Applying for a Green Card

Frazzled Mommy

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 8:52 am

I've been down the green card road. If you are married to an American citizen, you are automatically eligible for permanent residence. However, because there are many who would be tempted to "marry" just to get a green card, the rules for a spouse are stricter than for a parent/child of a US citizen.

1. Your first green card will expire after 2 years, while the others expire after 10

2. You will be required to provide extensive proof that you are married. Most likely, you will be asked to supply your wedding album, or some other proof besides for your actual marriage certificate

3. As far as travelling during the application process, I believe you can leave the country, you simply need to get permission from the ACIS or whatever they call themselves now....

The process does not have to take years, but you will need to follow all the instructions exactly (if you miss an appointment etc. you will set yourself back a few months)

Good luck!

Pandabeer

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 9:22 am

Frazzled Mommy wrote:

Where did you apply for the green card? I applied in Europe, my DH is American.
My first (and only) card is good for 10 years, and I never did have to proof that I'm married. Maybe when you apply in the USA things are different

I got mine in 4 weeks - good Luck

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 2:04 pm

Pandabeer wrote:

Frazzled Mommy wrote:

Are you saying that you do not live in the USA and you were able to get a green card?

wife2

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 3:30 pm

my husband is canadian and we applied for a green card from the u.s. (some ppl apply before marriage when they are living in different country). If you apply in first 2 years of marriage, you get a green card for 2 years and after 3 years can become a citizen. you can leave the country for less than 6 months but if more than that, they get suspicious. I am glad to help you with all the many forms to fill out, the entire process, what to do, and what jewish organizations can help. it is quite lengthy and complicated so it is too long to type but feel free to pm me for exact details about the whole process and I can refer you to those who can help or help you myself

MaBelleVie

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 3:37 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Pandabeer wrote:

Frazzled Mommy wrote:

Are you saying that you do not live in the USA and you were able to get a green card?

Anyone married to a US citizen is eligible for a green card, regardless of where they live. Same for children. Many countries have that law.

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 3:39 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Pandabeer wrote:

Frazzled Mommy wrote:

Are you saying that you do not live in the USA and you were able to get a green card?

Anyone married to a US citizen is eligible for a green card, regardless of where they live. Same for children. Many countries have that law.

Are you sure? We live in Israel. We asked the consulate here and were told that in order for my husband to get a green card, we would have to live in the states for a certain amount of time (Any children born to an american citizen here at least, are automatically american citizens. Makes traveling to america simpler)

SomebodyElse

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 4:36 pm

You can apply for "advance parole", which will, in theory, allow you to leave the country for simchas and such, while your green card application is pending. You can't leave the country until they approve your advance parole, though -- expect it to take at least a couple months.

There is some level of risk involved in leaving the country, even with advance parole. There are rumors of horror stories where people left the US after having had their advance parole approved, but, for some reason or another were not let back in the US when they tried to return. Not sure how much of that is true. One real concern, though, is that you do have to make sure you don't miss any USCIS appointments while you're out of the country. (They schedule your appointments without consulting you.) If you fail to show up, they can deny your green card application, and then you probably wouldn't be allowed back into the US if you were abroad at the time.

Not to scare you too much...plenty of people have left the US with advance parole and had no problem with their green card application.

MaBelleVie

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 4:42 pm

SomebodyElse wrote:

There's also the possibility of missing an interview, which invalidates the entire application.

wife2

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 5:48 pm

SomebodyElse wrote:

I left the country on advance parole and had no problem getting back in. our interview was right after we got back. you have to be sure you don't miss it. they send you a notice when your interview is and you don't want to have already booked a ticket out of the county somewhere since you can't miss your interview. from the time you apply until you get the green card, you cannot leave the country unless you file an extra travel form for advance parole which will allow you to leave during the 4 month process of applying

chocolate chips

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 7:47 pm

If you are married to an American you are NOT automatically given a green card. You have to go through an extensive process to prove you are really married and not just for the green card since many people used to do just that.

You can apply through UJO they are really great, it costs about $100 to do it through them.

You need a sponsor (someone who can provide all their financial information to prove that they are "supporting" you until you are a resident and get a job).
You also need birth certificates for both spouses, passports etc.

The process can take any time from 4months (the quickest) to 1year (me! and some of my friends!). You will get an appointment for fingerprints to be taken, that is the first step. It is best to go whenever they tell you because pushing it off can make the process take longer and if you miss it the whole application is cancelled.

A month or a few after that you will get a work permit with a travel letter. It is better NOT to use the travel letter if possible but if you need to leave the country for a specific reason (like I had a baby) you can use it and they sign it when you come back in...you can only really use it once (and it takes AGES to come back in when you use it because you have to wait in a special room after immigration.).

You can apply for social security with your work permit so that you can work on the books.

A couple months or so after that you will get a letter for your interview.

Both spouses MUST attend the interview and if you have a baby, its great to bring them too. This proves you are married.
UJO can give you a list of things to bring to your interview but some of what you need is:
Pictures of the two of you at the wedding
pictures of the family and the two of you at the wedding
pictures of you on a trip/vacation/at home
pictures of the family and you somewhere (not wedding)
if you have a baby, bring pictures of you and the baby, your babys birth certificate and passports.
you need a joint bank account with a printed statement with both your names,
You need two valid documents with both your names and address on (such as electric bill, rent letter, gas bill etc)
any other information that you have that can prove you are married is great too (marriage cert if a must.)

They will ask you questions like when did you get married, how long did you live here, where did you meet, where did you get married, who was there, and then repeat those a few times.
They might also ask you how many siblings the other one has and you should also be prepared for questions like what toothbrush does he use or what time does his alarm clock ring.

Hopefully you will get a nice interviewee and she will be able to stamp your passport right away and your green card will come shortly after in the mail. We had a real tough one, UJO hadn't given us the proper info regarding documents we had to have and the interview was REALLY nervewracking but BH we were approved two weeks later.

Good Luck!

PS: If you have only been married for under 5 years, you will get a green card for 2 years then you have to re-apply and you get one for 10 years. If you are married over 5 years you get a 10yr one right away.

Laughing Bag!

Wed, Aug 01 2012, 11:40 pm

I see there is a variety of advice given ill add my own too.
if its possible, try applying from outside of the us. it should take less time, and it is the more correct way according to the uscis.
you need to fill out a ton of paperwork, make sure its all correct as every little mistake can add a fee weeks to the process. you need a sponsor who can prove that he can provide for you, (you can have more than one). a marriage certificate is not enough proof that you are married! (for uscis) a child is the best proof with a birth certificate.
you need to fill a medical form basically a visit to one of their registered drs they do blood tests, and a full check-up. then the finger printing they give you an appointment to the local us office who does it.
for the interview you need all the proof you can possibly get to be on the safe side. if you don't have any joint accts with both your names addressed on same letter then mail yourself an envelope addressed to Mr. Avram and Mrs Sara Couple... the ask for it at least they did to me and and another few ppl I spoke to. picture of the 2 of you from when you met until the present on different occasions.
the ask you both questions separetly, it can cart from anything to nothing depending on who the interviewer is.
travelling can be possible if you apply for it but its not always worth it time wise, there is the option tho.
being on top of your appointments, and check the dates. we had our interview sceduled on a YT we had to call in to change it give our reason and wait for their decision religious holiday is not on their list of exceptions and the agent who took my call wasn't very sure I will get away with it bh I did but I had to wait another 3 months.
once the interview goes through and you get accepted its just a couple of weeks until you get the card I got the acceptence letter a week later and 2 weeks later the card they gave me 4-6 weeks.
we did the whole thing ourself got the forms off their site. and sent it all in took us less than a year but might have been less time if our mailman would've delivered the mail instead of returning it to sender ask me why! god know but for a few about 3 months we were not getting mail from them and they said it wad returned to them until I gave in a complain to the postal service. then my 3 months of resceduling the interview.
I didn't attempt to travel. because when I did try they told me it can take up to 3-4 months to get approved and I can already have my appointment by then. that's what happened (I just had to rescedule) my bad!
good luck!

mango

Thu, Aug 02 2012, 12:29 am

I did it About 1.5 yrs ago. Looks like you have gotten lots of good advice so far. I can a tell you my experience was very smooth, we did it mostly ourselves with a little help from an immigration lawyer. If you do it from out of town as opposed to NY or other big cities where lots more people are applying, it's often quicker. We got mine in about 4 months so it wasn't a big deal that we didn't do advanced parole but this depends on where you live. I was very nervous for the interview so I had an appointment with the immigration lawyer who went through the process with me making sure I was comfortable with it knew what to say etc. He told us not to bring our baby with she would just get in the way maybe disturb the interview etc some interviewers don't like babies there. He said to bring pictures birth certificates etc as proof. Anyways in the end that session was a waste of time (and money...) bc we had the nicest guy who didn't get into too many questions our interview was so quick we couldn't belive how fast and smooth our whole process was specially the interview after all the stories we heard! I do understand we were lucky and this isn't often the case. Good luck hope your process goes as smooth as ours! My cleaning lady actually is doing it now so I helped her with some things she was stuck on so I have things fresh in my head a bit so I can help you if we have any questions, pm me.

eatingbagels

Thu, Aug 02 2012, 2:10 am

The rumors about people leaving the country and not being able to come back in are probably based on true stories but likely don't apply to you. Basically, if you leave the country after having lived here illegally for a certain period of time, you can have trouble coming back in, even if you have a green card. (Obviously not if you are a U.S. Citizen.)
Therefore, if someone let's say, lived here undocumented for over a year, (I forgot the set time) and then got a green card, then left the country, they may be barred from reentry for a certain period of time because they had previously lived here illegally. (They could be barred from reentry for ten years, iirc.)
Since it does not sound like you have been living in the U.S. undocumented, I don't believe you have this particular issue.

thankyou

Thu, Aug 02 2012, 2:11 am

Wow that's great - thanks everyone.

A couple of questions, especially to the posters who say they have done it lately and still remember:
-I know that for a few years you cannot leave the US, how many years? (unless you ask for permission as mentioned above). Someone told me 6, someone else 5...?
(and is that after you get the green card ?- because everyone here says they got it in about a years time).

-what if the spouse (me) has an american passport but never lived in the USA? Would DH still get the green card if only they see we really are married?

-If you live meanwhile outside of the US, do you have to fly for each thing- finger prints, interview etc? and do you need to get a visa for it?

-shabbat----- how did you baby become american automatically in Israel???