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B1/B2 Change of Status for Wife??
Hi All,
This seems like a great forum to get answers from people who actually know whats happening. I want to find out if anyone knows what procedure I need to go through for my particular situation. I know nothing here is legally binding advice, but I'm just fumbling around in the dark maze that is immigration law and policy.
My Wife and I met 8 years ago through an internet personals ad. She is a South African with legal permanent residence (read FM3) in Mexico. In JAN 2003 she obtained a Tourist Visa to the US, and four months later in APRIL 2003, we got legally married in San Diego, California. I am a US citizen, and we currently still reside in Mexico, but are going to move to the States here in the next week.
My question is, it is possible, since we were married inside the United States, for us to live in the States and me to file an I-130, then she follow up by I-485'ing her tourist visa to a Permanent Resident? What I am trying to avoid is having to return to Mexico to go through a K3 application, since that is a real time taker. Will that work to just do everything *inside* the US? I know the K3's can do the status change once in, and according to the Federal Register post here:
Federal Register
They only specifically mention that any class of nonimmigrant visa may not change over to a K3 and Vice Versa. The rule mentioned in this register article is only applicable to K1-K4 visas, but in part they mention something to the effect that the alien spouse if already in the United States (implying on any form of nonimmigrant visa) may just have an I-130 filed on His/Her behalf and mention on the I-130 that the citizen need to simply put their local in the US if the spouse is already in the US. Would it be correct to assume that at that point, once the I-130 is in process, that we could then proceed to apply for a change of status (I-485) even during the pending I-130 app.
Does anyone out there know the specifics on this? Thanks a bunch for any and all info/advice/help you can give.
Wes
This seems like a great forum to get answers from people who actually know whats happening. I want to find out if anyone knows what procedure I need to go through for my particular situation. I know nothing here is legally binding advice, but I'm just fumbling around in the dark maze that is immigration law and policy.
My Wife and I met 8 years ago through an internet personals ad. She is a South African with legal permanent residence (read FM3) in Mexico. In JAN 2003 she obtained a Tourist Visa to the US, and four months later in APRIL 2003, we got legally married in San Diego, California. I am a US citizen, and we currently still reside in Mexico, but are going to move to the States here in the next week.
My question is, it is possible, since we were married inside the United States, for us to live in the States and me to file an I-130, then she follow up by I-485'ing her tourist visa to a Permanent Resident? What I am trying to avoid is having to return to Mexico to go through a K3 application, since that is a real time taker. Will that work to just do everything *inside* the US? I know the K3's can do the status change once in, and according to the Federal Register post here:
Federal Register
They only specifically mention that any class of nonimmigrant visa may not change over to a K3 and Vice Versa. The rule mentioned in this register article is only applicable to K1-K4 visas, but in part they mention something to the effect that the alien spouse if already in the United States (implying on any form of nonimmigrant visa) may just have an I-130 filed on His/Her behalf and mention on the I-130 that the citizen need to simply put their local in the US if the spouse is already in the US. Would it be correct to assume that at that point, once the I-130 is in process, that we could then proceed to apply for a change of status (I-485) even during the pending I-130 app.
Does anyone out there know the specifics on this? Thanks a bunch for any and all info/advice/help you can give.
Wes
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