Expired card, abroad over 2 years without mitigating circumstances requiring them to stay, and having established residence elsewhere makes just returning as an LPR quite difficult.
I wouldn't bother with an SB-1 - for that he would need to demonstrate he was out of the USA due to circumstances beyond his control. That's not going to happen.
My GreenCard expired in the meantime and when that occured, we had not eventhought to move back to the USA. I met my (now) Fiance in 2009. In 2010 I picked her and her littleone up from Oklahoma, we drove to Wa, where we lived till we moved (all 3 of us) in November 2015 to the Netherlands.
You may or may not qualify for an SB-1 as a returning resident since you said you have a grencard. To much time may have elapsed as well as other factors to try and maintain your residency however to make you ineligible
The K-3 is as good as obsolete so I wouldn't even think about that option,
Only you and your family can decide which visa is right for you as each one has pros and cons for you and yours.
In my opinion, since you're living together already, I'd get married (anywhere you want - your home town, a beach in the Bahamas, a cruise ship, etc, etc) and go for the CR-1 if I were you.
The K-1 is ideal for people from countries that cannot visit the USA easily and who have no other option to be together. The disadvantages of the K-1 are huge, you cannot work for many months after your arrival, you cannot travel internationally for many months after your arrival either and, depending on your state of residence, cannot drive. How will you afford this? Would you be able to stop going completely insane not being able you work for months? How difficult would it be to get back into your field of work after being out of work for months? The K-1 is also more expensive. So these disadvantages are worth it for folks whose B-2 visa are repeatedly denied and cannot come to the USA to even visit their boyfriends/girlfriends. If you were living apart now you would be able to visit easily under the VWP (I am assuming from your user name you are a Dutch citizen) so the 14-month processing time wouldn't be so unbearable. But those that can't visit opt for the K-1 for speed of processing and then spend up to a year here in limbo without any real status, waiting for their green card to be approved. Not a position I would want to be in, especially under the current administration.
For the CR-1 you can continue working where you are now until the day you leave and you can start work the minute you arrive in the USA. I had a gap of less than 2 weeks between leaving the U.K. and starting work here in the USA. Because I was working right away, I was able to get a car loan and a credit card within months of arriving. It also helped me settle, make friends and get into a routine. My employer provides healthcare so I had that within 2 weeks of arrival too. Plus I was earning right away so we didn't go through the "how can we pay our bills?" that many K-1 couples on one salary experience (search the forums here for many, many threads where people have essentially made the wrong choice). I think a working person living with their partner already would be out of their minds to consider a K-1. But you may have reasons why you want to do it.
I assume your partner has filed tax returns from overseas? If not, she will need to catch up with that. She will also need to prove she has taken steps to re-establish domicile in the USA before your visa can be granted if you go the CR-1 route. Applying for jobs and getting a place to live usually satisfies that requirement.
Dutch1969 got a reaction from -Trinity- in Immigration