Filing I-751 from Overseas

[T and M 1]

Hello everyone,

It has been approximately a year since I have logged onto visajourney. It is a bittersweet feeling. Visajourney is an amazing source of information and moral support, but dealing with immigration takes so much out of me.

So my wife's GC will expire on 25 July 2010. Which means we can file as early as now. We live overseas, thanks to a serious of short-term work opportunities. I failed in my attempt to get my wife naturalized under 319b because self-owned US-based business was not considered "serious" enough to qualify for 319b. So here we are.

We have been back to the US every 4-5 months since my wife received her GC, and we plan to go back again in late June until early July. We will likely then return abroad until January 2011, at which point a work opportunity is opening up for me in the US and our long period of limbo is likely to come to a close.

I was thinking of putting in my wife's ROC application in late April, with hopes that her biometrics appointment would fall in late June or early July, thus saving us an extra trip back to the US. Hopefully, we will not be called in for an interview. But if we are, I have read that we can request repeated postponements until we get back to the US in January 2011.

Thoughts?

A bit demoralized, since our last experience with USCIS was frustrating, humiliating, costly, and ultimately unsuccessful.

Cheers to all...

[T and M 1]

Hello everyone,

It has been approximately a year since I have logged onto visajourney. It is a bittersweet feeling. Visajourney is an amazing source of information and moral support, but dealing with immigration takes so much out of me.

So my wife's GC will expire on 25 July 2010. Which means we can file as early as now. We live overseas, thanks to a serious of short-term work opportunities. I failed in my attempt to get my wife naturalized under 319b because self-owned US-based business was not considered "serious" enough to qualify for 319b. So here we are.

We have been back to the US every 4-5 months since my wife received her GC, and we plan to go back again in late June until early July. We will likely then return abroad until January 2011, at which point a work opportunity is opening up for me in the US and our long period of limbo is likely to come to a close.

I was thinking of putting in my wife's ROC application in late April, with hopes that her biometrics appointment would fall in late June or early July, thus saving us an extra trip back to the US. Hopefully, we will not be called in for an interview. But if we are, I have read that we can request repeated postponements until we get back to the US in January 2011.

Thoughts?

A bit demoralized, since our last experience with USCIS was frustrating, humiliating, costly, and ultimately unsuccessful.

Cheers to all...

I should have been more concise.

From the looks of recent timelines:

1. The biometrics take place around 4-6 weeks after filing, no?

2. Few people are being called in for interviews these days, it seems. I guess the trick is to send in sufficient evidence. Thoughts?

[justashooter 430]

read the 751 instructions carefully. they allow for a special mechanism for overseas filers that does not require stateside biometrics.

[T and M 1]

read the 751 instructions carefully. they allow for a special mechanism for overseas filers that does not require stateside biometrics.

Thanks for your response! Actually, I have looked through the instructions, and it looks to me that only individuals who are overseas on Government or Military orders are eligible to file the I-751 with a fingerprint card from their local consulate.

There was once a thread on this, but I can't seem to find it in the midst of so many I-751 discussions. If I remember that thread correctly, non-government and non-military I-751 have to go through biometrics. Which means we definitely have to try to get it to fall during the time we are going to be back in the States in June/July.

[Otto 83]

Thanks for your response! Actually, I have looked through the instructions, and it looks to me that only individuals who are overseas on Government or Military orders are eligible to file the I-751 with a fingerprint card from their local consulate.

There was once a thread on this, but I can't seem to find it in the midst of so many I-751 discussions. If I remember that thread correctly, non-government and non-military I-751 have to go through biometrics. Which means we definitely have to try to get it to fall during the time we are going to be back in the States in June/July.

There have been many threads on this very subject.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/234119-best-evidence-in-my-situation/page__hl__overseas (one of several)

To back up just a bit - how long have you guys lived abroad?

[T and M 1]

There have been many threads on this very subject.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/234119-best-evidence-in-my-situation/page__hl__overseas (one of several)

To back up just a bit - how long have you guys lived abroad?

Thanks for this thread. As I read through it, I actually remembered where the other threads were hidden away. Under "moving abroad on conditional GC" and the like. So I found the others:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/218085-moving-overseas-while-on-conditional-green-card/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/246481-moving-abroad-after-obtaining-green-card/http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/178132-maintaining-lpr-status-while-working-abroad/

Apparently, we are covered with regard to the maintenance of residency. (To answer your question, we have been abroad most of the 2-year period, but never for more than six months at a time. I have had a series of short-term projects abroad that I never fully expected. As such, we maintain all our bank accounts in the US, filed taxes every year, and maintained our permanent US address the entire time. To be extra safe, I have documentation from my employers that all these jobs were temporary, which is apparently sufficient to demonstrate no intent to abandon US residency.)

As far as the ROC goes, however, it is possible that my wife's petition will be put on "overseas hold," which means that when my short-term work abroad ends - I have yet another job abroad from August to December and then I begin a job in the US in January 2011 - we will have to schedule an Infopass appointment to have the hold removed and the ROC will proceed. There is a chance it will not be put on hold, however, and that it will be adjudicated normally - assuming we are willing to be in the US for Biometrics and any RFE interviews.

According to these threads, the most important things to document are that the jobs were temporary and that we maintain very close ties to our permanent home in the US.

Thanks again for pointing me to a thread. That got the juices flowing, and now I think we are back on track. We'll file the I-751 in mid-May (her GC expires in late July), and we'll see what happens. With USCIS you have to be prepared for anything.

Edited April 26, 2010 by T and M