re: I-130 & AOS filing for adult unmarried daughter of US citizen while in US on B-2 visa

[gunnergoz 0]

My wife is a US citizen and her daughter is an adult (38 y.o.) unmarried (divorced) Ukrainian citizen who holds a 10-year visitor (B-1) visa issued in June 2014 and will visit us in San Diego for the second time in December of this year. She was last here in July 2014 and left in September. She now wants to immigrate from Ukraine due to the war and concerns about her Ukrainian ex-husband's threat potential. We plan to file an I-130 for her and understand that her 10 year old daughter would automatically be included in the immigration petition. The questions arise from those basic facts.

1. Can we file an immigration petition I-130 for her while she is legally in the US on the visitor visa?

2. If the I-130 is filed, does this affect her comings and goings on the visitor visa? Or does she risk having the visitor visa revoked?

3. How often can she safely come and go to the US given that the standard limit for any one stay on this visa seems to be 6 months? In other words, how long does she have to be in Ukraine before returning to the US for another 5 or 6 months?

4. I understand that while she is in the US legally on her unexpired visitor visa, we can file for an adjustment of status at the same time we file the I-130. Can anyone tell me how this would work given the general wait for adult umarried relatives to immigrate on an I-130 seems to be about 5 years - or so I've heard, but not from any official source.

As an aside, I wanted to mention that our daughter waited almost 10 years to get this visitor visa and was declined for visitor and student visas at least 5 times by the US Consulate in Kyiv during that time. She was invariably and repeatedly being told by the Consular Officers that they were denying the visas because, as an attractive single female, she would surely overstay her visa and remain in the US illegally. I argued with four separate US Consul Generals by phone about it over the years, to no avail. Only after her mother became a US citizen did the Consulate issue the daughter a visitor visa like it was no big deal.

I thank you in advance for reading this and for any advice, tips or experiences you care to share.

[Stressed Out 81]

1. You can file the petition regardless of where she is at the time. You'll have to mention on the I-130 that she's currently in the US.

2. That's all up to what kind of customs officer she gets at her POE.

3. There's no set time limit as to how often you can visit the US in one calendar year, but I never tried to visit with my husband more than twice a year. Others go much more often than we did and haven't had any trouble. I just never felt like risking it.

4. Filing for adjustment of status is quite a "tender" issue. You can only do so if you had no such intentions at the time of her entry to the US. You would have to have substantial evidence that proves that this wasn't pre-planned. If they find you out she'd be marked with visa fraud as the B-2 isn't used for immigration purposes and she could have some nasty marks on her record for that, which would only make the immigration process slower in the future.

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

You are asking how to commit immigration fraud.

[gunnergoz 0]

I had no idea this was considered fraud. I was simply reading the official site http://www.uscis.gov/visit-united-states/change-my-nonimmigrant-status-category/change-my-nonimmigrant-status and assumed, perhaps very incorrectly, that this was legal and unproblematic. I had assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that my wife's daughter would be eligible to do this AOS thing but apparently not?

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

I had no idea this was considered fraud. I was simply reading the official site http://www.uscis.gov/visit-united-states/change-my-nonimmigrant-status-category/change-my-nonimmigrant-status and assumed, perhaps very incorrectly, that this was legal and unproblematic. I had assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that my wife's daughter would be eligible to do this AOS thing but apparently not?

Tourist visas are non-immigrant. When you have intention to adjust status on those visas, it is called immigration fraud.

[gunnergoz 0]

Tourist visas are non-immigrant. When you have intention to adjust status on those visas, it is called immigration fraud.

Well, it seems I have learned something very important here then and I thank you and the previous poster for explaining it. The last thing we want to do is to jeoparize our daughter's ability to visit us on her B-2 pending her permanent immigration petition. Had I not posted here and asked this, I shudder to think of what might have happened. My sincere thanks to you and "Stresed Out" for the straight talk.

[aleful 1,905]

hi

plus she cannot file for adjustment of status with the i130 because she isn't an immediate relative, meaning minor children under 21 of a USC

she has a waiting time of over 7 years, she can come and visit during that time, but she will have her interview in her country of origin.

immigration is currently working with cases sent in 2007 for her category

[belinda63 2,981]

She cannot adjust status from within the US now. The I-130 will be filed and a priority date given. When the priority date becomes current (in about 7 years) if she is in the US in lawful status, meaning not having overstayed, AOS can be filed.

The general guideline on a tourist visa is spend more time outside the US than inside. If CBP feels she is using the tourist visa to live in the US they can deny her entry.

[kzielu 1,147]

My wife is a US citizen and her daughter is an adult (38 y.o.) unmarried (divorced) Ukrainian citizen who holds a 10-year visitor (B-1) visa issued in June 2014 and will visit us in San Diego for the second time in December of this year. She was last here in July 2014 and left in September. She now wants to immigrate from Ukraine due to the war and concerns about her Ukrainian ex-husband's threat potential. We plan to file an I-130 for her and understand that her 10 year old daughter would automatically be included in the immigration petition. The questions arise from those basic facts.

1. Can we file an immigration petition I-130 for her while she is legally in the US on the visitor visa?

2. If the I-130 is filed, does this affect her comings and goings on the visitor visa? Or does she risk having the visitor visa revoked?

3. How often can she safely come and go to the US given that the standard limit for any one stay on this visa seems to be 6 months? In other words, how long does she have to be in Ukraine before returning to the US for another 5 or 6 months?

4. I understand that while she is in the US legally on her unexpired visitor visa, we can file for an adjustment of status at the same time we file the I-130. Can anyone tell me how this would work given the general wait for adult umarried relatives to immigrate on an I-130 seems to be about 5 years - or so I've heard, but not from any official source.

1. Yes

2. It shouldn't, may affect her getting new visa if this one expires.

3.Rule of thumb - more time outside US than in US. Spending too much time or coming too often can get her visa revoked,

4. No - she is ineligible to file adjustment of status. She would have been if her priority date was current and she was in legal status - otherwise it would be a way to bypass long wait for visa number.

She has ~11 years wait ahead of her and fact of her having a B-2 is meaningless for that perspective. If she stays beyond her allowed time in US, once her priority date is current - she will be ineligible for AOS and long wait will essentially be wasted.

Read about how family preference visa categories work and check Visa Bulletin out.

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin.html

[gunnergoz 0]

To all who took the time to read this and answer, I thank you very much. I learned a lot and have possibly kept us from doing something ruinous out of cheerful ignorance and wrongly held assumptions. Sometimes it is not what you don't know that hurts you, but rather that which you think you know, but instead turns out to be completely incorrect, that does you in. Gives me the willies to even think about it.

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

To all who took the time to read this and answer, I thank you very much. I learned a lot and have possibly kept us from doing something ruinous out of cheerful ignorance and wrongly held assumptions. Sometimes it is not what you don't know that hurts you, but rather that which you think you know, but instead turns out to be completely incorrect, that does you in. Gives me the willies to even think about it.

It was honest mistake, just be careful and do it in right way. Good luck and it will be done before you even know.

[icv21 110]

That's true what someone mentioned if she comes too often and stays for too long they will say she is not visiting she is living here with a tourist visa, and it's not the visa purpose....

Something similar happened to me and I was threatened at POE last time I came here to visit my boyfriend that it was the last time I was allowed in the country as a tourist.

Just be careful with that