Please find below another installment in our popular regular series of frequently asked questions about immigration law. Although most of these questions have come from real clients of Spar & Bernstein, we have also included questions from other resources for your benefit. Please note that the answers here are to be used for guideline purposes only, as the questions are specific to a particular case and may not necessarily be the best advice for YOUR situation.
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Question: My niece is in Jamaica, and I want to adopt her and bring to America. She is now 17 years old. What steps do I need to take to adopt her and bring her here?
Answer: In order to adopt and bring your niece and have her be considered your child under the immigration laws, you must have adopted her before she turned 16. You cannot adopt her now and bring her to the United States as your child. Please seek advice of one of our attorneys as we may be able to discuss other possibilities for your niece’s immigration into the United States.
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Question: I am a US citizen married to a Green Card holder. I married my husband in 1996. He went home to Pakistan to take care of my father-in-law. Due to some unforeseen situation regarding his illness, he ended staying there longer. His father had to get a kidney transplant and had some other major health issues and was not expected to survive. Thank god, that is no longer the case. However, it has been almost three years since he has been there taking care of his father. He wants to come back home now that his father is recovering and doing ok. What can be done to get him back home? What does he or I need to do?
Answer: I’m glad that your father-in-law is now well. Unfortunately, your reunification with your husband in the US will take a few months’ time. Unless your husband filed for a re-entry permit which allows a Lawful Permanent Resident to absent himself from the United States for an extended period, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service will consider your husband to have “abandoned” his lawful permanent resident status. For him to re-enter the United States, you would have to re-file for him. Upon the completion of the petition process, he will be called for an interview at the US Embassy in Pakistan and be given an immigrant visa.
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Question: I am a US citizen. I’ve had a long distance relationship with my fiancee, who I just asked to marry me. I met her on my vacation to Ochos Rios about three years ago. Since then, I have been going back and forth to Jamaica to spend time with her. She has an eight year old daughter. I want to sponsor them both to come to the US. I want to file a fiancee visa for her. Can her daughter come with her as well?
Answer: Since you have met your fiancee within the last two (2) years, you can file a fiancee petition on her behalf and her daughter can accompany. Your fiancee would enter on a K-1 visa and her daughter would enter on a K-2 visa.
To do this you must file Form I-129 with the immigration service and provide proof of your bona fide intent to marry. You can do this by submitting copies of emails, letters, phone records, and plane tickets – anything to show that the two of you have a legitimate relationship and that this will not be a marriage of convenience.
