US Immigration from Myanmar

My wife has been denied a tourist visa due to lacking social and economic ties to her country. We want to visit the US to be able to spend time with family, but it is looking like the only option would be DCF, as we're eligible for that.

Has anyone had experience obtaining a green card, but only spending a month or two in the US each year for the first 2-3 years? I understand legally, this is allowed, but entirely up to the CBP upon arrival, but are there ways to ensure or increase the chances of entering the US, without staying there.

My wife and I(USC) plan on living in America, but my job requires me to be in China for the next 2ish years. - We just want to be able to visit the States together from time to time

My wife and I(USC) have been married for one year, and got married in Hong Kong. My wife is from Myanmar, but currently living with me in China. We both have one year resident permits (these are our second resident permits together in China).

In China, if you are the spouse of an expat who is living in China with a work permit/resident permit, you are allowed to follow your spouse and live with them in China. However, you are not allowed to work.

My wife and I have no intention of moving to the US at this time, however, we would love to go visit so we can spend time with family and she can decide if it would be best for us to live there in the future.

Last week, my wife went to the Guangzhou consulate to apply for her B2 visa. In the DS-160 she indicated the following:

1. She has no strong ties to her home country, no land, car, job, etc.
2. She has lived in three countries; Myanmar, Thailand, China
3. I, her husband, is financially supporting her
4. She does not have a job

I've been going back and forth to the Guangzhou consulate getting an emergency passport, and then a new passport, so I've had time to speak with the staff there and explain our situation, prior to us applying for her visa. We identified there are two potential options for us. One, she applies for a tourist visa, two she applies for a Green Card via DCF. Since we have no intention of living in the US, the consular official suggested she try to apply for a tourist visa.

During the visa interview, my wife explains the following happened:

Window 1: Gave passport. Asked "what is your itinerary?". Wife responded "I want to travel, and visit my mother-in-law." Wife was told to go to another window for finger printing.

Window 2: Finger printing

Window 3:

Consular Asked: "Can you speak English?"

Wife replied: "Yes."

Consular Asked: "Is your husband Chinese?"

Wife replied,:"No, he is from America."

Consular Asked: "What is your husband doing here?"
Wife replied: "He has a business here."

Consular Asked: "How did you meet?"

Wife replied: "We met in Thailand."

Consular Asked: "How long have you lived in China?"

Wife replied: "More than one year."

Consular Asked: "Can I see your husbands passport? & Do you have a marriage certificate?"

Consulate official took the passports and marriage certificates somewhere. When she came back, she told my wife "sorry your visa is being denied, here is a paper with more information."

As I replay the scenario in my head (I wasn't there, just from my wife's account), I see multiple times where she could have provided any of the multiple documents we prepared as supporting evidence during this questioning. Such as, her tentative travel itinerary, photo's of her living in China, my Chinese company information, photo's of us dating in Thailand, and even slipped in the letter I wrote explaining why we're opting for a tourist visa and not immigrant visa. - That being said, I don't fault my wife for not doing this, as she explained the questions all seemed rushed the consular official looked impatient.

There was nothing in the visa application that was not true. Can anyone suggest ways we can improve this if we opt to try again?

My stepson has arrived on his IR2. We are waiting on his green card.

I plan to peruse an adoption. His biological father died ten years ago. Any suggestions where I should start?

I m a US citizen & My 80 yrs old mother is in US on visit visa, starting to apply for her Greencard .

I m trying to buy health insurance but she has pre existing condition CANCER. Either they deny insurance or too expensive that I can t afford it.

Is there anyway she can get either Medicare or Medicaid while waiting her greencard.

This post is a follow on to

Today, well after the authorized stay expired stamped on her passport expired (aka "admitted until"), and after an NOA1 from AOS, my wife and I went back to the DMV in San Jose on Senter RD. Unlike the morning we went to get my wife's state ID, there were no crowds and no waiting.

We brought with us all the documents we brought when we got my wife a REAL ID state ID. However, once the clerks saw that she already possessed a California REAL ID state ID, they were not not interested in any of those documents. Instead, they asked us if we wanted her to have a REAL ID drivers license or a non-federally-compliant drivers license. One clerk asked if my wife had an EAD, which we don't have.

Me: "Will she be able to keep her REAL ID state ID" (which is good until 2024).

Clerk: "Of course"

Knowing that my wife would not be getting a road test today (and this DMV office doesn't do road tests), and of course California due to the backlog on road test appointments, it would be a several months before she had an actual drivers license, we opted for the non-federally-compliant drivers license.

In California, the process is that one takes a written test, and if there is a pass, one gets a instructional license laser printed in black and white on cheap paper. This is different than at least one other state, where an instructional license is issued as a laminated card, the same size as the regular drivers licenses.

My wife took the written test, passed (she studied for over a month), and was issued the booklet of unlaminated papers that comprises her instructional permit. I told her we will be doing some driving this weekend, and plan to enroll her into a professional driving school soon. The expiration date on the permit was a year from now. It authorizes her to drive in California when there is a licensed adult California driver in the passenger seat in the front row.

Lessons learned here for California K-1s:

• A K-1 has a path to getting both REAL ID and Drivers License while waiting for an EAD card / green card.
• The REAL-ID is "short" term, but good for over a year. In our case 5 years. I've read on VJ some have got 4 years.
• Once a K-1 has a California REAL ID (and presumably anyone else who has a REAL ID), bringing passports, birth certs, SS cards, proof of address, etc. isn't needed. One exception might be a change of address, or the transition to naturalized citizen.

It is thus critical to get the SS card, marriage cert, and the REAL ID identification-only card while there are 60 or more days left on the "admitted until" stamp of the passport.

Once she has her regular drivers license, I will report back. Specifically on the expiration date.