sciencenerd

do keep in mind that while posting, members of vj might be insulted by your post due to close friendship or a blood relative of the group you are expressing your opinion about...

there are folks on vj who are gay - this isn't some weird straights only club of people that might just be friends with someone. granted family immigration laws discriminate against same sex couples, but that just means that they are often even more likely to be searching for ways to be with their spouse and end up stumbling upon vj.

We're starting to prepare my wife's ROC to be sent in February. We are still happily married, so will file a joint petition. I'm not too worried about removing conditions, but want to make sure we provide enough evidence, but don't go overboard. Can you send too much?

Our strongest evidence is the adoption of our daughter. I understand that a baby isn't always the best proof, but I would think adoption is different since it requires an in depth assessment of our marriage before being approved. We are asking our adoption social worker to write an affidavit stating that she's conducted several pre and post-adoption assessments and has conducted home visits and can verify our marriage.

So, what we're thinking:

- adoption decree and birth certificate

- affidavit from our adoption social worker

- affidavit from my mother stating we rent a home from her (don't have rental agreement, but have lived there for many years)

- copies of driver's licenses showing same address

- copies of boarding passes from vacations together

- tax transcripts from 2009 and 2010

- our car title in both of our names

- car insurance covering both of us

- copies of credit cards in both of our names (I think we have 3 or 4 different accounts)

- joint checking account statements

- joint health and dental insurance

- life insurance listing each other as beneficiary

- photos from vacations, with our daughter, and with each other's family members

Are we missing any major components? It would be really nice to not get an RFE and to not get set aside for an interview due to any questions/concerns (recognizing we could still be randomly chosen for interview). Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

This is based on the logic that tourist visas are hard to get because of the ability to adjust status - that just isn't true. People come over on tourist visas and stay here without ever adjusting status. Getting rid of the path to obtaining legal residency does nothing to reduce the chance that someone is going to come over here and stay. Maybe those few cases where someone uses the tourist visa/VWP specifically to marry and adjust status, but those people are not why it's hard to get a tourist visa. It's making the assumption that nobody stays in this country without status, which we obviously know is not true. I personally think the current system is messed up and it's really ridiculous to try to make life miserable for other people just because it was for you. Some people really do make a spur of the moment decision to get married - if you don't believe that, take immigration out of the picture and think of all the American/American couples eloping. It's not so uncommon that you should automatically assume fraud.

I'm just going to post here every now and again to document this process so the next person that comes along can see how it's turned out. Just for reference: "step 1" is verifying that at least one adoptive parent was either born in Canada or is a naturalized citizen. "step 2" is verifying that the adoption itself meets all requirements for ethical international adoption - you can't send this in until step 1 is approved.

We sent in "step 1" of the application on October 4th. About 3 weeks later, we got a confirmation in the mail that they received it and it said to expect it to take 20 weeks to process the application. I don't understand how it takes close to 6 months to verify my wife is Canadian when we sent them her birth certificate - I expected step 1 to be super quick since that's all it was and for step 2 to take most of the 6-8 months they listed as a minimum time. I'm glad we're just doing this for her future and it's not something we need at any particular time. Maybe we'll make it a race to see who will have dual citizenship first (my wife is eligible for American in early 2013) - oh the things we do to entertain ourselves during these processes.

thanks so much for the info! this is extremely helpful!

My wife (CDN) and I (USC) are in the process of adopting a baby here in the states where we reside. I assumed that getting Canadian citizenship for her would be the same as it would had we had a biological child, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I've gone through all of the relevant pages on the CIC website (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/adoption/index.asp), which is fortunately pretty thorough, but I still have some questions. I don't know if anyone here has adopted and applied for citizenship for their child, but I thought I'd at least check. If you have gone through this or have knowledge of the process, I'd really appreciate your help. I feel pretty certain that we'll meet all the legal requirements for the adoption to be valid in Canada since we have worked with an agency and will have all the necessary documents (birth parents' consent, adoption decree, etc.).

Here are my main questions:

1. How long does this process take from the US. They say it will take at least 6-8 months for the two steps, but up to 2 years depending on country. We'll start Step 1 right away and hope that it is processed before our adoption is finalized (our daughter is 3 weeks old now and finalization is expected in 3-4 months). We'll then send Step 2. I can't find out how much time either of the steps take individually.

2. I am confused about whether we can visit Canada while this is all being processed. It seems totally ridiculous for us not to be able to since she is a US Citizen and will not be living in Canada any time soon. However, the site states: "Please remember: It is mandatory for a child to either have a grant of Canadian citizenship or a permanent resident visa issued by the embassy, and the necessary travel documents, before that child can be brought back to Canada." It also says: "Note: Adoptions from the United States: While a person adopted from the U.S. may not need a travel document (passport or facilitation visa) to travel to Canada, all provincial or territorial adoption requirements and Hague Convention requirements must be met, and Canadian citizenship must be granted before entering Canada." It's not clear whether this is true only if you are going to be living in Canada or for any travel to Canada. We want to introduce our daughter to her grandmother and other family in Canada as soon as we can since she can't come visit us (she has a special needs son unable to travel). It would really be a shame to keep them apart for so long when she would be able to enter Canada as an American citizen while processing the application. We just don't want to do anything that would jeopardize her Canadian citizenship.

I will contact the consulate, but wanted to check to see if anyone had gone through this process as well. Thanks.

Someone with more experience will be by I'm sure to give advice, but I know in similar situations here, people have been told that they are out of status and basically need to apply for adjustment of status again. Your 2 year green card didn't just expire - it had conditions on it that you failed to remove and your permanent resident status was terminated. Definitely don't leave the country until you have a permanent status again. Good luck.

It does sound like the immigration officer was unprofessional and it may have something to do with the way your case has gone. However, that is kind of irrelevant at this point. The fact that you and your wife live in different cities is going to raise the threshold of proof you need since that is an uncommon (though not unheard of) arrangement for married couples. There had to be enough of a justification to send your case to second interview independent of whatever other motivations the immigration officer had.

It would be unwise of you to just assume that because you are in a legitimate marriage, you don't have to prepare and will get approved. This is not a foolproof process - fraudulent couples get approved and legitimate couples get denied. I would personally get a lawyer at this stage to make sure I was as prepared as possible, but that's obviously not necessary. With the stakes as high as they are, however, you need to look at your case through the eyes of a neutral immigration officer. You know you're in a legitimate marriage, but they need to be convinced of that, especially given your living arrangements. When it comes down to it, you can rely on your knowledge of the legitimacy of your relationship, but that's not going to be enough to succeed in this process. They strongly suspect that your marriage is fraudulent - telling them that it's not is just not going to cut it. Good luck with your interview.

The thing is, these banks won't accept my US passport when I had requested to change the name on my bank account. They want a court document.

Yeah - the court document is really what most places want. I changed my name many years ago and thought the passport would be good enough, but it wasn't anywhere. I needed the court document for social security, DMV, banks, insurance companies, etc. You'll probably just have to go back to the courthouse and request copies - where I am, they have to pull them out of archive and it takes a week or so. It's a fairly painless process. I got 3 last time I had to do that just so I wouldn't have to again. Good luck!

The I-130 that your US citizen wife would file for her brother will never expire. Once his PD is current, he can take as long as he want to file for a visa. There is no time restriction on when he has to file. The case would only end if the petitioner (your wife) or the beneficiary (your brother in law) were to die.

Thank you! That is extremely helpful to know and something I could not quite figure out on my own.

I highly recommend the OP contact the folks at Immigration Equality (www.immigrationequality.org). They have lawyers on staff who can walk you through your options. They also stay extremely current with the rapid changes in options for same-sex couples. Good luck!

Nope. The Philippines are heavily oversubscribed, which is why the wait is more than 20 years. It's not the same situation for Canada. They are not oversubscribed on F4 petitions. The OP was correct - it's about 10 years.

sciencenerd, the two biggest issues you're likely to face are the psychological inadmissibility issue, and the public charge issue.

Here's the relevant section of INA 212 regarding the psychological inadmissibility:

(I) to have a physical or mental disorder and behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others, or

(II) to have had a physical or mental disorder and a history of behavior associated with the disorder, which behavior has posed a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others and which behavior is likely to recur or to lead to other harmful behavior,

So, if he has any history of hurting himself, hurting other people, damaging property, etc. then he would be classified as inadmissible. Likewise, if a doctor concludes that there's an ongoing risk of him doing any of these things then he's inadmissible. I know that people who are severely autistic sometimes require round the clock supervision in order to keep them from hurting themselves or hurting someone else. A rational and compassionate person would forgive an autistic person if they throw the family cat in the lake. It becomes a completely different matter if the autistic person comes to the US and throws the neighbor's cat into the lake. I would expect the medical examination to focus on this aspect, and I would expect the CO to look carefully at the medical examination report.

You can also expect the "public charge" requirement to be carefully scrutinized. It goes far beyond simply providing a sufficient affidavit of support. The law requires the CO to look first at the alien's ability to support themselves. Your brother in-law will obviously never be able to support himself, so the consulate is going to want solid evidence that you have all the bases covered, and will likely continue to cover them for the remainder of his natural life. He will never accrue 40 quarters of Social Security work credits, and he will never become a US citizen (he won't be able to pass the citizenship test), so your wife will be on the hook for the affidavit of support until either she or her brother dies. He will also never be eligible for earned benefits from the US government, like unemployment insurance or Social Security retirement benefits. Anything he would ever be eligible for would be a means tested benefit. The consulate is going to consider this fact. A major factor is likely to be medical insurance. The consulate will probably want proof that you are providing this.

Both USCIS and the consulate have the authority to expedite processing if there is an urgent humanitarian need. However, they can't do anything about his priority date. Until his priority date is current, there is no visa number available for him. They can't approve a visa until there's a visa number available for him.

Thanks for the info! Luckily, my brother-in-law has absolutely no signs of aggression towards himself or others. When he gets super frustrated or upset, he just shakes his head back and forth and says "no" repeatedly - pretty harmless. I think we'd have enough documentation for that with years of schooling, caseworkers, etc. in Canada. The public charge piece may be more difficult. As of right now, it would be no problem - he would be eligible to be on my health plan at work once we were his official legal guardians. However, I guess I can't be 100% sure that I will always have employment that will offer insurance, especially as this gets less common. I guess we'll need to assess things more long-term to try the get ourselves in the best position possible to care for him. We'll do some thinking about that and figuring out if there are any other options.

The main thing I'm hearing is that absolutely nothing could happen unless/until he as a current priority date. So, if we apply as soon as possible (when my wife ?naturalizes), his priority date will come up in 10-ish years. At that point, can we apply whenever, even if it's another 10-15 years? Or are you required to apply as soon as your priority date comes up? Basically, does having your priority date current mean that you can apply? Or do they just process your original application at that point? Basically, the ideal plan would be to apply, wait out the 10 years, and then have the benefit of being to apply when it becomes necessary having already "waited in line". I don't suppose that's possible? Thanks again for your help.

There isn't a lot you can do to make things happen at your pace. You will almost certainly need to show that you are providing insurance for his special needs. Even today that is terribly expensive. Have you considered what if you are not around when your MIL dies ( age does not always determine death order ) You may want to consider a back up plan such as a assisted living center, in case you are not able to take over or through some snag in the immigration process you can't bring him immediately. The 23 years is only one country currently, but who knows what changes future immigration laws bring.

Thanks for your input. My mother-in-law is really in charge of what happens to him for now, but I suppose you're right that we need to sit down with her and make sure a plan B is around for him because right now there isn't.

I posted a question about this a little over a year ago, so I hope it's okay for me to post again since maybe new people are around that might know something about this.

This may be a strange question, but I haven't been able to find an answer to it. My wife got approved for permanent residency in May 2010 and will be applying for citizenship as soon as she is eligible (2013). My question is actually about her brother. He is autistic and in all likelihood will end up with us if anything ever happens to his (and my wife's) mother. We are trying to figure out how to properly plan for this likely scenario. I understand that it will be about 10 years for her brother's priority date to come up after we can file, but I'm more concerned about after that. Hopefully, this will not be something that comes up for many, many years (my wife's mom is only 59 now), but we probably won't have much notice when it's necessary. Her brother needs 24 hour supervision and we are basically the only family. What can we do to prepare for this?

Some specific questions:

- Will the fact that her brother has autism make him inadmissible? He will not be able to be able to respond to interviewers' questions or advocate for himself in any way. We are financially stable and have no problem sponsoring him so he won't be a "public charge".

- If her brother is approved through sibling sponsorship (probably in 15 years-ish), how long does he have to move down here? (can he be approved and then just move down here at the point when his mom can no longer care for him?)

- We will be his legal guardians if something happens to my mother-in-law. can we sponsor him as parents? I remember reading that any adoption type situation had to occur before the beneficiary's 16th birthday, so I'm thinking that's not an option.

- Are there alternative options for this type of situation, especially if (God forbid), something happened to his mom prior to his priority date coming up? We would need near-immediate approval to ensure he is safe and cared for.

I don't want to be morbid, but with the time required for immigration, we are trying to make sure we have some plan that won't leave him without any care or supervision in Canada. We definitely want to allow him to live in Canada with his mom for as long as possible. This is obviously very long term planning, but it is impossible for us to know exactly when he will need to be able to move here, whether next month or in 30 years. I don't understand how to work with immigration for this type of situation.

Any information or advice would be appreciated. Thank you

I love reading these threads !

Last year I had my roof replaced and hired a contractor to work on it and I happened to notice all his workers were all mexicans. The contractor asked me what I did for a living and I told him I worked for the federal government (which is true), but I lied and told him I worked for ICE... He sent his wife over to my house to pick up the check for the insurance deductible two days later. What a coward !

I have no problem with immigrants coming here, as long they do it legally and pay their taxes like the rest of us. It is not fair that we have to wait so long for our loved ones and some can sneak across the border and reap the benefits.

So you impersonated an ICE employee in order to prove a point about following laws - that makes a lot of sense.

If you look at the instructions for the I-130, it'll give you the info. Basically, you can if it has been 5 years since you became an LPR, you can prove 1st marriage was entered in good faith, or first marriage ended due to death of the USC spouse.

Hi there,

this is my first post, though I've been refering to this forum for the whole of the visa process ( and at times I've found it more helpful than our lawyer!). My interview is a week from today, and there is just one thing which could potentially be a stumbling block for me.... My birth certificate. You see, I obtained the long version, however, my fathers name is not on it as it was never registered.

I know they specifically state "We will not accept the short form version of a UK birth certificate. The certificate must list both parents'names". So I've obtained the long version and I've have had my mom do a letter stating my fathers name, her name, my place and date of birth and the reason why his name is not on the certificate, and Ive had it notarised by a magistrate.

I emailed and phoned the embassy regarding this issue, and their response was more or less "wait till the interview and take it up with them".

I'm just wondering if this will lead to my visa being denied, and if anyone out there can share any of their experiences and/ or knowledge with me?

My wife's situation was slightly different because her father is unknown, but it was no issue that the birth certificate only had one name. I don't know if that is different if the father is known. I know that in the states, you generally can amend a birth certificate if you have some sort of proof/evidence - not sure if that's possible where you're at. Good luck!

It'd be great to have the timeline feature adjusted so that it could more accurately document folks who came over without a visa. My wife came over as a tourist (Canadian - no visa or VWP required), so I put "other" as the visa type since you are required to put something. "Other" is described in the timeline as entering on a nonimmigrant visa and filing for AOS. If I put in the POE date, the immigration checklist shows we went through NVC, Consulate, and interview, which we did not. If I take it out, it just lists approval, but it's approval for an "other" visa, which is not really accurate.

Also, in the timeline, it would be nice if the "submit review" link next to the interview date was removed once you have actually submitted a review.

Neither of these things are a huge deal, obviously, but thought I'd suggest them since you asked .

Which is probably what the couple in this case did. I do not care that they are gay, but they did violate the law. If they allow anyone to come and get married to avoid deportation, that would be a bad precedent.

I believe in equal rights. If a heterosexual spouse would be deported so should a gay spouse. If the rule is going to change to "if you marry an American you can stay" then just say so and let everyone do it.

That's the whole point - a heterosexual spouse would not be deported. My wife entered as a tourist and overstayed her authorized stay. We married and applied for AOS and were approved. Her overstaying was a non-issue. If it was a non-issue for us, same-sex couples in a similar situation should have the same benefit. This couple would be eligible for AOS if one of them was a woman.

If your ROC has been approved, you are a permanent resident. The only things that will change that are if you abandon permanent residency (move out of the country), are found to have fraudulently entered your marriage, or become a US citizen. The only relevance your marital status now has is that you need to be an LPR for 5 years before you are eligible for naturalization (if married, it's 3 years). Good luck.

I really need help on this worry.

I am the named "Alien" in this situation. My fiance and I are now applying for a K1 Visa, my Fathers name is missing on my Birth Certificate and I know nothing about him, my Mothers name and place of residence at that time is listed on the Certificate but that is all I know about her.

I was fostered at a very early age (my legal Guardians being Banardos Foster Care) but both my Foster Parents are now deceased. I am worried about putting anything misleading or confusing (unintentionaly) on any forms concerning my Parents in any way.

I would appreciate any advice about this matter from anyone who has been through or knows about this problem as such, Thankyou.

I agree with others - just explain the situation. My wife's birth certificate has "unknown" listed as the father and we just put that on the paperwork. It was no problem.

And how exactly would a "straight pride day" be different from every other day? Gay pride day isn't as much about pride for your sexual orientation, it's about being proud of embracing yourself, finding worth and community, and living well despite living in a world where every day is straight pride day. It's just a respite from being in a world that at best assumes you're straight and at worst, perpetrates hatred, discrimination, and violence towards you. Straight people don't have to worry about that.

That's out of question as she already married another USC. Her only option is to go to her home country and do visa processing there. Also get a lawyer to help with overstay waiver.

Thank you for the info.

I don't know anything about it, but you might want to look into VAWA to see if you might qualify under that. It sounds like you have some proof of the abuse. I don't know if your situation would qualify, but it'd be worth looking into because it's probably your only shot to be able to stay here without have to first go back to your home country and apply from there (and deal with the ban). You'll want a lawyer regardless. Good luck.

Be aware that getting married can make it difficult for your girlfriend to enter the U.S. because of the question of immigrant intent. It is often recommended for same-sex couples to not get married because of that. However, if you decide to move to Australia, getting married now could benefit you in the future since you'll likely be married over 2 years when USCIS starts recognizing your marriage (which I have no doubt will happen sometime in the next decade). Contact Immigration Equality (http://www.immigrationequality.org) - they have legal staff that can help you determine the best action for your situation (no cost). Good luck - I hope you find a way to be together soon!