[GreenCard] USA immigration visa wait time

My wife (taiwanese) will file for the I-130 immigrant visa with AIT sometime soon. Anybody been thru it and what can we expect in terms of wait time, interviews…etc.

I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t even play one on TV, but when my husband applied for an immigrant visa, it came through pretty quickly, and we hadn’t been married a year yet at that point. If I remember, it was like a month’s wait max for the interview (which he did alone, not with me). Be ready to take time off work for the interview, though. Really the most onerous part was filling out the paperwork, with all the past addresses, some of which we couldn’t remember correctly, having moved from room to room in Taiwan in our early days here. And they are much more suspicious of a new marriage than a long-established one like yours.

I don’t see where your wife’s assets in Taiwan would come into the equation, as she shouldn’t owe tax on any of them unless she is present in the States and earning money there…right?? As long as you can prove the minimum level of salary to support her in the States (which is VERY minimal!) then you should be OK.

Terry

When you say “…will file for the I-130 immigrant visa with AIT sometime soon”, does that mean you (or she) has already gone by the Immigrant Visa (IV) unit to pick up the necessary paperwork? If not, you should do that soon, because only then will you be able to start getting together the supporting documents needed for the I-130.

Since, according to your profile, you have been here since 1994, I think an issue for you will be to provide what is called an affidavit of support, required by U.S. law. One requirement of the IV process is for the petitioner (you) to provide an affidavit of support (a form I-864) to show that you have the financial means to support the beneficiary of your petition once in the States. The rub for you, possibly, is that only income earned in the States can be counted (when you leave Taiwan it follows that your Taiwan-based income stops)towards meeting that requirement. There are other ways to overcome that hurdle, liquid assets, job offer in the States, etc. If you still can’t show the required level of income/asets, the law makes a provision for the petitioner to line up a "“joint-sponsor”. This is a person who also fills out an affidavit of support in your behalf. Although the paperwork is a pain, I can’t think of a case where a petitioner failed to meet this requirement. Also, have you faithfully been filing your U.S. tax returns (even if you haven’t owed taxes)? You have to provide tax returns for the past three years.

Anyway, if you haven’t been to the IV unit at AIT, I suggest that you do so and all of this will be explained. Once you submit the I-130, the IV unit does name checks and whatnot which doesn’t take long. The longest part of the wait is the time taken by the petitioner to collect the supporting documents, once that is done you call the IV unit and schedule an appointment for interview. If all goes well at the interview you’ll get the visa the same day (normally).

We’ve been through the green card process in the states on the basis of a fiancee visa, and it’s been a nightmare. Without getting into the details, I would advise anyone considering marrying a Taiwanese person to do so in Taiwan, and start the application process on that basis. We have friends who did this and got a full, 10 year green card within 2 years, most of the time with the spouse living in Taiwan.

We did it the hard way, via Fiancee visa, and only got a letter confirming permanent green card status (but not the card itself) a full four years after we got married in the U.S. The card won’t be ready for another 6 months. If I had known what a hassle the Fiancee visa would be, plus the associated problems turning it into conditional residency and then a full green card, I would have gotten hitched in Taiwan.

There are lots of online resources about this; I would recommend about.com’s immigration forums as a good starting point. I can’t sugarcoat the truth – dealing with US immigration restrictions is a very frustrating process that has been made worse by 9/11. Good luck if you are just getting started …

My Fiancee (she is taiwanese) and I are going to go to america probably in december. She is going to be going to language school and I am going to be going to get my masters degree. We are planning on getting married within 90 days of entering the US. What would be the best way to go with dealing with visas. Fiancee visa, student visa, or visitor visa. From what I am hearing Fiancee visa take a long time to get and are not fun to deal with. But if she comes in with another status, it might also be a pain to deal with. How long does a Fiancee visa take (I would go to AIT with her to do everything)? I hear there is a min. income, does anyone know what that is? For the past year, I have only been a student in Taiwan studying chinese, so it that going to be a problem?

If you are sure you are going to get married within 90 days of arriving in the US, then I would strongly suggest to get married in Taiwan and start the residency process now. You will save yourself a lot of trouble. If you want to have the white wedding business in the US, just do a city hall marriage in taiwan and you can do the ceremonial part when you get back home. Yes, it sucks letting bureaucratic reasons govern very personal choices, but the stress and suffering you risk by doing things the hard way aren’t worth it, IMO.

If you do indeed do it the hard way – ie., via the fiancee visa – you will have trouble with the income issue (when I did this, my income was also low; the rule was you needed a guarantor if your income was below the official poverty rate times 1.5), not to mention the extra years of bureaucracy while you petition for residency, change status from conditional to permanent, etc.

As for the student visa business, your fiancee will get asked a lot of questions at the border – and later at the immigration office – about her true motives for coming to the U.S. Single women crossing alone are treated with great suspicion; if she says she actually has a boyfriend they may accuse her at the border of lying on her student visa application. At the Immigration office, they may say she did lie on her applicaton – ie her purpose for coming to the states was not to study, but to be with you, and reject her residency application. (This warning comes from an immigration lawyer whom I consulted in 2000)

You should really look at the about.com immigration forums to get a picture of the current difficulties facing US citizens marrying foreigners. It is a big mess, but you can make it easier on yourself by doing it in a certain way …