My wife got her CR1--- How many months of the year do we need to live in the US?

[PeterDragon 0]

So my wife just got her CR1--- or more accurately, an approved "open visa", which will be issued as soon as we decide upon our departure date.

Here's what we're trying to figure out next:

After we arrive in America, can my wife still retain her residency priveliges if we leave again shortly thereafter? In other words, could we set up a residency n America, then travel and live in in other countires without invalidating my wife's visa?

How much time per year do we need to physcially reside in America for the visa to remain valid?

Edited to add: Yes, our ideal goal would be to physically live in America. But it's currently one of the hardest palces in the world to get a job and decent health care, especially as we have a small child. We intned to give it our best try. But if we need to retreat to her home country--- or elsewhere--- for economic reasons, we hope we can still maintain her visa. Anybody know how this works?

Edited December 29, 2009 by PeterDragon

[Malrothien 6]

You need to spend the majority of your year in the US. You are thinking of a plan that is potentially going to invalidate all of the hardship you have experienced in this process. If you were unsure of the ability to get a job, etc, you shouldn't have filed for the visa. :\

[Dakine 26]

So my wife just got her CR1--- or more accurately, an approved "open visa", which will be issued as soon as we decide upon our departure date.

Here's what we're trying to figure out next:

After we arrive in America, can my wife still retain her residency priveliges if we leave again shortly thereafter? In other words, could we set up a residency n America, then travel and live in in other countires without invalidating my wife's visa?

How much time per year do we need to physcially reside in America for the visa to remain valid?

Edited to add: Yes, our ideal goal would be to physically live in America. But it's currently one of the hardest palces in the world to get a job and decent health care, especially as we have a small child. We intned to give it our best try. But if we need to retreat to her home country--- or elsewhere--- for economic reasons, we hope we can still maintain her visa. Anybody know how this works?

It's something like 1/2 the required time to live in the US to get USC. Not more than 6 months absence at one time. That's NOT the EXACT requirements. Check on it yourself to be sure. It's in the USC Guide.

[PeterDragon 0]

It's something like 1/2 the required time to live in the US to get USC. Not more than 6 months absence at one time. That's NOT the EXACT requirements. Check on it yourself to be sure. It's in the USC Guide.

Dakine--- what is the USC Guide, and where can I view it?

Malrothien--- I definitely understand where you're coming from, but we live in an imperfect world. Lining up a job in the states wouldn't have diminished the risk that I'm wasting my time--- I could have gotten a job, and then not gotten to go because my wife's visa was denied or held up. There are very few American employers that both pay a living wage for a family of 3 AND are willing to make a hiring decision without meeting me in person, and I'm not willing to fritter away my savings and time making multiple $2k, 40 hour round trip flights to the states and back to talk to people who only *might* hire me.

If I can't make it in the US and my wife is forced to yield her visa, it's disappointing, but beats indefinitely living in my parents' basement with my new family or having my child die of a disease due to HMO greed.

[PeterDragon 0]

OK, I opked around a little. Is this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...alization_guide

The "USC Guide" Dakine referred to? If not, can anyone else nudge me int he right direction?

[Anh map 2,098]

Start here >>>> USCIS website - Maintaining Permanent Residence

[Dakine 26]

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...0000ecd190aRCRD

[sachinky 465]

At least 6 months of the year. Best to have 10.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

USCIS is getting more sensitive about maintaining permanent residence. If you leave once for up to 6 months, there should be no problem when reentering. If you leave for longer than 6 months, the I.O. may assume you abandoned residence and you have to PROVE otherwise.

What you can't do is live in the US for a few months, then leave the country for 6 months, then come back for a few months, then leave again. Nowadays they have computers at the airport and when you arrive at the P.O.E. they electronically take your wife's fingerprints (4 prints, every time) plus a photo for facial recognition (every time), then scan her Green Card and . . . voila! . . . all of the travel dates show up on this color monitor!

The United States is not the land of milk and honey anymore, but it's big enough to find a job somewhere within its 50 States. Once your wife has become a US citizen, she can travel as much as she wants and live wherever she wants. See the Green Card process as a 3-year phase of your life that requires certain compromises.

Oh, by the way, being out of the country for an extended period stops the clock for citizen purposes, even longer absences set it back to zero, so the aforementioned 3 years from becoming a LPR to USC is a best case scenario.