Help! PR in the USA and fiance back in Canada

[Colbert Report 5]

Hello everyone!

 

I immigrated to the USA in 2016.  I'm a Canadian citizen and I am a legal Permanent Resident in the United States.

 

My girlfriend is back in Canada and we would like to get married and settle here in the USA.  Can anyone tell me what our options are?  Again, I am not a US citizen, just a PR.  I will be eligible to apply for American citizenship in March of 2021.

 

Someone told me that if she came down to visit, and we decided to get married while she was down here, it would be faster than waiting for me to become a US citizen and then sponsoring her in.   Another option suggested would be for us to get married in either the USA OR Canada and then applying for a visa at that point, which I believe may take longer.

 

If anyone could give me some solid information on this situation, it would be very much appreciated. 

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

The long way is the legal way. As you are a permanent resident, she will not get forgiven for things that spouses of citizens would. Be very careful about thinking you can do things/cut corners because others have done so, as the law treats LPRs differently.  Get married, and apply for a F2A visa for her (spouse of LPR), and yes you’ll have to wait, but you and she can visit each other in the meantime. In the event you become a citizen before she gets her visa (i would usually say unlikely if you marry soon, also depending on the wait for n400 processing at your FO, but who knows with the visa backlog building up), you can upgrade her petition at that point and it'll (probably) move faster.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[geowrian 22,336]

She cannot enter the US with intent to stay. That would be fraud.

[Colbert Report 5]

She has no interest in staying, she has a job back in Canada.  We just heard that if she came to visit and we decided to get married, it would cut the wait time down quite a bit.  Is that true?

[Colbert Report 5]

40 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

The long way is the legal way. As you are a permanent resident, she will not get forgiven for things that spouses of citizens would. Be very careful about thinking you can do things/cut corners because others have done so, as the law treats LPRs differently.  Get married, and apply for a F2A visa for her (spouse of LPR), and yes you’ll have to wait, but you and she can visit each other in the meantime. In the event you become a citizen before she gets her visa (i would usually say unlikely if you marry soon, also depending on the wait for n400 processing at your FO, but who knows with the visa backlog building up), you can upgrade her petition at that point and it'll (probably) move faster.

 

 

Thanks for the reply!  Just a few questions.  If we got married soon, any idea how long the F2A visa as a spouse of an LPR would take?  Is it better to get married in Canada or the USA, or does it matter?  She has a good job in Canada, and she'd like to stay there working until she can move to the USA legally.  What is the n400 and what is my FO?  Many thanks.  When I become eligible to apply for citizenship in March of 2021, any idea how long it might take for me to become a citizen?

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

9 minutes ago, Colbert Report said:

She has no interest in staying, she has a job back in Canada.  We just heard that if she came to visit and we decided to get married, it would cut the wait time down quite a bit.  Is that true?

No, and if she needs to go back to Canada it will defeat the object of the “advice” you were given, which requires the spouse to be able to stay 4-6 months in the US without being able to travel or work until getting AP/EAD.

Edited August 18, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

6 minutes ago, Colbert Report said:

Thanks for the reply!  Just a few questions.  If we got married soon, any idea how long the F2A visa as a spouse of an LPR would take?  Is it better to get married in Canada or the USA, or does it matter?  She has a good job in Canada, and she'd like to stay there working until she can move to the USA legally.  What is the n400 and what is my FO?  Many thanks.  When I become eligible to apply for citizenship in March of 2021, any idea how long it might take for me to become a citizen?

Processing time has generally been around a year, she may or may not need to wait for a visa number after that. F2A is a limited category (by numbers per year) and usually those applicants need to wait for a visa number (in the parlance, for the priority date to be current), but this has not been the case for the past year or so. However, F2A visa issuance is currently banned until year end (won’t affect you as your petition would still be processing anyway), but there is likely to be a backlog both from Covid embassy closures and the ban so...there will be some wait. No idea what.  

 

Doesn't matter where you marry, all that is required is that the marriage is legal in the country it is performed in.

 

N400 is the form you file for naturalization.  FO is your field office, and how long it takes to naturalize depends mostly on what your FO is. Some have a wait of a few months, for others it can be over a year.

[Colbert Report 5]

4 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Processing time has generally been around a year, she may or may not need to wait for a visa number after that. F2A is a limited category (by numbers per year) and usually those applicants need to wait for a visa number (in the parlance, for the priority date to be current), but this has not been the case for the past year or so. However, F2A visa issuance is currently banned until year end (won’t affect you as your petition would still be processing anyway), but there is likely to be a backlog both from Covid embassy closures and the ban so...there will be some wait. No idea what.  

 

Doesn't matter where you marry, all that is required is that the marriage is legal in the country it is performed in.

 

N400 is the form you file for naturalization.  FO is your field office, and how long it takes to naturalize depends mostly on what your FO is. Some have a wait of a few months, for others it can be over a year.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to reply to all of this, I really appreciate it.  What would your advice be?  Get married ASAP and then hire a lawyer to help us with the paperwork to get her down here as soon as legally possible?

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

29 minutes ago, Colbert Report said:

Thank you SO much for taking the time to reply to all of this, I really appreciate it.  What would your advice be?  Get married ASAP and then hire a lawyer to help us with the paperwork to get her down here as soon as legally possible?

Yes to getting married ASAP to start the process. You don’t need a lawyer unless you have any complications to the case (such as criminal record, past immigration violation etc).  The instructions are pretty clear, and you can come back and ask for guidance if anything is unclear. (We have DIY guides at the top of the page, for some reason there does not seem to be one for spouse of LPR though. You can look at the spouse of USC guide (CR/IR) to help you with what you need to fill out the 130 for a spouse and what types of proof you’ll need, though the process after filing will work a little differently.)

[pablo2752 106]

Why don't you just naturalize in the US then live in Canada? 

[Just Paul 4,591]

On 8/17/2020 at 5:21 PM, Colbert Report said:

What would your advice be?

1- get married - you can do this in the US or Canada or anywhere where you meet the local requirements.

2- File the I-130/I-130A.

3- file for citizenship if that is what you want.  If you get that completed it would change the visa to a CR1/IR1 and you might not have to wait as long.  And yes the F2A category is currently banned from issuance but USCIS is still processing.   Montreal was slow before covid.   At least you can visit each other.

[Colbert Report 5]

On 8/19/2020 at 12:57 PM, pablo2752 said:

Why don't you just naturalize in the US then live in Canada? 

Snow