The pesky two year rule.

[sikkinouza 0]

Hi! My husband is Australian and we are trying to apply for the CR-1 spousal visa for him to come over. We are applying in April. In July, we will have been married for two years. We read that couples who have been married less than two years will need to reapply after the two year mark. Will we need to reapply, or because it will be approved past the two year mark we will be ok?

Note, we have not applied previously.

[cocolucho 35]

Hi! My husband is Australian and we are trying to apply for the CR-1 spousal visa for him to come over. We are applying in April. In July, we will have been married for two years. We read that couples who have been married less than two years will need to reapply after the two year mark. Will we need to reapply, or because it will be approved past the two year mark we will be ok?

Note, we have not applied previously.

You just need to apply for the I-130 and go through the process. If by the time of your visa approval you have less than two years of marriage, he will be given a conditional green card (good for 2 years) and he will have to remove conditions before his conditional card expires in order to get the permanent green card (good for 10 years), otherwise he will immediately get the permanent green card (good for 10 years).

Since the process from filing the I-130 to the interview and approval is taking from about 9 month to a year (more or less), you can apply any time now since you will certainly be more than two years married to him by the time of the interview and approval.

Good luck to you both!

Edited March 19, 2015 by cocolucho

[ZA_35 48]

How hard is it to reapply for the 10 year GC?

[jfrankli512 3]

You only need to go through this lengthy process once. (USCIS -> NVC -> Embassy, with many months of waiting)

If your husband enters the US before you two are married for 2 years, then he will receive a conditional green card. It is a valid green card on the condition that you two stay married. After you two have been married for two years, you can file a form to remove the condition which converts it to a regular green card (10-year duration with no conditions). It's a separate form, and could take a month or so to process, but it's nothing like the original filing you need to go through to get the initial green card. Moreover, you two can stay together during the filing, which is multitudes better.

Since you haven't started filing yet, and the total process will likely take ~1 year or more, you should go ahead and start as soon as possible. By the time he has his immigration visa to come to the US it will already be two years and he will get the green card without conditions on it, and you won't need to do anything else afterwards.

[JohnR! 5,495]

By the time he arrives in the US he'll be past the two-year mark and will receive his 10-year GC. You're fine... Good luck with the process.

Hi! My husband is Australian and we are trying to apply for the CR-1 spousal visa for him to come over. We are applying in April. In July, we will have been married for two years. We read that couples who have been married less than two years will need to reapply after the two year mark. Will we need to reapply, or because it will be approved past the two year mark we will be ok?

Note, we have not applied previously.

[ZA_35 48]

You only need to go through this lengthy process once. (USCIS -> NVC -> Embassy, with many months of waiting)

If your husband enters the US before you two are married for 2 years, then he will receive a conditional green card. It is a valid green card on the condition that you two stay married. After you two have been married for two years, you can file a form to remove the condition which converts it to a regular green card (10-year duration with no conditions). It's a separate form, and could take a month or so to process, but it's nothing like the original filing you need to go through to get the initial green card. Moreover, you two can stay together during the filing, which is multitudes better.

Since you haven't started filing yet, and the total process will likely take ~1 year or more, you should go ahead and start as soon as possible. By the time he has his immigration visa to come to the US it will already be two years and he will get the green card without conditions on it, and you won't need to do anything else afterwards.

Hey, thanks for the info.

[cocolucho 35]

How hard is it to reapply for the 10 year GC?

You can probably check the link below and asked questions in that forum to see how the process is as I am not familiar with it yet:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/538413-i-751-march-2015-filers/

And/or you can also read the guide for it:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/751guide

Good luck :-)

[ZA_35 48]

You can probably check the link below and asked questions in that forum to see how the process is as I am not familiar with it yet:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/538413-i-751-march-2015-filers/

And/or you can also read the guide for it:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/751guide

Good luck :-)

Thanks

[sikkinouza 0]

You only need to go through this lengthy process once. (USCIS -> NVC -> Embassy, with many months of waiting)

If your husband enters the US before you two are married for 2 years, then he will receive a conditional green card. It is a valid green card on the condition that you two stay married. After you two have been married for two years, you can file a form to remove the condition which converts it to a regular green card (10-year duration with no conditions). It's a separate form, and could take a month or so to process, but it's nothing like the original filing you need to go through to get the initial green card. Moreover, you two can stay together during the filing, which is multitudes better.

Since you haven't started filing yet, and the total process will likely take ~1 year or more, you should go ahead and start as soon as possible. By the time he has his immigration visa to come to the US it will already be two years and he will get the green card without conditions on it, and you won't need to do anything else afterwards.

He's currently located in Australia, so does that mean I won't get to see him for over a year? That sucks!

[ZA_35 48]

He's currently located in Australia, so does that mean I won't get to see him for over a year? That sucks!

You are free to visit him and he may/may not be allowed to visit you. It depends what happens at the POE and if he can prove that he doesn't have immigrant intent when coming to visit during the CR-1 process.

Here is a thread dedicated to that question : http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/479894-yes-you-can-visit-ir1-cr1-version/

Edited March 19, 2015 by ZA_35