need advice

[dave61]

hello everyone, although this is my first post here i have read the forums for quite sometime now. hopefully someone can help me with a problem i have. i was just married to my russian lady on october 24, we married in russia in her city of kazan, i just filed the I -130 last week but i also want to file a k4 for her daughter, the problem is her daughter will turn 21 years of age in june.we are applying for the non imigrant visa which allows for two years before you have to apply for adjustment of status, however at age 21 the k4 expires and i do not know if there is time enough to get her daughter legally over here in the usa. if anyone has any ideas how to go about this i would really appreciate hearing them.

[Vaughn]

In the past, you would have been out of luck - as the marriage took place well after the
stepchild's 18th birthday, making her an ineligible beneficiary of a separate I-130. Now
she stands at least a chance, for she will "piggyback" on the I-129 (which IMO you should
file immediately after receiving your I-797 Notice of Action).

Worst case scenario: your wife, upon receiving her Green Card, can file I-130 on behalf of
her unmarried daughter over 21. My hunch is that you and she want to avoid this gameplan
considering the physical separation it forces...

I cannot speak to current timelines, but would suggest you browse around on visajourney.com
where there are attorneys who can respond with authority regarding your time crunch.

[dave61]

thanks very much vaughn for your reply and information, my wife has been very upset about this, her daughter is really incapable of taking care of herself alone in russia at the present as she has no job that pays well enough to support herself.

[tfcrew]

 
I cannot speak to current timelines, but would suggest you browse around on visajourney.com
where there are attorneys who can respond with authority regarding your time crunch.

I would concur with that.
Avoid applying for more than one petition at once or one may tend to step on their own toes there.

Good luck
Keep us posted ................Karl

[Muckraker]

She stands no chance of adjusting status in the US, at least as an immediate relative of the step-father, as the marriage took place before the child's 18th birthday.
 
What is your goal?  Simply to get the daughter into the US temporarily?  K-4 will do that, if you expedite it before she turns 21. Or is her green card of paramount importance? That will involve a long wait, how long depends on what strategy you take.

The K-3 route for your wife might actually double the daughter's timeline.  Her mother would want to shoot for category 2A for the daughter (child under 21 of LPR) by having the mother receive her LPR status at the point of entry, rather than after an adjustment of status process in the US.  Spousal IR petitions are taking about as long to process as the K-3 anyway.  2A is currently about four years for the priority date to become current.  2B (child over 21 of LPR) is currently eight years.  Child Status Protection Act would fix her age (where the age that determines the applicant's preference category is calculated by subtracting the number of days the application was pending from the age of the applicant on the date the priority date became current).  I don't see any good chance of your spouse getting LPR via the K-3 process before the daughter turns 21.  I think you have much to gain, and not much to lose, by foregoing K-3 altogether, assuming your goal is a green card for the daughter, and not just an entry visa.

Had you filed for a fiancee visa (did not marry the mother yet), and had the case expedited as an age-out case all the way through to adjustment of status occuring prior to the daughter's 21st birthday (ask an AILA immigration attorney how to do that) you would have been OK.  Even still, as a last resort, if the daughter were to age-out during the adjustment of status (according CIS anyway), you could have at least argued VEROVKIN (and like) line of cases (successfully arguing K-2 does not age-out).  See the threads in this forum about that, and note that our very own member Ronnie is the stepfather of VEROVKIN and prosecuted the case himself. I think that would have been your best bet, had you considered the immigration consquences of the marriage earlier.  I say this not to induce you to an annulment, but to perhaps make other readers aware if they are dealing with a potential step-child approaching 21 (or even 20).

Regards,

Muck

[BillyB]

Ronnie is the stepfather of VEROVKIN and prosecuted the case himself.

Dave61, click on the link below and send Ronnie a PM (private message). He's pretty knowledgeable on an issue like yours

http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?action=profile;u=787

[dave61]

yea guys, the situation does not look very good for her daughter. i called uscis yesterday and they basically told me my wife would have to petition for her daughter after she gained her permanent resident ststus. and that could take 6 years for herdaughter to get approved and she would still have to be unmarried to be approved. we probably should have went with the fiance visa instead of marrying in russia, but my wife thought this would be the best way for both of us. but now i am beginning to wonder, it seems there is twice as much paper work to fill out.   dave

[Enot]

After your wife gets her green card (which will take 2-6 weeks after she arrives), file an I-130 for her daughter.  My wife submitted an I-130 for her son last year and it was approved this year, it took 49 weeks.