The Bloomies

Yes, he’s not my father. He works for a U.S. company in the Middle East and could potentially transfer one day, in which case this petition wouldn’t be needed, of course. As yet, he isn’t interested in relocating.

Thank you both for your comments! Truthfully, I’m not sure how long, but I know that health insurance is a big expense. She’s not old (58), but has been retired for a while. Luckily her husband is 13 years younger and has many years of work ahead of him so it might actually be the case that he ends up taking a job here, in which case her medical would be taken care of.

I became a citizen a few years ago and have filed a I-130 petition for my mother. It has been approved and is now at the NVC, however my mother isn’t ready to immigrate yet. I understand that I can postpone the application by contacting the NVC every year, but do I need to pay the fees? Also, does my mum need to be the one to contact the NVC or can I do that for her?

Hello all, As of two weeks ago, I’m finally a US citizen. I know many people wait longer, but as you all know, the process of immigration and dealing with USCIS is arduous even in the best of circumstances! I’ve already registered to vote and applied for my passport so the next thing to cast my mind over is potentially sponsoring my mum. There’s no rush to sponsor her because she’s not in a position right now to move to the US, nor is she sure she wants to given cost of medical, etc. (Although being extra cautious is pretty typical of her and I don’t think that’s a direct reflection of her genuine interest.) Plus, she has a fairly good set up right now—she lives part of the year in the U.K. and part of the year in Dubai so throwing the US in, although an option longterm, might not be in her immediate plans. That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to start the process in case things are different in a few years given how long USCIS takes to process anything. Apart from the cost, what would the drawbacks be to starting the application now? I’m mainly concerned that it might affect her ESTA and I’m also interested in learning if the process of interviewing, etc. can be postponed if in a year’s/two years’ time she’s still not ready. And, lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone for the help they’ve given over the last few years. I’m not a big poster, but a regular reader and it’s astounding how much knowledge you all have on this process. I’m glad that we opted to not pay a lawyer throughout our journey—the information here is invaluable!

Yes, Dublin. Thank you for the responses. I’ll let her know.

I’m thinking that this has been asked before, but I couldn’t find it with a quick search. For a friend, what are the rules about travelling after green card approval but before receiving card itself again? She just got approved and is meant to be flying home to Ireland on Tuesday. Does her advance parole not work anymore? I suppose she could leave and have someone send her the card when it arrives, but that’s risky. Is this the instance when you’re to get a stamp in your passport? She’s not sure if she’ll be able to get an appointment before she has to leave with it being the weekend coming up.