please help

[rbates2000]

my boyfriend and i have been together for almost yrs and have planned to get married. but we are very confused on the best route to take. we already spoke with an immigration lawyer who said if we go through him than my bf would only have to return to mexico for one day to get his visa. is this true? we have also considered just getting married and going from there. but we dont know what the "from there" would consist of. he owns his own business and can not afford to leave the country for more than a couple days. of course the business is not in his name, it is in someone elses name, but he is the only who works. i have 3 children from a previous marriage, who he helps to support. i am currently looking for work, but have had no success. if he were to leave he would lose the business and me and the kids would have no place to live. he has been paying his taxes on the business the way he is suppose to. he also has some driving offenses, which i dont think will affect anything. he doesnt drink, or do drugs. he came here illegally, no inspection. people that i have spoke with said that the lawyer we talked to was not telling the truth. that he will not have to go for just one day. that it will take a while. we are so confused. we love eachother so much and dont know what to do. we dont care how long the process takes. but we need to try and find a way so he doesnt have to leave the country. also, if it turns out that he absolutely has to leave the country, and we find someway to make it work with the business and all....am i legally allowed to take the kids out of country to go to mexico with him without there legal fathers consent. we also have a friend who married an american citizen, and he said he just had to pay a fee and he didnt have to leave the country. he got his ss# the same day as his interview. i get differant stories from differant people....could someone please give me a straight answer. we are desperate. thank you.

[inlimbo]

Welcome, rbates! The info your lawyer told you is partially true. This past March, the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez (CDJ) instituted a Pilot Program wherein people submit their I-601 waivers and may be immediately approved and receive a visa to return to the U.S. the same day. About 50% of the cases are not approved immediately but are instead "referred" to the existing backlog of waiver cases and must wait in Mexico until their visa is approved. However, you do not need that lawyer to do it - in fact a lot of people on this site do the whole process on their own, without the assistance of a lawyer.

Because your husband has lived in the U.S. illegally you will need to prove extreme hardship to you, the US citizen (USC) if your husband is not allowed to return and/or you are forced to move to Mexico to be with him. It sounds like you have at least one very good hardship since you have children from another marriage and you can't just move to Mexico with them because of custody issues. So that's a good start. You will want to spend time reading through the stickies under the I-601 Waiver section of the forum. There are approved hardship letter examples, a memo on the I-601 waiver from an excellent attorney, Laurel Scott and all kinds of useful bits of information.

The very first step in the whole process would be to file the I-130 petition for an alien spouse. You can find the form on the USCIS website, www.uscis.gov. I think it takes a year or two from initial filing to an interview date in CDJ, and most people stay in the U.S. until their interview in CDJ.

Well, I hope this info helps to get you started. I think you will find all of the info you need here and lots of people who are willing to help!

[cherrycandy001]

hello! Yes, he has to leave back to his country, I'm assuming Mexico. YOu have to file the I-130, get it approved, and wait for an appointment in Ciudad Juarez. If eligible he will go through the Pilot waiver program and schedule an infopass appointment a couple days after his first appointment. If all goes well he may come home the day of his infopass appointment with his visa in hand :).
-Candy

[inlimbo]

Whoops, I just saw that you aren't married yet. So you actually have two options: to get married and file the I-130 petition for spouses or to file the I-129F to get a fiance visa for your boyfriend. I did that for my boyfriend - I filed the I-129F in February and right now we are preparing for our visa interview and Pilot Program waiver interview right now, so from filing to the interview can be very fast, ~ 6 months. If your fiance is approved and given a visa, you will have to marry within 90 days of entering the U.S. and then file for Adjustment of Status (AOS). I'd suggest that you look into the I-130 and I-129F options and then discuss them with your boyfriend and decide which one will work best for you. Good luck!

[Laura]

Rbates - I don't think you should use that lawyer. One day - definitely not. It's possible, as the others said, that he will have quick processing, if he is found clearly approvable, and he will be back within a week, but there is still some question there. And anyone who would promise you that he would bring him back in one day is being dishonest. Also, the people who just had to pay a fine and got their social security number in one day most likely adjusted under 245i, meaning they started the process before 2001, or they entered with visas rather than on the border. There's a big different in getting lawful status.

Everyone going to CDJ for a visa interview and waiver processing has to at least prepare for the possibility that the immigrant will have to wait in Mexico for waiver approval. Still, you are early in the process, and it sounds like you have some great hardships, so not to worry about that yet. You have two options, as inlimbo outlined, for filing - either as a fiance or a spouse. If you marry, the entire process will take longer, he will go to Mexico maybe 18 months after you marry instead of as soon as 6 months from now if you go the fiance route.

Also, if you want to take your children to Mexico, you will need written permission from their USC father. However, if you are just going to take them to the Consulate in CDJ, maybe not. Because the Consulate is in a border area, it's a little different there. Maybe someone else knows about that.

By the way, the area of this forum you should post in from now on is titled Waivers - I-601 Mexico. You will find LOTS of help there, in the stickys, etc, for your situation.