Australian Partner and I moving to US - and what that means ongoing

[buffingp 0]

Hi there,

 

My partner (Australian) and I (American) are living in Sydney on a de facto partner visa. I have permanent residency in Australia. 

 

We are interested to understand what happens in the following general situation. 

 

My partner and I move to the US either on a spouse visa or a fiance visa. She becomes a permanent resident in the United States and after a couple years we decide we want to live in Australia for a given amount of time. 

 

What I'm wondering is generally how this 'back and forth' type life would be if we are not certain we would want to live in the US forever after moving there. Any feedback would be great and very much appreciated! 

[mcdull 474]

8 minutes ago, buffingp said:

Hi there,

 

My partner (Australian) and I (American) are living in Sydney on a de facto partner visa. I have permanent residency in Australia. 

 

We are interested to understand what happens in the following general situation. 

 

My partner and I move to the US either on a spouse visa or a fiance visa. She becomes a permanent resident in the United States and after a couple years we decide we want to live in Australia for a given amount of time. 

 

What I'm wondering is generally how this 'back and forth' type life would be if we are not certain we would want to live in the US forever after moving there. Any feedback would be great and very much appreciated! 

USCIS doesn't recognise common law marriage.

 

Permanent residency is a settle status, you have to live here  

[geowrian 22,335]

Part of having a green card means living in the US as your permanent residence. Extended travel abroad could result in abandonment of residency. The best thing may be to hold off on moving abroad until she can apply for citizenship (3 years after getting the green card if you remain married). Once citizenship is obtained, she can be abroad for any period of time and return to the US. At least that's one option.

[buffingp 0]

Thank you that is very helpful. If anyone else has any input it would be appreciated. We are currently enjoying Sydney but are starting early stages of reviewing the idea of living there for a period of time. Three years isn't too bad of an amount for the citizenship.

[geowrian 22,335]

2 minutes ago, buffingp said:

Thank you that is very helpful. If anyone else has any input it would be appreciated. We are currently enjoying Sydney but are starting early stages of reviewing the idea of living there for a period of time. Three years isn't too bad of an amount for the citizenship.

Keep in mind it's 3 years from getting permanent residency. That's at POE for a spousal visa, or when AOS is approved after entering on a K-1 visa (expect close to a year but AOS time varies heavily from office to office). The application does take some time to process as well (as does anything with immigration!).

[Boiler 43,392]

When youu leave you file I407 to terminate your Permanent Residency.

[Mollie09 1,543]

9 hours ago, mcdull said:

USCIS doesn't recognise common law marriage.

 

Permanent residency is a settle status, you have to live here  

 

Just want to echo this: USCIS does not recognize common law marriage. You can only get a spousal visa with an official marriage, and you can't get a fiance visa if you're common-law married.

We've seen the issue where someone was common law married somewhere and couldn't get "official" married, so they had to go to a third country to get married so they could immigrate to the US.