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I’m an American and just married an ROC national and we were wondering if we need to report our marriage to AIT.
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I was thinking it would be good to get the wife a US passport for ease of travel in to the US and in case of emergencies, is that possible if we both will be living in Taiwan?
What type of Visa should we get and when? We have no immediate plans to live in the USA.
Congrats. No, you don’t need to report it unless you’re applying for a visa for her.
[quote=“maowang”]
2) I was thinking it would be good to get the wife a US passport for ease of travel in to the US and in case of emergencies, is that possible if we both will be living in Taiwan? [/quote]
Well, unfortunately, you just “don’t get” a US passport, like you’d get a snack from the 7-11. Your wife needs to wait three years after getting her greencard before she can apply for citizenship. Upon granting of citizenship, she can live anywhere she likes.
[quote=“maowang”]
What type of Visa should we get and when? We have no immediate plans to live in the USA.[/quote]
You can try for a direct consular filing at AIT and see what happens there. Normally, one would apply for spousal K-1 immigrant visa but that assumes living in the US.
Good luck.
EDIT: if you need a US immigration atty, I recommend First Law Offices
Just to add a bit…
In order to be eligible to apply for US citizenship, i.e., naturalization, after your wife obtains permanent residency rights (as evidenced by a green card) she will need to live in the US for 18 months (half of the three year period referred to by YC above).
Also, unless things have changed, when she gets her green card, it will be “conditional”… that means that after two years, you and your wife will need to petition jointly to have the “conditional” status removed.
Just to add a bit…
In order to be eligible to apply for US citizenship, i.e., naturalization, after your wife obtains permanent residency rights (as evidenced by a green card) she will need to live in the US for 18 months (half of the three year period referred to by YC above).
Also, unless things have changed, when she gets her green card, it will be “conditional”… that means that after two years, you and your wife will need to petition jointly to have the “conditional” status removed.[/quote]
Adding a bit to TM’s post, I believe that the requirement for residing in the US w/ green card for a period before being eligible to apply for US citizenship has one exception: if the green card holder’s spouse works for the US government or a US corporation overseas, then that time will be counted as time spent in the US. That’s at least what an immigration lawyer told us about five years ago. HOWEVER, it requires plenty of paperwork to swing this. If the greencard is obtained through the consular route, then it will have to be activated by visiting the US anyway. I don’t know anybody who has ever gained US citizenship without living in the US for at least a while on the greencard.
I checked into this exception Jive Turkey and it looks like that does not exist anymore with respect to spouses.
But if you, the greencard holder must reside overseas on behalf of a US corporation, then you can submit waivers to retain your greencard and citizenship eligibility. You and your US corporation must jointly file that paperwork. My cousin is currently doing this but he’s been doing it for so long, the US gov’t has given him and the company trouble each year they renew this waiver. Apparently, you can’t do this “indefinitely” even if it’s for a bonafide business reason (e.g. you are the US company’s overseas operations manager posted as an expat in say China).
It wasn’t clear from your post, but it is conditional for the first two years of marriage, not the first two years of the green card. If you’ve been married more than two years when your spouse gets the green card then it will not be conditional.