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jaske78

Marriage, travel, temporary green card

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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Serbia
Timeline

I am a USC sponsoring a K1 Fiance visa. So far it has not come through, just waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) We are hoping to marry in the summer of 2015, and then hopefully the AOS will be done by the spring of 2016.

I am planning to start attending a graduate program in Canada, however, starting in the autumn term of 2016. I timed it this way so that the temporary green card would not have come through (giving it about a year).

My worry: the Canadian authorities say that spouses can tag along with students enrolled at Canadian Universities. They get a cool little temporary work permit while the students are busy exhausting themselves studying. That's not a problem. Canada is another kettle of frogs.

My WORRY is that by the time I have defended and am DONE with the graduate work, and am ready to return Stateside, that temporary Green Card will have expired, and that an officer, seeing that after we got the thing, spent most of our lives in a third country (Canada) due to my schooling) will, at best, refuse to adjust status from the temporary to permanent. Add to this the stress of border crossings in which people stare at the two passports, and then the horror of being literally unable to cross back into the US.

I read here that we could not stay outside the country for more than six months, but what does that mean? Catching the ferry to Buffalo to catch a Bills game, spending a night or two, and going back across the border? Returning during winter and summer breaks back Stateside? We'll have US bank accounts, car/life insurance, we'll be TOGETHER, PHYSICALLY... but this is getting headachey. When they say that they want proof of non-abandonment, are they saying that the immigrant has not abandoned the American country, or that the immigrant has not abandoned ME, the USC.

Also, if the worst happens and the temporary Green Card expires and they won't do anythign about it because we've been living in Canada together, can we be eligible to reapply? There HAS to be some sort of workaround for this, right?

Sorry, this is ages in the future, but I am a planner by nature, and I never even consider anything without looking squarely at all of the problems and finding solutions. Any ideas here?

Thank you,

Jason

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Filed: Timeline

If your fiancee will be out of the country for more than a year after she gets her green card, she may need to apply for a re-entry permit. If she will be out of the country for more than two years, she may need to apply for the returning resident visa:

http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-green-card-granted/international-travel-permanent-resident

That said, the page in the link cautions against staying out of the country for six months or more as it disrupts the continuous residency requirement for naturalisation. Although there's also yet another form for preserving that (see above link).

So there may be a way to navigate this and remain on the path that you've currently set out. However, it will depend on the people reviewing your paperwork. They may decide that your wife following you on your endeavour rather than her own is not a good enough reason to allow her to preserve her permanent residence status in the US. Or they may adjudicate in your favour. I'd advise researching all the possibilities on the USCIS website, including the forms, requested supplementary information and instructions.

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