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Hi,
I'm from Germany originally. I'm currently in Denmark with my American wife. She was born in the US, but never lived there and doesn't have any family ties. We have a small child born outside the US. We want to move to the US. As I understand it, she needs to sign an affidavit of support. We're a single-income household. I'm the one making the money. My assets can count into the affidavit of support, and have to be counted as 3 times the poverty limit of our household size, that would be 3x $25k = $75k. We don't have this much money.
Now, there are two ways, as far as I understand:
1. Stay in Europe and save up the money
The question then is: How do we get her to be acknowledged as resident? Would it be enough to go to the US on our holidays and she opens up a bank account there? Is it this simple? Assuming we have the money saved up, how do we then actually get into the country? What steps do we have to take?
2. I'm a scientist, doing a PhD at the moment. I may be able to get a postdoc position in the US. The university would sponsor me for that amount of time I'm employed there. If I do that, what ways are there for me to stay in there after my contract expires? I'm probably not going to be able to save up the money on a postdoc salary. What options would I have? At least we'd be already resident in the country.
Also, my child was born outside the US to a citizen that has not lived there for more than a year. She's not eligible to immediately get a US citizenship. What do we do about that? How would that play out together with the other two options?
3. I've heard about the amnesty by Obama for illegal immigrants. Could I just get in through the Mexican border and apply for that?
I'm from Germany originally. I'm currently in Denmark with my American wife. She was born in the US, but never lived there and doesn't have any family ties. We have a small child born outside the US. We want to move to the US. As I understand it, she needs to sign an affidavit of support. We're a single-income household. I'm the one making the money. My assets can count into the affidavit of support, and have to be counted as 3 times the poverty limit of our household size, that would be 3x $25k = $75k. We don't have this much money.
Now, there are two ways, as far as I understand:
1. Stay in Europe and save up the money
The question then is: How do we get her to be acknowledged as resident? Would it be enough to go to the US on our holidays and she opens up a bank account there? Is it this simple? Assuming we have the money saved up, how do we then actually get into the country? What steps do we have to take?
2. I'm a scientist, doing a PhD at the moment. I may be able to get a postdoc position in the US. The university would sponsor me for that amount of time I'm employed there. If I do that, what ways are there for me to stay in there after my contract expires? I'm probably not going to be able to save up the money on a postdoc salary. What options would I have? At least we'd be already resident in the country.
Also, my child was born outside the US to a citizen that has not lived there for more than a year. She's not eligible to immediately get a US citizenship. What do we do about that? How would that play out together with the other two options?
3. I've heard about the amnesty by Obama for illegal immigrants. Could I just get in through the Mexican border and apply for that?
