resident in the UK, she will have to file the i130 in the USA? the london embassy is not clear about this.
She will be my sponsor

Marocco

Has she filed US taxes since she obtained her green card?

There are a few problems with that assumption. One is that as the spouse of a LPR you are not eligible for an Immediate Relative visa. Instead you have to go through the Family Preference route F2A (spouse and/or minor child of a LPR). This takes years to process. According to the June 2008 visa bulletin they are currently dealing with applications from 2003.

Another potential problem is that your wife may have to live in the US in order to petition for you.

Finally, as others have mentioned, your wife may no longer have LPR status, even though she has used her green card to visit the US on a regular basis since obtaining it. You may want to consult an experienced immigration attorney on all these issues.

Noorah101

What you don't seem to understand is that your wife might have already abandoned her green card by not adhering to the rules that a US PR must live by in order to keep that status. You say she has not had a chance to live in the USA since she got the green card, yet you say she has not spent more than a year outside the USA at any given time. Just so you know, a US PR must LIVE in the USA, must file a US tax return every year, and must spend the majority of their time inside the USA, with intermittent trips overseas. True, being a student overseas and having a re-entry permit might work in her favor, but she should consult a qualified immigration attorney to make sure she has not abandoned her PR status.

No, she cannot file the I-130 in London. She must file the I-130 to a service center in the USA, and then wait 5 years or so for a visa number to become available to you. Yes, she will be your sponsor, but she should take a look at the I-864 Affidavit of Support and make sure she meets those requirements...although she won't need to file that for another 4 years or more.

Rene