Leaving country (with military spouse) after Green Card/AP

[TimmahTimmah 2]

Hello all! 

I'm the husband and military member and my spouse is Korean and in the country on a K-1 Visa. We have married and we have started the EAD/AP/AOS process. I was selected for an /unaccompanied/ assignment to South Korea (her country) - has anyone had luck with expediting their case with an unaccompanied assignment? I can classify it like a deployment since my spouse will not be coming with me (on the government's dime) - however, since she is a citizen of that country, she would move off the base and get an apartment close by. She also mentioned she could only stay outside the USA on AP for six months or less. If she is moving back to her country - to be with me - can we extend this time?

 

Please let me know if you have any experience with this or can offer any assistance! 

[Letspaintcookies 2,206]

You can of course ask for an expedite with the reason to get her situated before you leave. I wouldn't mention that she wants to live back in Korea again since that is pretty much going against what you're aiming for- setting up a life in the US. You might run into quite some problems if she does follow you. Even tho you can stay outside the US for a while even on AP you have to show that you're maintaining your life in the US. If she would get back to working in Korea and using Korean benefits that would totally count against her.

[Clock Ticking 1]

On 1/4/2022 at 11:31 PM, TimmahTimmah said:

Hello all! 

I'm the husband and military member and my spouse is Korean and in the country on a K-1 Visa. We have married and we have started the EAD/AP/AOS process. I was selected for an /unaccompanied/ assignment to South Korea (her country) - has anyone had luck with expediting their case with an unaccompanied assignment? I can classify it like a deployment since my spouse will not be coming with me (on the government's dime) - however, since she is a citizen of that country, she would move off the base and get an apartment close by. She also mentioned she could only stay outside the USA on AP for six months or less. If she is moving back to her country - to be with me - can we extend this time?

 

Please let me know if you have any experience with this or can offer any assistance! 

Since you are going unaccompanied/dependent-restricted take a look at the Joint Travel Regulation (JTR) to see if they can move her to Korea.  There are special provisions for moving a foreign born spouse to an alternate location outside of the USA while you are serving a dependent-restricted tour.  With that being said you would most likely not being entitled to live off post and collect Family Separation Allowance (FSA)/Family Separation Housing Allowance (FSH-R) if she is in the "general area" of where you are posted.  If you were on Osan and she had an apartment right of base you wouldn't be eligible.  

 

Going back to the orders thing, I've seen it specifically state that the dependent must be authorized on the orders to do certain things.  But, as we all know in the Military, where there is a will there is a waiver...

 

Good Luck,

[Giordan+Hailey 70]

I’m a korean spouse of an active duty soldier and I was in similar situation. While I was waiting for my greencard approved and already had my AP/EAD combo card, my husband had to PCS to Korea. We already command sponsorship approved and I could just leave but consulted about this situation with our attorney. He recommended me to stay in the state side till I get my green card. AP doesn’t always guarantee re-entry to the states. So I waited for couple more months and thanks to my husband’s chain of command, we could use command sponsorship till I got here. I don’t know how you guys decided already but I would recommend what I did. No harms to be extra careful with USCIS related situations.