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I hate to make a thread but I keep seeing all kinds of conflicting information
I, my Canadian (Quebec) wife, and her son (13) are planning to move to the US as soon as we can manage it, partly because we just want to move, partly because my father died last year and we're wanting to help get my mother situated. We have been married for 4 years and I have been a legal resident of Canada for since 2015. There's so much conflicting information out there. For a time it looked like direct consular filing would be an option but apparently it's not since there's a notice at the bottom of the DCF page saying it doesn't work for canada.
From what I can see on the US government website and various other sources, it appears that we can enter through legal means, then file the I-130 and I-485. However this may create a chicken-and-egg situation because I'm not able to have a US job until AFTER we go. Also I obviously won't have any US income taxes as proof of my ability to sponsor them. I assume pay stubs or other evidence would suffice.
And would this situation make a K3/K4, non-immigrant visa a preferable addition to the process? Also, if we went this route (filing for a non-immigrant visa), can we file just the I-130 and non-immigrant visa first. And how long does one generally have to file the i-485 after (Or is it all at once)? While doable, if I had to pay all of those fees, I'd really prefer to file the much more expensive i-485 after the other processing was finished so we'd have more financial flexibility over the waiting period.
Any advice would be appreciated, especially from people that had/have similar conditions. We're just trying to figure out how this is going to work, how long we would (likely) have to wait given our circumstances, what order/timing we need to have on filing the forms, etc.
I, my Canadian (Quebec) wife, and her son (13) are planning to move to the US as soon as we can manage it, partly because we just want to move, partly because my father died last year and we're wanting to help get my mother situated. We have been married for 4 years and I have been a legal resident of Canada for since 2015. There's so much conflicting information out there. For a time it looked like direct consular filing would be an option but apparently it's not since there's a notice at the bottom of the DCF page saying it doesn't work for canada.
From what I can see on the US government website and various other sources, it appears that we can enter through legal means, then file the I-130 and I-485. However this may create a chicken-and-egg situation because I'm not able to have a US job until AFTER we go. Also I obviously won't have any US income taxes as proof of my ability to sponsor them. I assume pay stubs or other evidence would suffice.
And would this situation make a K3/K4, non-immigrant visa a preferable addition to the process? Also, if we went this route (filing for a non-immigrant visa), can we file just the I-130 and non-immigrant visa first. And how long does one generally have to file the i-485 after (Or is it all at once)? While doable, if I had to pay all of those fees, I'd really prefer to file the much more expensive i-485 after the other processing was finished so we'd have more financial flexibility over the waiting period.
Any advice would be appreciated, especially from people that had/have similar conditions. We're just trying to figure out how this is going to work, how long we would (likely) have to wait given our circumstances, what order/timing we need to have on filing the forms, etc.
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