US Citizen Living abroad, spouse Green Card

[slypaka 0]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here. I am looking for help to figure out what I should do. I am a US Citizen, living abroad for 3 years now. I am a citizen of the country where I reside as well and I recently got married in December with my wife. She is a citizen of the country we live in and I am wondering if I want to give her residency of the US if we would need to move back to the US once all the paperwork is done if so how long would we have to stay in the US? We don't want to live in the US all year long but I want to be able to give her citizenship of the US if possible in the future. We have a business here and also I work remotely from the country I reside at but I still have a mortgage, bills, bank accounts, file US taxes as a CA resident. Any tips on what to do? 

Thank you!

Edited September 7, 2017 by slypaka

[KULtoATL 1,552]

Spousal visa, US petitioner has to be domiciled in the US. Foreign spouse beneficiary will need to maintain his/her presence in the US too upon getting a green card. Continuous residence and physical presence criteria must be fulfilled for her to be eligible for naturalization:

 

https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/continuous-residence-and-physical-presence-requirements-naturalization

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartD-Chapter3.html

 

These are just simple answers. Other more knowledgeable members will chime in and explain better

[slypaka 0]

Just now, KULtoATL said:

Spousal visa, US petitioner has to be domiciled in the US. Foreign spouse beneficiary will need to maintain his/her presence in the US too upon getting a green card. Continuous residence and physical presence criteria must be fulfilled for her to be eligible for naturalization:

 

https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/continuous-residence-and-physical-presence-requirements-naturalization

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12-PartD-Chapter3.html

 

These are just simple answers. Other more knowledgeable members will chime in and explain better

Thank you for the quick comment!

Re:

Physically present in the U.S. for eighteen months within the three year period before applying in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens 

So this means we would need to be in the US at least 6 months out of the year? Has any one had a similar situation? The thing is we can't leave our business unattended so we are trying to structure this the best way possible. 

[aleful 1,905]

hi

 

a gc is for living in the US, if you don't plan to live here, then there is no use in applying

 

when you are ready to live here permanently or at least a few years, more or less 5 years, including the GC petition, until she can get her US Citizenship. once she is a USC, she can go and come as she pleases and she doesn't have to live here

 

you can come and go, she can't, only to visit and less than 6 months. she must live here more than the time she stays abroad

 

 

[slypaka 0]

55 minutes ago, aleful said:

hi

 

a gc is for living in the US, if you don't plan to live here, then there is no use in applying

 

when you are ready to live here permanently or at least a few years, more or less 5 years, including the GC petition, until she can get her US Citizenship. once she is a USC, she can go and come as she pleases and she doesn't have to live here

 

you can come and go, she can't, only to visit and less than 6 months. she must live here more than the time she stays abroad

 

 

We also plan to do the 3 years living in the US in order to get her citizenship paperwork set up. Can she leave the US at least a few months a year? 

[Jorge V 195]

31 minutes ago, slypaka said:

We also plan to do the 3 years living in the US in order to get her citizenship paperwork set up. Can she leave the US at least a few months a year? 

That is fine, there is no hard rule as far as how long she would have to stay in the US to maintain her GC. People generally say that if she spends more than 6 months outside of the US in a given year, she would at the very least be seriously questioned. More than a year and they may automatically consider her GC abandoned. These are just guidelines. The CBP officer might deny her entry on shorter trips or allow her to enter on longer trips.

 

Just curious, what country are you currently residing in? Depending on the country you may be eligible for DCF.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Jorge Valdivia