Complicated marriage visa and nephew question

[Jose007 0]

Hi, my wife is a US citizen and filed an I-130 a couple of years ago, when she was still a green card holder. I’m British. After some months we both received letters, saying we could now apply for the marriage visa. If I recall correctly, my wife then completed a short form and sent off another cheque (check), and I received a letter asking for about $400 to make the application. But I didn’t send it, because at that time I was working in the UK and wanted to finish that work contract, and we decided that we might both live in the UK for a year as soon as my wife got her US citizenship, then return to the US after my work contract was up. Anyway, that plan has changed, as my wife is staying at her job in the USA while I currently have a work contract in India. Complicated situation.

I had assumed that our uncompleted marriage visa was now void, but recently I received a letter stating: “NVC advised you of the necessary steps to prepare for an appointment to file a formal application for an immigrant visa. Our records indicate that you have not contacted NVC in more than a year”. Etc. A second page has a list of intended options, which I need to tick and send back. Yes I wish to continue with visa application, please send me info; No I do not wish to pursue the application etc.

We would like to continue, but I will be based in India for the next 18 months. As I understand it, I would be called for an interview at the US embassy in London. Is there a way of pursuing the visa, but delaying the interview and so on. And if/when I receive the marriage visa, will it still be valid if I don’t promptly settle in the USA?

A second question is that my wife has a nephew in India for whom she has been entirely responsible since he was 10 years old, paying school fees, and still supporting him. He has no living parents. He’s now 21. How can she bring him to the USA at least for a holiday, at most, to live?

Any advice on this would be incredibly helpful and appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[aaron2020 11,652]

Hi, my wife is a US citizen and filed an I-130 a couple of years ago, when she was still a green card holder. I’m British. After some months we both received letters, saying we could now apply for the marriage visa. If I recall correctly, my wife then completed a short form and sent off another cheque (check), and I received a letter asking for about $400 to make the application. But I didn’t send it, because at that time I was working in the UK and wanted to finish that work contract, and we decided that we might both live in the UK for a year as soon as my wife got her US citizenship, then return to the US after my work contract was up. Anyway, that plan has changed, as my wife is staying at her job in the USA while I currently have a work contract in India. Complicated situation.

I had assumed that our uncompleted marriage visa was now void, but recently I received a letter stating: “NVC advised you of the necessary steps to prepare for an appointment to file a formal application for an immigrant visa. Our records indicate that you have not contacted NVC in more than a year”. Etc. A second page has a list of intended options, which I need to tick and send back. Yes I wish to continue with visa application, please send me info; No I do not wish to pursue the application etc.

We would like to continue, but I will be based in India for the next 18 months. As I understand it, I would be called for an interview at the US embassy in London. Is there a way of pursuing the visa, but delaying the interview and so on. And if/when I receive the marriage visa, will it still be valid if I don’t promptly settle in the USA?

A second question is that my wife has a nephew in India for whom she has been entirely responsible since he was 10 years old, paying school fees, and still supporting him. He has no living parents. He’s now 21. How can she bring him to the USA at least for a holiday, at most, to live?

Any advice on this would be incredibly helpful and appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Your wife cannot do anything for her nephew since no one can petition for a nephew. If she had legally adopted him before he turned 16, then she could have petitioned for him. It's too late to adopt him now and give him an immigration benefit.

If her nephew wants to visit the US, he apply on his own. Your wife cannot do anything to help him get a visitor visa. He needs to prove that he has strong ties to India. Young, single, and male will be negatives against him since those are view was more likely to immigrate illegally to the US. However, he wouldn't know if he can get one unless he apply. Try it. Best of luck to him.

The approved I-130 that your wife filed for you is good until one of you die or the two of you get a divorce. The I-130 only establish that your wife and you have a qualifying relationship that allows you to apply for a visa at some future time.

Since you never applied for an immigration visa, the NVC is letting you know that you can apply for one now or your case will go into storage. If you fail to pursue the case, then the US government will assume that you don't want one.

Delaying indefinitely is not possible. Generally, you have one year to apply for the visa. There are lots of people waiting in the F2a category for visas, and one will not be reserve for you forever. If too much time passes when you are given the opportunity to immigrate, then you will have to start over from the beginning.

An immigration visa is valid for up to six months. If the medical exam expires before the six months, then the visa is valid until the medical exam expires. If you don't use it, then you lose it. Visas are limited in the F2a category, and the wait can be 2-3 years. If you aren't going to use it, then it will be given to someone else who wants it and has been waiting 2-3 years for one.

Edited April 15, 2012 by aaron2020

[Jose007 0]

Dear Aaron2020,

Thanks for your reply to my questions and apologies for taking a long time to acknowledge.

Regarding my wife’s nephew, we are going to look into applying for a tourist visa and will advise him on how to do that when the time comes. Thanks for the info.

Regarding the I-130, if I understand your comments correctly, our I-130 is valid throughout our lifetimes as long as we are married? If the case goes into “storage”, we can apply for an immigration visa at a later date and the I-130 case will be brought out of “storage”? But you say that delaying indefinitely is impossible and we have one year. So after one year we WOULD have to apply again, starting from a new I-130??

Please can anyone advise me – if we were to complete the application within the next few weeks, approximately what is the expected timescale? i.e. 6 months, one year, or more? I had heard six months, but Aaron’s comments suggest 2-3 years.

Finally, when I last visited the USA, I was told that I can no longer travel on the visa waiver programme, because I have spent too much time in the USA. I need to apply for a tourist visa. What is the typical wait time for an application and is a 12-month (or longer) visa possible? I need to make sure I have the visa when I need it, but I don’t want it to expire before I need it. As explained before, I’m going to be working in India for a year or more, so getting the timing right (for all these USA things) is very important.

Thanks very much in advance.

[Penguin_ie 6,002]

Is your wife now a US Citizen and has upgraded your petition or not? If not, the whole process takes about 2.5 years from filing petition to interview, though you can delay some by delaying sending back papers for a few months and if approved, you have 6 months to use the visa. So you should be ok with your plan.

How long it takes to get a tourist visa depends on the country you will be interviewing in- I think 6 weeks is about average, maybe a bit more right now due to summer holidays. Usually, you're given a ten year multiple entry visa, and 6 months stay within the USA at a time, but it can be less. With having a spousal petition pending, it may be difficult to get the tourist visa, but having the work contract in India could help.

[Darnell 8,480]

well, the casefile has been at NVC for a bit,

and you just went past the 1 year mark for the last intake of stuff.

Right past that one year mark, NVC sends off a letter to the two of you, inquiring about yer intentions.

I say send off the DS-230 thingie now (did you pay already? The fee has reduced recently)

and with the packet, ask for an interview date (via a cover letter) sometime in 2014.

If you let it lapse, is possible to have the I-130 pulled from storage and the entire NVC process started over, with new fees and new document intake process, in a few years, but you must let NVC know your intentions about the CURRENT application, the current intake; I suggest something like this, in a cover letter:

I am not ready to immigrate into the USA this year, and I have taken a work contract in India for the next 18 months. We would both like to pick up on the Visa Application processing sometime in 2014.

[Jose007 0]

Hello, thanks for your replies, Penguin_ie and Darnell. Sorry it’s taken a long time to reply.

I followed your advice and sent off the form plus a cover letter, worded as suggested above. I ticked (checked) the question on the form that said: “Yes, I wish to pursue my immigrant visa application, please send me information on applying for my immigrant visa. I realise I will have to resubmit all required fees and documents in order to continue the immigrant visa process.” I’m not sure what fees and documents they are referring to, as we only did the I-130, which as I understand it, we don’t have to do again. My wife did send off a short “choice of address and agent” form and a cheque (check) for around $80 or so (if I recall correctly) about 18 months ago. We sent nothing else.

Yes, my wife is now a US citizen. She was a resident when she made the I-130 application, so she needs to upgrade the petition, as far as I understand it. How does she do that?

As for the tourist visa, do you think I can do that at the British embassy in Delhi, India? Or do I have to return to London for 6 weeks? That is not really an option.

Thank you all.

[Darnell 8,480]

Find LingChe in the wiki, read it. It's yer bible for a bit.