Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	just wondering, if the reason for her being in Germany is to work on her Master's at a university there (where it's cheaper) could she arrange to do her course work/thesis work remotely on-line?   Bob, I have asked her about that possibility, but she has said there is a residency requirement for the programs she has looked at. However, I don't think she would view the master's degree as a stumbling block if we managed to work out a sustainable plan for her long-term presence in the US. The problem is, 1, our difficultly so far in doing that (not for lack of trying), and 2, the time that she has spent out of the country possibly making it a moot point altogether.    Hypnos, you have pretty much echoed our current thoughts. We are going to take the next few days to think on it, but we are agreed that the wisest course of action is to file an I-407 and abandon her GC, as symbolically heart-breaking as that will be. From what I have read, I believe she will still be able to visit me in the US, and even if not, it is just as easy for me to visit her, and I am free to move to Europe and eventually do a DCF, as you mentioned. Aside from the general negativity surrounding our situation, which is there no matter what we decide, I am hard-pressed to identify any negatives to going this route, whereas continuing to pursue ROC would carry significant risk and uncertainty. Since we don't have a plan by which to justify that risk, I feel better about her pursuing her goals in Europe and then revisiting a move to the US when things are more settled.   Again, thank you to everyone for your feedback. Feel free to continue to weigh in over the next few days if you see any problems with our current plan. We will probably begin the I-407 paperwork early next week.	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-15 19:02:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	Thanks for the confirmation, mimolicious. Not fun to hear, but we need to know the truth of the situation.   And thanks for the ideas, Victorian. I especially appreciate you pointing out that conditions would not apply to any GC in the future since we have been married more than two years. Though giving up a current GC is not ideal, it seems like going through the process again will be more straight-forward than it has been to this point, especially when we are ready to make this a permanent move. In my research so far, I haven't come across anything about getting blacklisted. In fact, my reading about the I-407 seems to indicate that, while the abandonment process is irrevocable, there is no issue with applying again. We'll just have to start over from scratch, which is not a surprise to us.	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-15 10:47:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	I did some research last night and found out about the I-407, which I guess is what you are referring to, Vicky. In light of that, I am fairly clear on the process of abandoning her green card and feel comfortable that we would be able to successfully complete the process again when that time comes. Yes, it may require a lot more time apart, but that is something we have learned to live with over the course of our relationship. Looking only forward with no regrets about the past, this seems like a doable option.   I guess the biggest remaining question is what would happen if we went forward with filing the I-751. In the research I've been doing, I am still not clear as to whether the government will view her to have abandoned resident status. It really seems like a tossup. I am going to give USCIS a call today to see if I can get to the bottom of it, but here is a breakdown of the time she has been here/gone since we got married. Maybe that will make the picture more clear:   America 155 days Germany 43 days   America 119 days Germany 149 days   America 23 days Germany 107 days   America 79 days Germany 131 days and counting   As you can see, she has never been out of the country for more than 180 days straight, but the numbers have become pretty lopsided recently, especially in 2013 when she was in the US for just 102 days total. If questioned on the matter, though, I do think we could make a decent case as to why this has been so. She still has many of her belongings at my house in Ohio, and I have filed and will continue to file her tax return. She did an internship in Ohio over the summer. I think there are plenty of things to illustrate that we've been doing our best to make this work, but will the government see it that way? That is what I need to answer before we spend $600 and book a flight.	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-15 08:48:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	If we assume for a moment that my wife would indeed be considered to have abandoned her green card, what would be the appropriate next step? Is there anything we ought to do with USCIS in the way of notifying them as to what has transpired, or do we just let her status expire and try again once we are ready to live in the US together? Do any forum members have experience with applying for a green card after having let the first one expire? If I could be certain that there won't be any large roadblocks in the future, I probably feel the most peace (if it is possible to feel any peace about this situation) in letting her status expire for now. I am still free to move to Europe to be with her, and we could try for another green card down the road when we get to that point. But I don't want her to be black listed or anything like that. Is that a concern?	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-14 19:43:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	Did she apply for a re entry permit for staying out of the us for longer than a year?   Vicky,   No, she did not. We did not intend for it to go on this long so we never thought to file for a re-entry permit. We would do that if we decide to live in Europe for her master's degree, assuming ROC is approved in the first place.	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-14 18:35:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	Thanks for your response, Vanessa! I'm not sure if that 1 year is consecutive or cumulative, but she has never been outside the states for more than 5 months at a time. Though she has been out of the country for quite a long time, we can honestly say that she hasn't intended to live in Germany permanently. She has gone back to take care of various obligations, and the time has stretched on longer than we wanted it to. We have continued to file joint tax returns the past 2 years. So, depending on how one interprets those requirements, I think it could go either way.	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-14 18:30:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	I-751: To file or not to file, and the ramifications thereof	Hi all. My wife (a German citizen) and I are approaching our deadline to apply for removal of conditions and we are in need of some advice. In November of 2011, we got married in the US and applied for an Adjustment of Status, which was approved in March of 2012. Since then, we have struggled to get our lives on the same page. We have been married for 26 months and have spent 14 of those months with her back in Germany and me in America. This has nothing to do with our love for each other and everything to do with finances and logistics. If details are necessary to assist us in our decision-making process, I'll be happy to elaborate, but for now I will spare the nitty gritty.    The main thing you need to know is that my wife is currently in Germany and has been there since last September. In fact, she has been in Germany for 12 of the past 16 months. Her preference at this stage is to have me join her in Europe so that she can work on her master's degree (cheaper for her to do there than here, as far as we can tell). If we do that, a green card is wholly unneeded right now, but we do intend to reside in the US eventually, so we would prefer to get conditions removed.    As I mentioned, however, finances have been an issue for us. We can swallow the $600 filing fee, but that $600 triples or even quadruples when you factor in her having to fly back to America on short notice for a biometrics appointment and/or interview. Even that we can accept, but it is more than a question of finances. Considering the amount of time she has been out of the country, I am concerned about the odds of her getting approved if we do file. I would hate to spend that much money only to see her get rejected due to the circumstances of our relationship over the past 2 years. And let's say she does get approved: is she in danger of losing her status if she spends another year or two out of the country pursuing a master's degree?   Knowing what we know now, if we had it to do over again, we almost surely would not have applied for the AOS when we did. That being the case, perhaps the smart move is to let her status expire and try again when our situation is more settled. Then my question becomes, how much harder will it be to try again? We would go the IR-1/CR-1 route, but would our earlier situation affect our chances with that? If we do decide to forgo removal of conditions now, is there some procedure we ought to follow to let USCIS know that we aren't just irresponsibly letting her status expire without a thought? And, on a less important but still significant note, would she have problems getting into the US just for visits?   I'm curious what all of you would do if you were in our shoes. I deeply appreciate any advice you are willing to share. If you need any clarification about our situation, please ask. Thank you!	davidb79	Male	Germany	2014-01-14 17:35:00