I thought some people might want to share their thoughts and information about immigrating to the U.S.! Questions have been raised, and comments made, about issues relating to this on this forum; for example, in the context of a poster, U.S. citizen, married to a Mexican and having problems getting them into the U.S. This is also an attempt to move the discussion of U.S. Immigration off the "...working in Cancun" thread: both topics are worthy subjects, it seems to me, for those who are interested. Rawkus wrote: Yes, Rawkus, we do! We have the Diversity Visa Lottery in which people from most countries of the world can enter a selection process to be offered one of 50,000 visas, annually, to live and work- permanent residency- in the U.S. Here's where you can find more details, http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011instructions.pdf Anyone seeking information about this program should be sure they are reading only official, U.S. Government websites, such as the one above. Hundreds of small internet operators prey on those trying to apply. As you will soon see, the Diversity Visa Lottery is not open to Mexican citizens, nor to those of a few other countries which already send large numbers of legal immigrants to the U.S., annually. RANDOM THOUGHTS 1) Something I've observed through the years- should a U.S. citizen want to marry a Mexican, they would do well to arrange a "fiance" visa, which typically takes less than a year to get, and take their beloved to the U.S. to marry, where it will be a straightforward matter to obtain a green card for them, if they Desire to live and work, there. On the other hand, should they marry first, then apply for permission to go to the U.S., they will face years of waiting for permission to bring their Mexican spouse, family member, into the U.S. As I understand it, it simply has to do with the visa category for which you must apply: there are annual limits on the number of family member visas that are issued, but none on fiance visas. 2) If you're NOT planning to live and work in the U.S., it may be better not to apply for a green card, as one of the requirements, for a green card holder, is to reside in the U.S. You may not be out of the country as much as 180 days, or you risk not being allowed to reenter the U.S., even if you hold a valid green card. Further, should you be out of the country less than 180 days, but are spending the majority of your time out of the U.S., you may be refused permission to reenter, even if you hold a valid green card.
Well, you were right on one thing, it is far more efficient and time saving to obtain a fiance visa and marry a Mexican in the States...than to marry in the foreign country and then apply for permission. I may marry a Mexican woman, and whereas I can't speak for anyone else, we will simply deal with tourist visas for her, when and if the occasion arises. She has no Desire to ever live in the States, and I don't think her sons do, either. Right now, it's just too easy (relatively speaking) to get a tourist visa, and they are good for up to 10 years, from several countries. However that said, this is NOW and no one knows what the future might bring, and in later years, some might find they are glad they went through the hassle today. A more pertinent discussion, at least for the newer members of this forum, might be concerning the various advantages and disadvantages of the different immigration statuses in Mexico, beyond the FMT. Such as, the differences, advantages of the FM-3 versus the FM-2. Beyond that, residency versus citizenship. I have noticed that several members of this forum have suffered through the exam and gone all the way to citizenship, whereas on another forum in Veracruz, no one even mentions it. Residency is never even mentioned and I for one, would like to know peoples' views on this as opposed to citizenship. What are the advantages/disadvantages? Of course, comparing Veracruz to Cancun, is apples to oranges. I know of no one in Veracruz, who is trying to survive for multiple years on an FMT. Beyond that, a person here can walk out of INM with an FM-3 in a week, 10 days tops. Renewals take 30-40 minutes, and you pick up your new visa 3 days later. Point is, it's nothing like the horror stories in Cancun, that I have read about.
Apologies in advance as I am not trying to hijack this thread. I just see red every time US immigration comes up for discussion. If you go to http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011instructions.pdf you'll note that the English speaking citizens of the United Kingdom are specifically excluded from the lottery. Being married to an English woman I can attest to the thousands of dollars and years spent to get her US citizenship. Unfortunately, directly after getting her Green Card, the 9/11 attack struck and the entire INS (now unfortunately called Homeland Security) became a miasma of contradictory rules and changes in fees and paperwork. The time stretch was December 1997 to April 2005. The lawyer fees were many, many thousands of dollars. Our middle son, a British citizen, served 13 years as a military specialist, many times on loan to the US State Department in many Balkan, Middle-Eastern and African assignments, including providing protective services in Iraq and Afghanistan for key US and British military leaders and diplomats. He is about to return to Afghanistan again, working for an American company that was very eager to hire him, serving as an instructor. Despite all the service, despite his being my legally adopted son, he is ineligible to become a United States Citizen. When I was still working in Manhattan, weeding my way between all the Gabonese and Senegalese sidewalk sellers of counterfeit handbags and sunglasses, all of whom had Green Cards, while I was headed down to 27 Federal Plaza for yet another interview or hearing at Homeland Security, my attitudes hardened. It seems that educated, English speaking people are not wanted by the US anymore. Forgive me. End of rant.
IMMIGRATION TO MEXICO Windknot wrote: Which thread are we on?? Ok, ok, people will talk about what they want to talk about, and this is a forum: you take what you read here with a grain of salt and, if you want real advice, (sometimes) you can get it from a lawyer!! I'm going to start another thread, 'cause even though a lot's been said on this subject, it can be all gathered into a (more or less) convenient package. V.
We have some first hand experience with this, so here it is. Laura applied for a tourist visa to the US in 2003 (along with both of her parents.) It involved paperwork, fees, and an interview at the consulate. From the time her paperwork and fees were submitted, it was 9 months for her to receive the interview (at Guadalajara.) Both her and her parents were approved. Laura and her mother received their B1/B2 visa/BCC less than 30 days later and her father received his 3 months later -- but still in time for their trip. Laura's brother Mauricio recently received an H1-B visa after having a student visa and completing his degree. From the time of his graduation, at which time he applied for the H1-B via company sponsorship, to the time he received the H-1B was around 10 months. Including his lawyers, the whole process cost him over $4,000. As far as getting married goes, from my understanding and from conversations with our lawyer, it is far easier to get married in the US. So if your spouse has a tourist visa (and if not apply for a K1), let them visit (keeping in mind they need to convince the immigration agent they've already made plans to leave the country if not on a K1), go to the courthouse, file a waiver on the spouse not having a SS number, get the marriage license and that's that. You then have 30 days to file for the change of status from a tourist visa to permanent resident. Then you have the perm resident --> citizen process, which I'm not familiar with. Laura's oldest brother Tony, eventually achieved his US citizenship in this manner.
RISKY BUSINESS [I'll remind everybody, this is just a forum, where people give their opinions and understandings, and relate their experiences. If you want professional advice, see a lawyer!] Hi, Coby, the big difference, as I understand it, between going to the U.S. on a fiance visa, verses going on a tourist visa, is that the fiance visa is an "immigrant" visa. The fiance has already been approved to immigrate to the U.S.; and, more importantly, there is no limit of any kind on the number of immigrant visas available to fiances. Go in on a tourist visa, and this is not the case. First of all, you must apply for an "adjustment of status," a discretionary matter. Worse, an immigrant visa must be "immediately" available to the would be immigrant, or the adjustment will be denied, in any case. With Mexican Citizens, immigrant visas are not immediately available, there being a significant waiting list. (As I read the charts on this, the waiting list goes all the way back to 2003, the date referring to when the applicant was approved to immigrate, but no visa for their class has yet been available to them.) My suggestion that one should only consider getting a fiance visa, if it was their intention to live together in the U.S., was given with this circumstance in mind. More often than not, when things come to grief with immigration matters, it involved a failure to follow- for any reason (which can include simple lack of awareness)- the clear pathways established in the law.
Re: RISKY BUSINESS I'm not sure that the adjustment of status will be denied even if there is a wait on available immigrant visas -- for example it took Tony (Laura's brother) 7 months to receive his permanent residency after filing for the adjustment of status (this was in...2004?) The major stipulation of course, was that he couldn't leave the country during that period of time, or his application would've been considered abandoned or some such. Working during the wait period is also illegal and an easy grounds for deportation. Of the 3 Mexican-American couples I know that have done this (all since 2004), none of them have been denied, although the time for receiving the status change was as short as 30 days in one case and as long as 7 months, as mentioned above. I would be really interested to hear though from a couple who's adjustment was denied because of this reason. Also, if the person in question has a tourist visa, you must turn this in when applying for the K1 which means that for however long you wait, you no longer have access to enter the country. As far as I know, if the K1 visa is rejected, the tourist visa is not re-initiated automatically.
FAMILY SPONSORED PREFERENCES Very interesting. How confident are you that the visa they were given, in each case, was based on "family sponsored preferences," with no other considerations involved, on an adjustment of status from "tourist" to "immigrant"?
Re: FAMILY SPONSORED PREFERENCES I can only answer this being 100% sure in Tony's case; I believe the other cases were the same, but don't want to put any info forward without checking. Tony came into the US on a B1/B2 visa/BCC and married a US citizen (with claim from birth, not naturalization) who he'd been seeing for a couple years in a long distance relationship. I'm pretty sure it was indeed a family sponsored AOS (his wife was also pregnant, though I'm unsure how much that helps if at all) without any extra considerations and after the 7 months from filing of the AOS he received his green card. A few years later (sadly, I don't know exactly what year) he finished off the whole process and became a naturalized US citizen.
Thanks, Coby! Still interesting. Nothing totally surprises me, when it comes to immigration. Often, erroneous information gets circulated because even the people involved didn't fully understand what was done, and why; or, because details got lost/changed, in the retelling. But in the case of Tony, it sounds like you were close enough to the situation to have been aware of the exact details. What, exactly, was done, on the INS side of the equation, is still a mystery, of course.
