aaronop

Agreed, why are you going through this process if you do not intend to immigrate in a timely manner?

good luck

Our original intent was to immigrate to the US, but since then my wife would like to pursue job opportunities in Canada. We want to maintain the option of returning to the US permanently, as we would both like to do that in the future. Since we're almost at the end of the immigration process we figure we may as well finish it and get her a green card if she can keep it while living in Canada, so that we don't have to go through the whole process again in a couple of years.

And I realize that we could have trouble if we only return for short periods at a time, but I'm just wondering if returning more frequently will make it less likely that we have issues.

Also, concerning a re-entry permit: if you get a re-entry permit and return to the US for a short stay after 6 months, say, do you need to get a new re-entry permit before leaving again, or does the original one stay valid?

I'm a US citizen currently living in the US, and my wife lives in Canada and is waiting for an appointment at the Montreal consulate, so we're in the last stages of getting her a green card.

She would like to stay in Canada for a while longer, up to a few years, and I will be joining her shortly after her green card is approved.

What I'm wondering is: since we'll be living in Canada, and it's relatively trivial to travel to the US for short periods of time, could we just take short trips to the US periodically (say a weekend to a week every couple of months) to keep her residency and/or keep the border and immigration folks from asking whether she's given up residency? I don't know if other ties will be possible - we might be able to maintain a mailing address with friends and such, and we'll file US income taxes, but we don't have property and she'll be working in Canada.

Is it necessary or helpful to file for the 2-year reentry permit if we will be returning to the US sooner than that, just for short periods at a time?

Thanks!

Technically every-time one returns to Canada, the clock is re-set--BUT if they think your spending too much time in the USA--they can deny one entry into the USA.

I've gotten mixed info on this, as to whether Canadians can spend up to six months at a time or six months out of a year as a maximum. Does anyone have a link to some sort of government page that would have this info?

Hey everyone, hoping to get some answers to the many, many questions I have.

My Canadian wife and I got married in June 2011 and I filed the I-130 shortly after moving to the USA in September 2011.

We haven't always been the fastest at returning the various requests for stuff along the way, but now we are, I think, in the last stages of the NVC stuff before the Montreal consulate gets her case.

Basically I'm trying to figure out a way for my wife and I to be separated as little as possible while we wait for her visa application to finish.

Currently we're waiting on her police report - local police said it would be about 10 to 20 days, and it's been about 10 business days now so we could have another 2 weeks to wait.

From what I can gather, once we send this final information off to the NVC (police report, passport, birth certificate, etc), they will take a couple of weeks to review and then pass the case on to the Montreal consulate, who will then take 2 to 4 months to schedule an interview.

So we're looking at at least another 3 to 5 months right now, correct?

In retrospect I feel like we should have gotten my wife to the US and filed an I-485, but at the time it seemed like a better idea to process in Canada due to cost and other things.

Is there any way, at this point in the process, to switch to an adjustment of status rather than consular processing so that my wife and I don't have to be separated for that much longer? Would that delay the process substantially?

My wife visited and stayed in the US with me for a little less than 4 months on a tourist visa, which means that she can't visit again for more than 2 months or so and might have trouble at the border if the officers think she might be trying to stay - she was denied entry to the US back in March because the officers thought she was trying to illegally immigrate, though she tried again in August and was able to enter the US and stayed until we both came back to Canada in December.

Is there a way to extend the tourist visa limitation so she can stay in the US until her interview in Montreal? Is she likely to get denied entry into the US again (even though she clearly has to return to Canada to finish her consular processing whatnot)? Would there be anything wrong with her visiting for another 2 months (as long as the total time spent in the US is less than 6 months)?

I think that's all I have for now, I really appreciate anyone who's read this far and can help us out at all. I realize that there would be answers to some or all of these questions on these forums but whenever I try to do any research myself I end up with a lot more new questions and a headache.

Many, many thanks!