US citizen, Canadian (pregnant) wife, immigration to US in less than 3 months

[amicablebride 25]

14 hours ago, Coco8 said:

 

(1) If you are already in the US you can AOS, but it could take 3-4 months until she can leave the country.

(2) If you apply for IR1/CR1 (by the way, it is not done at the consulate, you have to mail the application to Chicago), she will probably be allowed to the US but for short visits and probably not very frequent. 

 

Back to the health insurance question, I think you could add her to your insurance even if she is not a resident. Maybe you want to do that just in case she needs medical attention when she is visiting. 

 

 

She would be better off purchasing 'travel insurance'. I used to purchase mine from the Royal bank in canada. It seemed to be reasonably priced. Sorry to say but even if they're married, his insurance provider will need a SSN which she doesn't have. I used my Canadian SIN number in place of that and listed my immigration status as "permanent resident" because I was here on a K1 visa... I was awaiting my green card / permanent resident card. I didn't yet have a SSN. So, I eventually got questioned.. and by that time I DID have a SSN and all the proof I was a legal resident, but it was too late. They made us appeal the decision to remove me. We could not get in touch with anybody, the system was complicated and required us to appeal by phone, but the waiting times were outrageous... it was insane. So I got my own insurance after working 3 months. But in January at tax time, we got charged $400 for the time I was without insurance! 

[Transborderwife 4,666]

3 minutes ago, amicablebride said:

She would be better off purchasing 'travel insurance'. I used to purchase mine from the Royal bank in canada. It seemed to be reasonably priced. Sorry to say but even if they're married, his insurance provider will need a SSN which she doesn't have. I used my Canadian SIN number in place of that and listed my immigration status as "permanent resident" because I was here on a K1 visa... I was awaiting my green card / permanent resident card. I didn't yet have a SSN. So, I eventually got questioned.. and by that time I DID have a SSN and all the proof I was a legal resident, but it was too late. They made us appeal the decision to remove me. We could not get in touch with anybody, the system was complicated and required us to appeal by phone, but the waiting times were outrageous... it was insane. So I got my own insurance after working 3 months. But in January at tax time, we got charged $400 for the time I was without insurance! 

A lot of travel insurance doesn't cover birth or maternity services.  If she stays and applies for AOS it would be fraudulent to use travel insurance.

[amicablebride 25]

On 2017-07-12 at 11:30 AM, amicablebride said:

That is horrible. Sickening how so many employees here are treated.

I can relate.. I worked at a daycare where I'd often have to work 10 hours straight, no breaks. If the kids didn't nap I couldn't eat lunch because I had to keep them involved in an activity. No one came to relieve you for bathroom breaks unless you begged, and then you'd get major attitude for asking. You couldn't just go either because you can't leave the kids alone. So, that was hard to get used to. Then I realized people just have bad attitudes because the work situation sucks.. so I didn't take their attitude personally anymore. Then while in the bathroom, the stand-in would let the kids run amok and you'd be stuck cleaning the mess. Also I'd get bad migraines because of the noise and the stress. If I didn't bring enough water to last me the day, too bad. I had to start lugging around a huge backpack loaded with enough ibuprofen and bottled drinks to get me through a shift. 

 

On another note, I was once in a small store and the kid working the cash register was on a phone call outside. But he did come in and go to the cash register after not too long. The manager / owner started SCREAMING at him. Pointing and waving his finger at him, shouting obscenities. The kid said he needed to call his mom about something and the boss kept yelling he doesn't care, there's customers waiting. I felt so awkward and really didn't want to support that guys business so I put down my stuff, gave the kid a sympathetic look, smiling / rolling my eyes to gesture I thought the boss was insane, and I walked out. 

Aaaand my mother-in-laws friend was battling cancer but was forced to still work. She was a dental assistant and the dentist told her if she leaves she's fired. She needed the health insurance too so she kept working. No sick leave, nothing. 

 

14 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

A lot of travel insurance doesn't cover birth or maternity services.  If she stays and applies for AOS it would be fraudulent to use travel insurance.

Good point. In that case just have the baby in Canada or be prepared to pay the full amount in the U.S. :/ 

[NikLR 13,234]

A) wife cannot move to the USA without a visa

B) you can adjust status but i suggest adding wife to insurance asap if you plan on doing this.

C) giving birth in Canada really is the better option right now.  I know I wouldnt have wanted to try and change drs in my last trimester!  Obviously you can be there for the birth and whatever time your employer allows you to have off.  You will have time to get the baby's US citizenship in order as well. (It's easier to apply for US citizenship for children born abroad than for Canadian children.)

[Illiria 980]

This is the second thread in a couple of days where a us citizen or resident has put their pregnant foreign citizen wife in a predicament by not following the consular immigration process. First one that can't adjust as married to a resident and now this one where getting insurance in place by the time of birth looks to be difficult if not impossible.

 

Sorry for the rant but being 17 weeks along myself I would kill my husband if he had done this to me, I really feel sorry for these women that they have been put in this predicament. 

 

OP hopefully your wife hasn't got any overstay and she can go back home and be able to have the baby there, you don't know what complications she might have between now and getting the insurance in place and I really hope there aren't any but please don't risk it. 

Edited July 21, 2017 by Illiria
Damn autocorrect

[acidrain 325]

I forgot about the life event as someone else mentioned. Having enrolled my spouse on Obamacare they demand proof of the life event. I'm not sure if the non USC moving to the US would qualify. I have a son who is the child of a USC but was told until he has a SSN we cannot add him to insurance.

 

The private insurance we were quoted was what our broker said was the "hit by a bus coverage". I think the deductible alone was about $13,000. Coverage I believe was a bronze plan (pay 40%) and it still would've cost $800 a month. When he first said $800 I assumed he was saying for the year coming from Canada. When he said $800 a month I couldn't believe it. He said welcome to the good old U S of A. I was left scratching my head over what the point of paying $800US a month was. I guess this was the norm before Obamacare and can see why people risked not having insurance.

 

I was just talking to the girl who runs my son's daycare and she knows someone who went into early labor in the US and had travel insurance. Travel insurance paid nothing because it's seen as a pre-existing condition. I've dealt with travel insurance myself on a few occasions. If the presenting symptom can either be delayed until the person gets home or was there before the insurance is voided. There are times I wonder what the point of even having it is. I think the girl in question had to pay $30,000 or something because the child was born pre-mature.

 

That sounds like a really tough spot for the family to be in.

[Going through 5,675]

15 minutes ago, acidrain said:

I was just talking to the girl who runs my son's daycare and she knows someone who went into early labor in the US and had travel insurance. Travel insurance paid nothing because it's seen as a pre-existing condition. I've dealt with travel insurance myself on a few occasions. If the presenting symptom can either be delayed until the person gets home or was there before the insurance is voided. There are times I wonder what the point of even having it is. I think the girl in question had to pay $30,000 or something because the child was born pre-mature

I wonder...just curious...can OHIP have done nothing in that case?  Purposefully giving birth in another country, I can see where they wouldn't reimburse some of the costs to the Canadian citizen...but in the case of an unexpexted preemie....did they try putting in a claim with OHIP to try to get some of the costs back?  Even though she gave birth outside Canada, she was/is a resident and citizen of Canada under OHIP...

 

Just curious if OHIP could have even gotten involved in something like your friend's situation.

[acidrain 325]

13 minutes ago, Going through said:

I wonder...just curious...can OHIP have done nothing in that case?  Purposefully giving birth in another country, I can see where they wouldn't reimburse some of the costs to the Canadian citizen...but in the case of an unexpexted preemie....did they try putting in a claim with OHIP to try to get some of the costs back?  Even though she gave birth outside Canada, she was/is a resident and citizen of Canada under OHIP...

 

Just curious if OHIP could have even gotten involved in something like your friend's situation.

I don't honestly know all the details as it was one of those "friend of a friend" scenarios. However, I have seen many of these scenarios on the news. Canadian goes to US and has medical emergency only to find out they have no insurance or travel insurance won't pay. I was so terrified when I was pregnant I cancelled my dream trip to New York. The trip was planned before I got pregnant and the tickets were paid for. I wound up getting my doctor to write a note so I could cancel the trip and get my money back. It was all actually pretty straight forward but admit I am still bummed out about it.

 

While trying to stay on topic I had a really good pregnancy for the most part and had complications during labor. I wound up staying in the hospital for close to a week. I can't even imagine how much this would've cost had I been in the US. If a person knows they are undergoing a medical procedure it might be better to have it done in Canada.

 

The part that will be unknown is whether the wife will develop any complications in her pregnancy which would make it difficult to travel. I was given permission by my doctor to drive 5 hours to go to a Madonna concert at 34 weeks. The doctor did warn about developing blood clots from sitting. I was still nervous driving the mountains. It sounds like a pretty hard situation for the OP to be in. I'd be really scared if I was pregnant and my spouse was not around.

Edited July 21, 2017 by acidrain

[bcking 3,157]

54 minutes ago, acidrain said:

I forgot about the life event as someone else mentioned. Having enrolled my spouse on Obamacare they demand proof of the life event. I'm not sure if the non USC moving to the US would qualify. I have a son who is the child of a USC but was told until he has a SSN we cannot add him to insurance.

 

The private insurance we were quoted was what our broker said was the "hit by a bus coverage". I think the deductible alone was about $13,000. Coverage I believe was a bronze plan (pay 40%) and it still would've cost $800 a month. When he first said $800 I assumed he was saying for the year coming from Canada. When he said $800 a month I couldn't believe it. He said welcome to the good old U S of A. I was left scratching my head over what the point of paying $800US a month was. I guess this was the norm before Obamacare and can see why people risked not having insurance.

 

I was just talking to the girl who runs my son's daycare and she knows someone who went into early labor in the US and had travel insurance. Travel insurance paid nothing because it's seen as a pre-existing condition. I've dealt with travel insurance myself on a few occasions. If the presenting symptom can either be delayed until the person gets home or was there before the insurance is voided. There are times I wonder what the point of even having it is. I think the girl in question had to pay $30,000 or something because the child was born pre-mature.

 

That sounds like a really tough spot for the family to be in.

Moving to the USA is a "life event".

 

My wife was on my insurance the day after she arrived in the USA. She didn't have a SSN yet (took us 3 months to get that), but she came over on a CR-1. I just sent my employer her flight information and a copy of her passport (with a copy of the page that has the temporary green card). 

 

I'll add my opinion that you should just plan to have the baby in Canada. He/She can likely still become President (Cruz, McCain).

 

[Illiria 980]

35 minutes ago, bcking said:

Moving to the USA is a "life event".

 

Yes but most only count it if you officially immigrate with an immigration visa or have proof of having obtained a green card. 

 

In this case they have no immigration paperwork to show for the life event and they are already married so can't get it on the life event being marriage 

[bcking 3,157]

3 minutes ago, Illiria said:

Yes but most only count it if you officially immigrate with an immigration visa or have proof of having obtained a green card. 

 

In this case they have no immigration paperwork to show for the life event and they are already married so can't get it on the life event being marriage 

Ah good point.

 

If the wife wasn't with child I would say just applying to adjust status while you are in the US would be a reasonable idea. It is questionably legal (since you are being honest that when she came on this trip her intention wasn't to immigrate. Your intention honestly changed while she was here). My wife and I were in a similar predicament last August. She had a very rough entry into the country as my wife (We had an immigration that officer that harassed us) and she didn't want to go through it again. We spoke to a lawyer and he said we could adjust our status and be done with the process quicker, but in the interim she wouldn't be a "resident" here. We opted not to do because we thought it was questionably legal (though in our case we also had no intention of having her immigrate on that trip, until after we had an a**hole for an immigration officer at border control) so I guess it may have been alright.

 

I definitely wouldn't go through the uncertainty that comes with adjustment of status if your wife is pregnant. It's not worth it.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

2 hours ago, Going through said:

I wonder...just curious...can OHIP have done nothing in that case?  Purposefully giving birth in another country, I can see where they wouldn't reimburse some of the costs to the Canadian citizen...but in the case of an unexpexted preemie....did they try putting in a claim with OHIP to try to get some of the costs back?  Even though she gave birth outside Canada, she was/is a resident and citizen of Canada under OHIP...

 

Just curious if OHIP could have even gotten involved in something like your friend's situation.

No, Ohip doesn't work that way

[NikLR 13,234]

FYI immigrating to the USA does not always qualify as a life event.  My husband's HR (for the FAA part of the DOT) told him it wasn't even though I would be losing my health insurance by moving.  It should count, by that rule, but not necessarily. 

Edited July 22, 2017 by NikLR
Spelling

[mallafri76 1,012]

On 7/21/2017 at 11:24 AM, acidrain said:

The private insurance we were quoted was what our broker said was the "hit by a bus coverage". 

 

Aren't all insurance like that this year?!?! I mean if you're middle class, you're kind of screwed in 2017 because you don't get any subsidies and Lord knows we're not millionaires, so all you can afford is an "in case I get hit by a bus" plan... It's ridiculous.

 

OP, don't play around with your pregnant wife and your unborn child. I understand you want to be together but have the baby in Canada where she and the baby can get proper medical care without paying a fortune and where you have paid materny leave. The US is just incredibly far behind the rest of the Western World when it comes to health care, maternity and paternity leave, a balance between work and personal life.... I don't know why  you would choose to have your baby in the US when you're lucky enough to have the option of delivering in another Western country?!?! 

Edited July 24, 2017 by mallafri76