Can my Husband bring his Niece to the states to study.

[winifredbee 1]

My Husband and I are considering bringing his 5 year old Niece to the states to live with us and study. We are waiting for the removal of conditions right now and hope to hear in the next few months. We have talked about the inviting her into our family and we both want to do this. Has any one gone through this process?...or something similar?

[Inky 1,110]

No visa for nieces.

If you are talking about adopting her, both her parents have to be dead if you intend to adopt her and then file for a visa to bring her to the USA.

[Boiler 43,492]

F1 Student Visa would fit the bill.

Start by talking to the International Student Adviser at whichever school you have in mind.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Very few student visas are issued to non college level students. If you were to have here to go to school here you would need to live near a private school that is set up to handle this kind of thing and they tend to be very expensive. One near where I live costs 45 k a year for students that live off campus and nearly twice that for ones on campus. She would not be legally able to attend public schools, you would have to pay her costs to the school as she wouldn't be eligble for the funding , the costs of doing that is slightly less , usually just under 20k a year. She would be required to show how she( not you ) is funding her eduation and that she has strong ties to leave after school which I don't think is you intent.

[winifredbee 1]

Thank you for the advice. I have to do some research. A friend of mine has her Niece from Haiti here in the states and she is attending public High school. I have to find out more about how she made this happen. I also know of adoptions happening with living parents consent but need to find out more about that as well. Ugh!

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

It is possible to get an F1 for a public school, but you'd still need to "pay economic fees", which can be almost as high as private school fees. Also, an F1 does not lead to a greencard, so sooner or later (when school ends, when you can no longer pay for it), she'll need to return to her country, which may be difficult if she spent her formative years in the USA. Another option if you want her to have a good upbringing may be to look into private schools in her home country.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Thank you for the advice. I have to do some research. A friend of mine has her Niece from Haiti here in the states and she is attending public High school. I have to find out more about how she made this happen. I also know of adoptions happening with living parents consent but need to find out more about that as well. Ugh!

Be wary of anything they tell you. If it smells fishy then it probably is. There are a lot of people here in California who claim to have sponsored a relative to live in the US when I knew darn well there was no petitionable relationship between them. A friend of mine in Southern California told me years ago that he sponsored his cousin to come to the US for school. I didn't know much about immigration law then, but I knew that you couldn't petition for a cousin. His cousin was going to a public high school. I found out later that she entered with a B2 visa and overstayed, and that she was attending public school illegally under federal law, though it wasn't illegal under California law. Go figure. The point is that people will often tell you a fish story in order to make their situation appear above board and legal, when it actually is not. What really sucked for my friend was that his cousin's mom immigrated to the US legally just before his cousin graduated from high school. Unfortunately, his aunt wasn't eligible for US citizenship before his cousin turned 21, so there was nothing she could do to help her daughter become legal. She ended up having to go back to Mexico, along with a 10 year ban. As far as I know, she's still there. If she hadn't played the B2 overstay game then she'd have been in the US with a green card long ago.

The adoption doesn't just have to be legal according to the laws of the country where the adoption took place. It must be legal for immigration purposes. Nicaragua is NOT a Hague Adoption Convention country, so only an adopted orphan would be qualified for immigration.

[Nica_In_Love 98]

Be wary of anything they tell you. If it smells fishy then it probably is. There are a lot of people here in California who claim to have sponsored a relative to live in the US when I knew darn well there was no petitionable relationship between them. A friend of mine in Southern California told me years ago that he sponsored his cousin to come to the US for school. I didn't know much about immigration law then, but I knew that you couldn't petition for a cousin. His cousin was going to a public high school. I found out later that she entered with a B2 visa and overstayed, and that she was attending public school illegally under federal law, though it wasn't illegal under California law. Go figure. The point is that people will often tell you a fish story in order to make their situation appear above board and legal, when it actually is not. What really sucked for my friend was that his cousin's mom immigrated to the US legally just before his cousin graduated from high school. Unfortunately, his aunt wasn't eligible for US citizenship before his cousin turned 21, so there was nothing she could do to help her daughter become legal. She ended up having to go back to Mexico, along with a 10 year ban. As far as I know, she's still there. If she hadn't played the B2 overstay game then she'd have been in the US with a green card long ago.

The adoption doesn't just have to be legal according to the laws of the country where the adoption took place. It must be legal for immigration purposes. Nicaragua is NOT a Hague Adoption Convention country, so only an adopted orphan would be qualified for immigration.