Maju

Hello,

I just need some advise. My brother in law  (US citizen) petitioned his 2 kids who came to the US with tourist visas. They received the I-797 approval notice for both kids. One kid, 5 years old, it says it was approved and they need to file the adjustment of status. For the other one, 4 years old, it says he may not be elligible for adjustment and his case has been sent to the NVC.

I understand the NVC is for consular processing, but why is it different for both kids? they both entered the US with his parents, father US Citizen, mother also under I-130 petition pending.

If anybody has an idea of why this could be, please let me know. Thank you!

There is no problem here at all.

Ignore the VJ guide. Ignore those that say this is problematic.

Since they are already here in the US, the following is their legal option going forward.

His wife and his children can file for Adjustment of Status (AOS). It will be treated like any other cases of Immediate Relatives of a USC . . . with kid gloves. Matter of Cardoza and Matter of Battista states that USCIS can not deny the AOS of an IR of a USC for immigrant intent alone.

Your SIL and her children do not have a problem. Since immigrant intent can not be used to deny AOS, their intent at entry becomes irrelevant.

Would her and the kids need to return to Peru every 6 months to keep from violating the tourist visa while waiting for the AOS?

There is no problem here at all.

Ignore the VJ guide. Ignore those that say this is problematic.

Since they are already here in the US, the following is their legal option going forward.

His wife and his children can file for Adjustment of Status (AOS). It will be treated like any other cases of Immediate Relatives of a USC . . . with kid gloves. Matter of Cardoza and Matter of Battista states that USCIS can not deny the AOS of an IR of a USC for immigrant intent alone.

Your SIL and her children do not have a problem. Since immigrant intent can not be used to deny AOS, their intent at entry becomes irrelevant.

Thank you , I'll look into this. Having a Wife that speaks spanish she has meet many people from other spanish countries that are not necessarily here legally. Yet they have jobs and kids that go to school and even bussiness( not complaining about them, just the system)..... So there seems to be a way around everything. Thank you for the advice

That is correct since she entered in under a tourist visa with immigration intent and already married to the USC then it can be viewed as fraud. Tell your sister in law for her to go back to Peru and file the proper paperwork there, there is no work around while she is already here in the US. Do you know if the children are from the USC and current US Citizens?

No, the Dad has duel citizenship from Panama and US. For some reason I can not understand he gave them Panama/Peru

My sister in-law is married to an American citizen. Lived in Peru for years. I advised them to do paper work there but they didn't. They came here, her and two little kids on tourist visa. They are looking for an apartment and He a job. Will then start the paper work for K3.

This is not allowed is it? They have nothing to go back to in Peru.

From step by step guide here on VJ

If you are already married, and your spouse came to the US on a tourist visa with the intent of immigration and marriage, then he/she should return to his/her home abroad, and the I-130 (or along with an I-129f for a K-3 Visa) should be filed with the relative outside of the U.S. to avoid denial, deportation, or even being banned from re-entry to the US.

Hi Maju, It was an innocent mistake and I don't see how this should ruin anything.

I know of a good, experienced lawyer in the NYC area. He will give a free consultation over the phone and answer your questions: http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/07102-nj-raymond-duva-1597417.html

Thank you for the lawyer info Sofiaisabella!

Thank you everybody for your answers.

Thank you Caryh, you are correct, what we were asking for was for the I-539 to change nonimigrant status for niece+nephew from visitor to student, and not adjustment of status. I saw the instructions and forms on USCIS and they request the I-94 number which is why we called CBP because my brother in law's i-94 is not showing in the system.

They did not have any intention to stay with a tourist visa and go to school. My wife, once the kids were here, offered her brother to put the kids in our daughter's catholic school for only one year.

What i want to clarify is that what we asked was only for the kids, not for brother and wife, they will go back to their country as scheduled. If the change of status cannot be done, then the kids will return as scheduled as well. There is no intent to go against the law; as many of you said, we are just not well informed and do not know what the correct procedures are.

Sorry to go on about this, but just to clarify things.

Obviously the petition for kids will not be filed now with the information provided here.

As for the petition filed for brother-in-law ,that was legally? He will return to Peru before tourist visa expires. So nothing illegal was committed? But that would not have stopped the officer from flagging him? I guess there no way of finding that out?

Can a petition be cancelled or withdrawn? Could he do that and return to Peru and file again?

I guess the damage is done now. No removing red flag from visas?

Free immigration lawyers? Surely you jest...

This is the process - http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/study-exchange/student.html

As another poster stated and the above link states you cannot attend public elementary or high school on a F1 visa (although oddly if you are a dependent of someone on a F1 visa you can), your wife's petition for her brother will take something like 10 years so that is not relevant to this process. Basically the kids must return to Peru, the kids need to be accepted to a private school here, the school needs to provide an I-20 and then a F1 visa can be applied for, then an interview at a US consulate and then they can get their visa to return and study.

I found this on USCIS.gov

If you need legal advice about an immigration matter but cannot afford to hire an attorney, you may be able to ask an attorney, an association of immigration lawyers, a state bar association, or an organization specially -accredited to provide such assistance about the availability of free or reduced cost legal services on immigration issues.

Thank you for the replies. Are there any low cost or free imagration lawyers in the Philadelphia area? Websites? Thank you

Hi, My wife's brother and his family are here on a tourist visa, my brother in law is going back to Peru soon, his wife and kids just came on February so they will stay longer.

My wife wanted to get the change of status for her brother's kids (2) so they could be students and go to school for one school year.

The thing is that my wife has already petitioned her brother for the residence which will take a long time, so he's in the process and we got a case number. That's why he is going back to Peru to maintin his status legal.

His i94 is not showing on the customs and border website, but his wife and kids are. So, since the form for the change of status requests an i94 for the process, we called customs deferred inspection lists (which was recommended if the i94 number was missing), but the officer who answered asked all kinds of questions, and practically interrogated my wife on the phone and accused her of trying to do anything possible to keep her brother in the US. She explained that her brother wants to go back to Peru with his wife and my wife and I wanted the kids to have the chance to experience a new culture, learn the language and have a nice experience in the US we offered to put them in school but wanted to get the change of status to do everything legally. The officer kept insisting that this looked terrible for the government and that he gets paid to stop people like the brother and his family from entering the country, that if he would have known of our intentions he would have denied the entry of all of them, he asked for my brother in law's passport number and one of the child's passport number, we gave them to him, my wife was answering all his questions very politely but he turned rude and insisting that they were trying to do something wrong, actually accusing us of trying to do something illegal to what she replied that she did not understand because we were calling precisely because we wanted to do everything by law.

At the end he wanted to ask more personal questions and get more information to what we refused and he said thank you and good bye.

It all seemed like he was attacking us for asking for the i94 number which is not on the website.

Why????

Don't know who else to ask. My bother-in-law is visiting fom Peru. His medication for high blood pressure is running out. I don't think pharmacy will fill foreign prescription. With no mail service during Hoildays mailing drugs here will take to long. Anyone with any ideas?

Thanks for the quick responses.

I was reading about the adjustment of status (I-485) on the USCIS website, it says that we "if you're filing this application with a relative petition, special immigrant juvenile petition, or special immigrant military petition which, if aproved, would make an immigrant visa number immediately available to you". What does that mean?

Just want to clarify some things for I-130

Wife is USC. She wants to petition her brother (same mother). Brother is married with two kids under 18. Brother currently here (alone) on tourist visa. When the petition is filed, it will be for whole family? The fees are $420. That's for whole family too? When I brought my Fiancee and her duaghter here. I needed to pay for both.

I thought it would be illegal to work while on tourist visa. Could he file for EAD as soon as he arrives? Would he need a sponsor for that too?

My Brother In-law wants to come stay with us on a tourist visa. His intentions are to find a job while he is here, become a resident then bring his family here. I did some research( some conflicting ) and it seems like it's going to be complicated. Could someone please explain the process needed for this or tell me if this is even allowed? And how much time it will take?

I should have provided more detail. Daughter is 8 years old. She was born in Peru. Biologically not mine.

After my wife becomes a citizen through naturalization our daughter will become a citizen. My main question was evidence of citizenship for daughter to get U.S. Passport.

The following was the best info I could find, but it refers to being born abroad to a citizen not to one be naturalized later.

Foreign Birth Documents + Parent(s) Citizenship Evidence

If you claim citizenship through birth abroad to U.S. citizen parent(s), but cannot submit a Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth, you must submit all of the following:

Your foreign birth certificate (translated to English)

Evidence of citizenship of your U.S. citizen parent

Your parents' marriage certificate

An statement of your U.S. citizen parent detailing all periods and places of residence or physical presence in the United States and abroad before your birth

Getting a little confused by some of the posts.

After my wife gets her citizenship. Does her daughter need to apply for a certificate of citizenship? Some posts say no. But the passport application requires proof of citizenship. Could my wife show her passport and daughters birth certificate as proof? I'd prefer not to get COC because of the price tag to file.

Instructions say include B.C. so I'm assuming it will be enough.

It asks for Father's name. Should I put my name cause I'm legally her father in Peru(but not here) or put N/A?

When my step daughter was born the father's name was never put on the birth certificate. I won't go much into detail, but through bad advice from lawyer and lack of doing my research, I claimed to be the father and had my name put on a new birth certificate(for the reason of adoption). So now my daughter has my last name (in Peru). Her green card has her old name. If we send in an I-90 to get name changed will the new B.C. be enough for them to issue a new one?

Also how long will it take? We want to go back to Peru soon. Her passport expires soon and has to get a new one. Because she has my name in Peru the new passport will have my name on it and green card won't.

I don't know in what direction to go in to get U.S. citizenship for my Daughter (8 years old).

A little background first. I brought my fiancee and her daughter to U.S. from Peru using K-1,2. We got married here in U.S. over 4 years ago. I tried to adopt daughter using a lawyer here. My wife did NOT want to contact the bio father.....Long story short got nowhere with that. We talked with a Peruvian lawyer. We found out that because the bio Father's name was never put on the birth certificate I could claim to be the real father and have the original birth certificate in Peru annulled and a new one issued with my name on it and daughter's name changed to mine. That's what we did so in Peru she is MY daughter. Do I file paper work for citizenship for her as my bio daughter or as an adoption? Will the birth certificate be enough? Will they want more proof? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Thanks

I brought my fiancee (at the time, now wife) and her daughter to the US with k-1,2 visa from Peru. They now both have 10 year green card. We have had trouble with the adoption process for various reasons. We recently found out that because the biological father's name was never put on the birth certificate. I could just claim to be the bio father and have the birth certificate annulled and a new one created with my name on it. We are currently going though this process. I just don't know how this is going to affect her status. Do I file paper work for a name change cause of adoption? even if it's not an adoption because I'm claiming to be the real father...Don't know how to handle this.

So she was here on a student visa, married and filed to adjust her status? If so, they'll go to an interview together prior to any green card. If she needs to leave, there's not likely to be a green card. She needs competent legal assistance in this matter.

Thank you !!

My wife has know her for almost her whole life. This girl has made bad chooses in boyfriends before. One reason for not wanting to go home to her country is that she grew up in an abusive house. The aunts(who live in the U.S. too) suspects abuse, she denies it. I just want to find out if she can stay after she would leave him, so she has one less reason to stay with him. I think she married for love (or for what she thinks is love). She just makes bad chooses. She has low self-esteem stem.

She's being living in the U.S. for years going to school.