hi danielle, I want to keep my last name after i get married as its the only thing i have left from my father….do i have to change my last name to my husbands’ after we get married? will that affect my chances of getting approved for a green card?

Dear Danielle,
Thank you for your amazingly helpful blog and informative commentary. I am a US citizen living in Canada and my girlfriend of four years has been a US GC holder for the last 6 years. She has spent over 1500 days in the US in total.

After graduating, she got an 16-month internship that requires her to basically travel abroad as a translator/researcher for a newspaper. Although the position is technically based in New York, in reality she spends no time there. Since then (late June 2011) she has been back to the US one time for a three-week stay (in early December 2011, never having exceeded 6 months outside the country). She was not questioned at all by immigration officials. She is now planning a week-long trip home (her family lives in Texas and her mother and step father are US citizens) next month, specifically so that she does not exceed the 6-months of continuous stay abroad rule. Her current position will end in early October, after which she will return to the US and not leave again.

According to the travel schedule she has created, she will not spend more that 6 months abroad on any one trip, but she would have only spent a little over one month in the US out of the most recent 16.

She does not have a re-entry permit (as we just learned of this a few weeks ago), but she does have plenty of ties to the US (family, tax returns, insurance, doctor appointment records, dental, etc). I have read through your blog post on this issue carefully and I would just like to ask if there is anything particularly useful she should carry or say if she is questioned? Will this internship period affect her application for naturalization? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you!!!

Hello Danielle,
I just received my Green Card today. I was very disappointed when I saw they made a stupid mistake on it. The Country of Birth is supposed to be “Vietnam”, but on the card is “North Vietnam” !!!
My husband and I planned to go to Vietnam in May, 21 and we already bought the tickets. I already made an infopass appointment to ask them to replace a new one but they aren’t available until next week. Moreover, i don’t know if I have to pay any fee because this is definitely their mistake. And that i don’t know how long it will take to receive the replace one because I’m worried that if I don’t receive the replace one before May, 21, how can I go to vietnam without the Green Card??

Thank you so much and have a good day.

Danielle,

My parents have GC. They left the state at the end of 2008 for a short trip to China. During their trip in China, my dad was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. Subsequently it developed to liver cancer. Because my dad does not have health insurance in the state, he decided to receive medical treatment in China. Dad passed away last month.
My mom wants to return to US now. Since she is out of the state for more than 2 years, will she have trouble of entering the state? What can I do to help her re-enter the state and retain her GC?

Thanks

Lillian

Hello Danielle, Let me start by saying that I’m a huge fan of your blog! So I am a US citizen that has married a Chinese citizen that was in the US on a J1 visa. We’ve been dating for 2 years and have been married for 5 months. We have plans to have a big wedding in China with both of our families in Oct of 2012. However, 5 months ago, we had a very small ceremony and got a self-uniting (common in PA) marriage license and only had a few friends included in that ceremony and did not take pictures of the ceremony since we are planning another large ceremony in China. We have been very successful in doing all of the paperwork needed and will be having our interview in 2 weeks. We can prove that we are truly in love with each other and have been living together for about 1.5 years, have joint accounts, joint lease, ect. However, I’m now worried that our choice to have a small legal ceremony and not have any pictures of it will possibly cause us to get denied a green card. What is your experience with this? Am I just being overly worried or is there a good risk of getting denied because of this? I’ve read on a few other sites of other people getting married in front of a judge and not even having a ceremony and they got their green card. Any input is much appreciated. Keep up the great work!

Danielle God Bless you have this. I have a friend of the family who her and her family are my host everytime I go to the Philippines.I’ve known the mother of the family for a long time and her daughter since birth who is now married,4 kids,full time job,has a business,has a husband working at Carnival,etc. To extend my gratitude to them I invited her and her daughter to visit me and I would take care of the plane tickets and they can stay for free. In March she was denied. I’m assuming Embassy thinks she’s going to go with her husband but her husband rarely on land and truly works in sea. So now December her husband comes back after his contract ends she reapplys again with her daughter to come.Consul asked her few questions she answered appropriately but then asked about her husband.She stated he was in Phil & contracted ended.Consular said “But he’s renewing right?”She said “yes but it’s not a guarantee” then Consular assumed husband was sponsoring the trip & basically insulted her stating “I wanna believe you but your husband only make $7000″ your trip should cost $10,000 (which is way over priced his estimate).”She replied “HE’s not the one sponsoring my family friend will be the one (although she has enough to pay her own ticket but I offered so she can use her money for trip plus I stayed free board with them).Then without even checking 1 piece of paperwork he stated that her story was “UNBELIEVABLE.”I am more than capable of taking care of their trip and she’s capable of her expenses yet the US CONSUL did not bother to CHECK her docs for anything bank statements,title,birth certs for the kids,job paychecks stubs,etc. She offered to prove finances but he kept telling her “I don’t look at documents and your story is unbelievable.”I thought going there you should tell the truth on how you’re planning your trip but this Consul did not even bother to let her show her documents at all.First I wanted to ask is it because I am not related to her that he finds my invitation unbelievable? We even brought pictures of me with her entire family to prove they are more like family to me then my own.Do they think she’s going to stay because her husband will go back on the boat and she will stay with him when he’s in Miami and I all the way in NEW YORK? But he’s not even here the time she applied to go. Seems like the CONSUL collects the $140 time and time again but won’t allow her to give any chance to prove otherwise. I understand that the consul looks at everyone as if their intention is to immigrate to the US and each applicant must prove otherwise but is calling her story UNBELIEVABLE when it’s the truth and without letting her put any docs up for him to see justifiable? I guess it is and US EMBASSY really doesn’t care do they. More like a business. Any advice I’d appreciate sincerely.

Hazel

First of all, thanks for creating this forum to help all of us US-immigration-lost-souls.

I got married in January 2007 and ultimately could reach to my husband’s in May 2009; I got my GC which has a 10-year validity printed over it, in June 2009 while staying together at my husband’s place, who happens to be a US citizen. My sis-in-law had sponsored me at that time bcause he had lost his job during the great depression and could not get anything till the time I was there with him; he was surviving with his ‘unemployment bonus’ and maintaining his 3 kids who used to stay with his ex. Like many other people, driven by situation, we had a tough time and had frequent fights and as a result I left the country. Till that time, I am in my home-country. Now, after almost 2 years, I am thinking of going back again. Will it be possible at all? If yes, how should I proceed? Please guide.

Thanks for your time.

Hello Danielle,
Thanks for creating this forum. I am a US citizen and my parents have green cards, well, until recently. My father left the US for over a year and was denied re-entry last October. We am fully aware of the rules and our concern now is how this may affect the immigrant visa petition that he filed for my sister. She recently received a notice from the NVC to submit a copy of the biographic data page of her passport, birth certificate, photos, and a police certificate. Our guess is that these are required before she is invited for an interview at the embassy in Africa. We are trying to be proactive and do all we can to help her case. Since my dad was the petitioner on her DS230 application, he filed the Affidavit of support for her. I am listed as her Agent and provided my tax docs as proof that she will be under my care upon arrival. Is there anything else that I can do to ensure that she gets a favorable decision?
Sincerely,
Ob.

Hello My name is Amir
My mom has a green card holder since 2002, she left USA on april of 2009 to viist her illed mother, 3 months after her trip she was diagnosed with breast canser and had no choice than staying in Iran for treatment up to July of 2011 . she couldn’t ask for extention since there is no embassy in Iran. she arraived in USA on August with all medical docs translated .her Green card and passport was taken away from her. and she was given the court date for Oct 25th,which she attended and was given a choice to give up her green card or another court date will be set for July 2012.Do you have any idea what is she going to face, and if the medical docs is enough for her to be able to retain her green card . any advice is appreciated. Thanks

Hi my name is Gul,
My husband and I have a final hearing at the immigration court in Chicago for this coming march and We are almost sure that the judge will grant us our green cards. A couple months ago something urgent came up and I had to come to my home country with my three US Citizen children without letting the authorities know about it. My husband is still back there running our business. Since I don’t have a valid visa, I can’t go back. I really don’t want to miss our court date. Is there any way to get any kind of visa or permission to go back?
Thanks

Hi danielle, mi husband is a DV 2012 winner and we have our interview soon. The thing is that we have our B visa since 2006 (expires on 2016), and last year we wanted our son to be a U.S. citizen and so he was born in the U.S. We paid all of the doctors and hospital expenses (we were not an economic burden to us government and we did not overstay in the us according to our visa approved period). Can this cause the denial of the inmigrant visa? Can they void our actual B visa? Please give us your recommendations on how to act and what to say to the officer in order to increase our probabilities to get the inmigrant visa. Thank you!

dear
good day to you,
(lawyer fees for changing outh cermony date)

thanks

hello! my name is Hanna Bordan Little. I am green card holder.and it wont expire until september 2015. my question is, how am i going to be able to go back to the US since i have been here in Philippines for two years now? do i still have a chance to go back? my husband is there as well as my two children. i came back here because i was very depressed there and cant find any help without getting harmed.i felt i was emotionally threatened there. and when i came back here in october 2008, my sister sent me to school and i took a two year course as a computer programming.in march next year i will be graduating and i wish to go back to my family there in florida since they moved there this summer from ohio.please tell me what to do.i do need your help. i am looking forward for your response. thank you! God bless you!

hanna little