Immigrating to the US with Argentine spouse?

[Fooze]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone has experience with immigrating to the US with an Argentine spouse. I am a US citizen married to an Argentine woman and we have a 12 year old son with dual citizenship. My wife currently has a valid tourist visa.

We are trying to determine if it is possible to travel to the US and apply for permanent residency for my wife there, or if it's better to start the process from here in BA, which will take much longer.

Is there anyone here who's gone through either process and wouldn't mind me asking a few questions?

 

[sts7049]

i haven't gone through this, but did look into it last year briefly. if i recall, you have steps you should initiate first before entering the US. being already married i think helps you (or your spouse i should say) but the process is still lengthy.

 

[jbeas176]

i am an expert now. 1. travel on her tourist visa. apply for a green card here. her status will not change until immigration changes it. dont believe she cannot travel after she applies. 2. if and when her visa runs out, you can apply for a pardon. the pardon is usually good for 30 days. you need to state why, mother sick, and should recieve it within 30 days of application.3. again you will hear once you apply for the green card the visa is no good. not true unless immigration through notification her status has changed its still good. i made all the mistakes and believed what i was told. i would travel to the US and apply here. find a good attorney and pay him. 4000.00 for application, 500 for pardon when asked for and another 500 to attend the immigration hearing. 5000 total. pay it all up front. how good is your spanish? meetings will be bilingual and you need to understand both sides. i have been waiting for over a year. i am on whatsapp and you can pm if yoh want to talk by phone. everybody’s experience is different, just depends how busy they are. think i was delayed by the the gov because of the 500,000 venezuelians getting green cards. good luck

 

[jbeas176]

last note, my wife had 2 years left on her visa and believed it was canceled when she applied. she over stayed 180 days and her visa was canceled. back to the pardon

 

[jbeas176]

you really have me thinking. where were you married? that’s important because of all the certified documents that need to be translated. my recommendation is get married again in the US. should save alot of time and simplify the process.

 

[NoVegetables]

I just completed the process in December. I did it the long way. I’m a us citizen and my wife is Argentine. We applied for her green card while living in Argentina. The whole process from application to interview took 18 months. After the interview they give you two/three months to enter the US.

It was pretty painless. There is section in the application saying that the US citizen needs to reside in the US when applying. But you can just add a note saying that your intention is to move to the US together when they ask for proof of domicile.

When you enter the US if you pre-pay the green card fee, they give you your green card number at the airport and your physical green card gets to you in the mail in around 45 days. Also if you apply for an SSN card on the green card application you get that with the first 2 weeks after landing.

As I said we recently completed the process. So if you have specific questions I’d be happy to answer them.

 

[ben]

Full disclaimer, I have a close relative who is an immigration attorney in NY so that might cloud my thinking.
That being said, I do think anything related to US immigration should be handled by a qualified attorney. It is WAY too easy to make some small mistake and mess things up hugely, and fixing those mistakes then involves massive expenditure of both time and money.
Through the above family connection I simply know too many disaster stories. A not insignificant % of those stories involves fixing messes started by other lawyers who appeared to be more qualified than they actually were.

I have myself handled permanent residence in two countries, without any issues and without any outside help. But the US is a wholly different animal. Orders of magnitude more complicated than both those countries combined.

 

[NoVegetables]

I just completed the process in December. I did it the long way. I’m a us citizen and my wife is Argentine. We applied for her green card while living in Argentina. The whole process from application to interview took 18 months. After the interview they give you two/three months to enter the US.

It was pretty painless. There is section in the application saying that the US citizen needs to reside in the US when applying. But you can just add a note saying that your intention is to move to the US together when they ask for proof of domicile.

When you enter the US if you pre-pay the green card fee, they give you your green card number at the airport and your physical green card gets to you in the mail in around 45 days. Also if you apply for an SSN card on the green card application you get that with the first 2 weeks after landing.

As I said we recently completed the process. So if you have specific questions I’d be happy to answer them.

One more thing. If you have a scanner you can do almost everything online.

The only things that required you to leave your house were:
1. The medical exam. That’s happens at the very end of the process
2. The police report. They didn’t like the online version we had to actually go get this one physically

Document translation and legalization we did physically but that could have also been done online.

Everything else was done online through automated systems. They do provide a clear step by step guide https://travel.state.gov/content/tr...nt-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html. Though you might have to use a VPN to see it. Not sure why it’s not visible outside the states. It kinda makes no sense but I find that to be true for a few US government site. Everything else is pretty painless

 

[Fooze]

you really have me thinking. where were you married? that’s important because of all the certified documents that need to be translated. my recommendation is get married again in the US. should save alot of time and simplify the process.

We were married in Argentina, but also married in the US a few years ago. From everything we've been reading it looks like the safest way to do it is just to apply from here and put up with the unbelievable wait time.

The consequences of screwing it up could result in her never being allowed another visa at all and that risk is just too high for us. The first time she had an interview for her tourist visa, after asking all the standard questions, the person at the embassy said something like, "If you want a green card, make sure you start it from here. If you try to go to the US first and then apply, you'll regret it." From everything I've read so far, that seems to be a true statement.

 

[Fooze]

One more thing. If you have a scanner you can do almost everything online.

The only things that required you to leave your house were:
1. The medical exam. That’s happens at the very end of the process
2. The police report. They didn’t like the online version we had to actually go get this one physically

Document translation and legalization we did physically but that could have also been done online.

Everything else was done online through automated systems. They do provide a clear step by step guide https://travel.state.gov/content/tr...nt-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html. Though you might have to use a VPN to see it. Not sure why it’s not visible outside the states. It kinda makes no sense but I find that to be true for a few US government site. Everything else is pretty painless

I think this is what we're going to do. We have all the paperwork ready. I'm just waiting to receive my new passport. I realized just before we got started with everything that my passport was going to expire in March. I'm waiting to send everything in with a copy of the new one just to be sure they can't say that I filed it all with an expired passport.