NickD

I am a natural born USC, I could not petition for him. wife is naturalized, said we received bad advice by waiting until she became a US citizen before applying was informed, would be faster this way. Ironically when she petitioned for her son, little over nine years went by, for all we knew at the time, another nine years could have gone by. And by some odd coincidence, a month after he was married, finally received a notice for is interview. In terms of priority was next in line as a son, if he remained single, but now, way back in the line. We know of a family here in our town from Venezuela, husband is here on a work visa, sent him job applications, but not our decision, but his and his wife's, and have a strong feeling, his wife doesn't want to leave her mother. Chain immigration is on the news, perhaps my greatest comment, it doesn't happen instantly, can take years, or never at all. From another aspect, just wasn't meant to be. Curious as to how others are making out.

This was before he was married, how is your petition going? Europe was a mess during WWI, my grandparents hopped on a boat to North America, my wife's grandparents to South American, but both our grandparents lived within 500 mile each other. In this view, in the USA, all of us are immigrants, even the Native Americans were immigrants, DNA has shown from Asia or Europe, long before Columbus discovered America.

No problems in petitioning for my wife and her 14 year daughter, but her son was barely over 21 years at the time, only my wife could petition for him. We were strongly advised to wait until she received her US citizenship, would be much quicker, did this in 2008, it was not until last year, 2017 we finally received a notice from the NVC that he would be called in for an interview, but made the bad mistake of getting married. Guess you can't expect a young man to stay single all of his life. Response from the NVC was to check with them in the next 10-12 years, if we are still alive by then. He did graduate from his university and is a professional architect, do does have some skills. Of course we would have to submit an I-864 with a financial statement that we could support him. Other concerns is the high cost of health insurance, is well over 26 years of age and cannot be a part of our policy. Feel the word family is not part of the USCIS or the NVC vocabulary and wonder if chain immigration is really that bad since its extremely expensive and takes forever. Is this just us, or do others have this same problem? Spoke directly to my senator and congressman on this issue, but said they do not have any say with the Department of State, only the executive branch has this privilege. They don't seem to care. We also applied for the lottery every year hoping with his professional status would be chosen, odds were just as good as winning the powerball.

Its my understanding the I-751 was instituted in around 1988 to catch fraud, ha, as a sponsor would want to collect at least a couple of million if this was the case for the risk involved. But marriages still ended in divorce, spouse could claim abuse or hardships in returning to their home country and still get that card. Can't forget about my stepdaughter, she was not affected by this, was in high school at the time, but she sure needed that green card to enter college, just started doing this at that time. Was an article in the newspaper about a brother and a sister that were juniors and seniors at that university. Guess they call them dreamers now, was certainly a debate what to do about this, but never learned what happened to them. We had another situation with my stepdaughter, from the time we applied for that AOS, took over a year before we were called in. When my wife received her US citizenship, my stepdaughter was 18 years and two weeks old. If they just called us in 2-3 weeks earlier, she could have received her citizenship at the same time as her mom, but was another two years for her, another 1,350 miles of driving and another large fee for her. With my wife, contacted the governors office, just appointed a new person to check on immigration status, didn't know anything about this subject, spent a week with him teaching him some of the facts. At first they only wanted to issue her a driver's license until her one year extension notice expired, but with insistence got her a full 8 year license. And of course, you have to be very very nice. Ha, was with my wife when her 8 year driver's license expired, I slipped her US passport in my pocket, didn't want to renew her license until they saw it. For voters registration, they didn't want to see it. Well its all history now, see many here had problems when getting a driver's license in different states when their DVM assumed they were US citizens, sure got into trouble when applying for US citizenship. Was also told, they were US citizens just like they were born here, but this is the USCIS, DOS is entirely different, I traveled with her to her home country, when they looked at her US Passport with her place of birth on it, would not admit her, but finally did, we spent over a week traveling around to renew her Colombian citizenship. Not like here, had to hire an attorney, sure charged us, then had to apply for a Colombian passport. The DOS calls this dual naturalization, its not, its dual citizenship, you cannot get a passport until you are a citizenship. When she visits her mom, needs her Colombian to get in, but when she leaves needs both, because she cannot get a US visa to come here with her Colombian passport, but her US passport works. I called the DOS and politely asked, why can't the city she was naturalized in be her place of birth, replied, they don't know why, always been this way. Then I had a person to person talk with both my senator and congressman, both told me they don't have any say with the Department of State, strictly under the executive branch, contacted them, no response. So every five years have to make a trip to the Colombian consulate in Chicago, have to do this in person, at least its only 300 miles from us so can do this in a very long day. Some live over a thousands miles away. Just saying are journey is not over yet.

Ha, was curious if the I-751 processing time improved since we applied for it over eleven years ago. Submitted our I-751 with all the required evidence 90 days before my wife's conditional green card expired, all we received was that one year extension letter, her temporary two year driver's license also expired at the end of two years, had a lot problems with the state to renew it. Her job was in jeopardy, long talk with their legal department. One year extension notice was about to expire, we made an appointment to get her current foreign passport stamped, believe we could also have brought a photo for an I-94 but this was ten years ago. During that year, we applied for US citizenship for her, 90 days before our three year marriage date. During that time, received a letter from the USCIS requesting updates on our evidence, said ours was a year old. But she did receive an appointment for her US citizenship, this went a lot quicker for us. She received her certificate for US citizenship, then about two weeks later, finally received her ten year green card, we didn't need that anymore. Has anything changed since then? Still are very happily married, ha, could never find a woman like this next door.