Thinking about bringing my mom to USA!

[Gmi1986 0]

So I just got my citizenship and thinking about bringing my mom to USA from Russia. She is 50, divorced, knows very basic English... She is very scared on how she will be able to build her life in USA. My husband and I can support her, we were thinking she would live with us for 6-12 months, but eventually we want her to live on her own...find a job, housing, etc... We have a child and planning on having more, she can babysit and we will pay her for it.... She is very indecisive and is not sure if she can build a new life at age 50, also she is not sure how she will be able to leave everything behind....

Does anyone has similar experiences: successful or not....

So now I have all documents prepared and just waiting on her final decision....

Also when your parent is not in USA, but will apply for green card in Russia, how long does the process take and how much time does she have when she get the notification of approval to move to USA?

Any advice/support will be helpful!!!

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

*** three copies of this post removed. Please do not post more than once ona question/ issue. ****

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

You might be better off trying for a visitors visa first. Let her come here and see what she thinks. Many people are very attached to where they are and it is selfish of us to want to take them from that so that we can have them close and even more so to think they are dying to be the babysitter to our children. Personally grands are great to play with and return but I want to be able to do what I want with my life and not be tied to child rearing ( a job I have "retired" from already ) Also if she isn't working a job that is earning her social security credits she won't be able to tap into the old age benefits here, and even then she would have to work well past normal US retirement to earn enough credit. If she has a strong social network back home she will be happier there. My mother and her next sister never lived more than a mile from the house they were born in and never more than a mile from each other. She stayed in the cold and snow because that is where she was happy when any of us would have given her a choice of places in the US to live.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I think you're probably being optimistic by expecting that she will be self-sufficient in 6 to 12 months. There are many US citizens who are over 50 and were laid off after many years on the job, and they've been unable to find work. The job situation for older workers is particularly bad right now. It's called the "gray wall". Older workers are more expensive to employ. Group life and group health insurance cost more when there are older workers on the payroll. If the job doesn't involve extensive skill or education then younger workers are usually a lot more productive.

I tell my kids that they need one or a combination of three things in order to find a good job. Those three things are talent, skill, and knowledge. If they don't have at least one of those three things at a level beyond most other people then the best they can hope for is a minimum wage unskilled job, which usually involves physical labor. Older workers rarely get these jobs because they just can't keep up with younger workers.

Employers can't legally deny someone a job because they're too old. It's a protected class, just like race, gender, and sexual orientation. This doesn't stop them from doing it, though. They look for clues on the resume or application, such as the year a person graduated from high school, and they'll toss resumes and applications from older workers.

The exception to the above are professional jobs where experience continually adds to the employee's skills. Doctors, lawyers, and advanced technology professionals come to mind. Those jobs also tend to be at the high end of the wage scale.

I think you need to take a good look at her job skills and check the local job listings to see if there's a reasonable chance she'll be able to get a job that pays enough for her to support herself. If she doesn't have a degree in a heavily understaffed profession then you might be supporting her for a long time.