"Help! What if my spouse is illegal" thread QUESTION!!

[itznenny]

B. If you are already married, you need to file form I-130 (petition for alien relative) - $355 (timelines)

1. If you are married, have received receipt for the I-130, and wish to speed up your consular visa interview, you can concurrently file the I-129F. This only makes sense in some cases with some countries and for too many reasons to list here. Filing the I-129F after the I-130 is entirely optional, but has become common practice for many people on immigrate2us in recent years. The upside is that it will speed up the visa interview, and if the couple is already living apart, this can be a very good thing. The downside is that after the immigrant has his/her visa and enters the U.S., he/she will need to file the Adjustment of Status paperwork (form I-485 at a whopping $1010) and will not be immediately able to work upon entering the U.S.

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I'm sorry but I need a little clarification on this part of the thread...if you wish to speed up the consular interview is it better to file the I-130 and I-129F together or the I-129 after the I-130? It says, "...wish to speed up your consular visa interview, you can concurrently file the I-129F. " But then it also goes on to say, "Filing the I-129F after the I-130 is entirely optional, but has become common practice for many people on immigrate2us in recent years. The upside is that it will speed up the visa interview, and if the couple is already living apart, this can be a very good thing." I'm a little confused, thanks! :blush:

[Luckysprite]

If you are already married - you have two options in filing - which both result in different types of visas.

1 - file the I130 alone. This will result in an immigrant visa - which comes with no additional filings once the immigrant is in the US (unless you have been married for less than two years at the time the visa is issued in which case you only need to file to remove the conditions of the conditional residency). Your spouse can work right away - and is a legal permanent resident. The downside of this - is that the process is a little bit longer - so where as the other quote indicates - this can be a bad thing if you and your spouse are already separated and you are just wishing to get then to/back to the US as soon as possible.

2 - File the I130 and the I129F. This results in a non-immigrant K3 visa. Upon receiving the visa - you then need to file additional paperwork in order for your spouse to become a legal permanent resident. The fees of this paperwork are approx $1010 right now. Included in that paperwork that needs to get filed is the application for the Employment Authorization. Your spouse is not eligible to work until they have that - and it can take up to 3 months to get. Upside to this - as stated - it is typically faster depending on the country you are filing through.

The reason that the K3 is faster in some countries is because scheduling of an immigrant visa can sometimes take up to 12 months after the case has been completed at the National Visa Center - whereas a K3 can just be in a matter of a few months.

Many countries though do not take the 12 months for the first option - so it would be best to find out from other people filing through the same embassy as you are to get a feel for what the timelines actually are.

It really is a personal choice as to what path to follow. Another thing to note - is that I am not really certain you can file the I129F at the same time as the I130. We have had a couple of members on here do that and they reject the petitions. I know if you file the I130 first though, wait for the receipt number - and then file the I129F it will work just fine!! Maybe someone who has applied for the K3 more recently can clarify this though for you if you are genuinely interested in applying for a K3.

[emt103c]

Like it says though, you have to wait to receive the receipt notice for the I-130 to be eligible to file the I-129F which is what makes it usually process so slowly that it doesn't help to file it. . .the good thing is that it no longer costs extra so you have nothing to lose. Right?

[itznenny]

thank you ladies! invaluable information!! xoxo

[Cherokee]

And I know that Taskgirl did the 129 with the I130 and it didn't speed anything up at all. She got an appointment for teh 129 on Aug 1st and an appointment for the immigrant visa on August 7th.
So, if you are going through Mexico, you might want to just stick with the I 130. You could make a new thread called: Should I do the I129? or something like that, and lots of people who have gone that route might respond to you
But Monday will be much busier around here!

[tasksgirl]

Yup! It made no difference. In fact, I lagged it getting started at NVC because I did not know my case was there. In other words, I could have even gotten the I-130 interview BEFORE the I-129f interview.

This information is in that thread because it USED to speed things up as much as a year. But this whole process has slowly become faster and faster. In the old days people's cases used to take 2-4 years sometimes from start to finish. Here I am I started in November 2007 and here we are in August 2008 and we are in Mexico and almost done!!

[salma35]

The reason that the K3 is faster in some countries is because scheduling of an immigrant visa can sometimes take up to 12 months after the case has been completed at the National Visa Center - whereas a K3 can just be in a matter of a few months

The Embassy where my husband will go is Madrid, Spain, do anyone now how long will take the K3? Should I do the I-129?

[itznenny]

Well, my hubby and I spoke and we've decided just to do the I-130 and do the interview, its going to be longer but at least this way when he comes back he won't have to adjust his status, and be in the same boat we were in a few months ago. He is coming from Ireland, I've tried to look up the wait times for Ireland, but of course, not too many people have been deported back to Ireland :) I will be joining him in Ireland in September, I just hope this is the right decision xoxo

[Luckysprite]

The reason that the K3 is faster in some countries is because scheduling of an immigrant visa can sometimes take up to 12 months after the case has been completed at the National Visa Center - whereas a K3 can just be in a matter of a few months

The Embassy where my husband will go is Madrid, Spain, do anyone now how long will take the K3? Should I do the I-129?

Salma -- if you don't get many answers here on this site (as some regions of the world don't have as many members here as others do - so we might not have current processing information) you might want to try www.visajourney.com -- they could possibly give you more information on the K3 through the country you are looking for.

[shortie1_91]

see i came here when i was very very young. maybe a little older than 1.
this is my last year of school and im going to mexico. my family did come herer illegally but because i am going to mexico and i plan on staying for a while..maybe like two years but i do want to come back legally and i want to get a green card and eventually get citizenship. i have a boyfriend and we want to get married and he says he would come with me to mexico for a while..meaning a year or two so if we get married and the US and we leave can i come back legally? or can he get me a visa? we would want to be in mexico for a while. do i have to stay longer( he is a US citizen.?????????
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please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[emt103c]

Okay, here it is. If you are less than 18.5 years old and you leave to go to Mexico, then you will not have enough illegal presence to even need a waiver. If you leave before you are 18 years and 6 months old AND your boyfriend (if he is a US Citizen) marries you and petitions for you then you will be immediately eligible for a spousal visa and will not even need a wavier.

DO NOT REENTER THE US ILLEGALLY AFTER LEAVING. There is a lot of controversy about this right now, the best thing in the world you can do, is choose your trip times carefully and make sure you are ready to wait out the processing time in Mexico before you make the decision to leave. Know that if you come back illegally again it can cause you lots of legal problems. . .but, if you do it as you described things will go smoothly.

If this is your plan, start collecting pictures, and receipts from things you and your BF do together. One of the things you have to do is prove that your relationship is valid. Any trips he makes to see you, any dates you go on, keep proof.

[shortie1_91]

ok so how long do you think i have to stay out? i mean i already plan to stay out for about 2.5 years. thats what i have planned but if it takes longer i am willing to wait. what if we get married(before im 18.5 years old,which is young) in america and we leave together he can go to a consulate in mexico and pettition me from there right?

[losguerra]

shortie, if he is a US citizen, he would petition you from the US. Even if he's with you in Mexico, he would send the paperwork to the US.

In order to petition you from Mexico, he would need to live in Mexico with a resident visa for 6 months first. Unfortunately, resident visas are hard to get, even in Mexico, and even for those of us married to Mexican citizens. If he gets one, awesome, but then he has to wait 6 months to petition you, and in that time, you could be about halfway done already by just doing the process through the US.

The process really varies, but you would want to start it as SOON as possible to minimize your time in Mexico. Here's my summary of the stages for a spouse visa through Mexico:

I-130/petition stage - anywhere from 3 months to almost a year, depending on which service center gets your paperwork. Cost: $355 for the I-130, plus mailing fees, passport photos for both, copies.
NVC stage - 1 month if you use all the shortcuts, and don't run into any snags, 2-3 months otherwise. Cost: $400 for the visa, $70 for the AOS, plus mailing fees, getting a passport for the foreign beneficiary if necessary, copies.
Waiting for 1st interview - about 2 months for Mexico
Visa interview in Ciudad Juarez- actually takes a few days because there is a medical exam and some other procedures before the interview. Cost: $255-500 for the medical appointment (varies depending on what tests and vaccines are administered), Travel, hotel, and food expenses (varies by preference and circumstance).

IF you leave before 18.5 years so that you don't accrue unlawful presence, the stuff below doesn't apply to you. That's why it's so important to leave at that point. However, if you stay longer, here's what you're looking at:

Waiting for Waiver Appointment - right now everyone seems to have 3 weeks or more in between appointments
Waiver appointment - you turn in the I-601. They either approve it on the spot and the spouse visa is issued right away, or they decide they need more time to look at it (Backlog) and you have to keep waiting outside the US. Cost: $545 for the waiver, Travel, hotel, food.
Backlog (if you're not approved immediately) - takes about 8-12 months in Mexico, sometimes more. If you're approved after this, then they issue the visa and you can return to the US. Cost: a lot of heartache in most cases...


So obviously the time really varies. Another option is to have your bf petition you before you get married, as a fiance. That process goes a bit faster through Mexico (in some cases you can shave off about 3 or 4 months of waiting for petition approval at the first stage, or more!). Also, fiances get through the NVC stage faster. The only thing is once you activate the visa, you have 90 days to get married! So it might go a little too fast for you guys if you use that method.

Also, 2.5 years is a REALLY long time for Mexico. My husband has been there for almost a year teaching English. I only lasted 6 months doing the same before I had to come back to the US to make more money. At first he thought it would be OK, but he is dying to get out of there now. I'm just saying, I don't think you want to spend more time than you have to in Mexico unless you have a lot of money saved up and can do something interesting like study at a university or have a cool job lined up. Wages in Mexico are awful and discouraging. That is obviously my personal opinion, but I think a lot of us who have sent our spouses there or have lived there would say the same thing.

In any case, good luck getting ready for all this!

[shortie1_91]

thanks for the advice. i do plan to stay because i plan to use that time there to pioneer(kind of like a missionay) by that time ill be tri-langual and a high school graduate with some ap(advanced placement) classes. ill graduate when im 17. so hopefully everything will go swell.

ok another q now. my oldest brother will be 20 and he wants to get married his case is almost like mine but the bad part is that he is over 18. and he is having a baby with and american citizen but he does want to leave and come back the right way.
any advice for him?