Fort Walton Beach, FL Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

If you are not going to apply for citizenship by the 3 anniversary of your green card (as a husband of a U.S. citizen), and going to wait another 2 years, than a divorce should not present a problem for your naturalization. There is a catch, though: in New York (and in almost every other state), you cannot get a no-fault divorce or a divorce on the ground of abandonment unless you state that your marriage has fallen apart for 6 months (no-fault) or 1 year (abandonment). If that takes you within the time limits of your conditional residence, you will likely have problems with USCIS during your naturalization process. So make sure that your divorce attorney happens to understand the immigration law.

The difficulty with your daughter’s situation is that her nonimmigrant status ended when yours did since she was only a dependent. Adjustment of status under family cases except for immediate relatives (parents, spouses, and unmarried children under the age of 21 of US citizens) requires the maintenance of status until the filing of the I-485 application. An alternative to appeal or motion is to file an I-130 petition and have your daughter consular process overseas for the immigrant visa. Kindly note that the 3/10 year bars do not apply to children under the age of 18. If your daughter was already 18 by the date of the USCIS denial, the 3/10 year bars only begin to apply if your daughter remains in the US for over 180 days thereafter. The difficulty with appeals and motions is that many are not resolved within 180 days, and if you and your daughter are in this situation, that leaves you and your daughter with a difficult choice of either leaving before the resolution of the appeal or motion or chancing the three-year bar being imposed if the appeal or motion is lost and the 180 days is over. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.

For the month of May, the visa bulletin of the U. S. Department of State shows that the F-2A category for spouses and unmarried children of permanent residents is available to those who filed prior to September 1, 2013. That means that it is presently taking less than 2 years for a permanent resident to sponsor such individuals for the green card. Although visa availability goes up and down, you may think seriously about having your fiancé/husband sponsor you directly off the green card.Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.