What limitations or restrictions come with sponsoring a new wife to the US

[manofthecoldland]

   My 70 year old friend is considering marrying a young Filipina after he brings her to the USA on a fiancee visa. He has been coming here to escape the northern winters for the last 12 years, with nearly 6 month stays. I asked him if it would then restrict his ability to spend his winters here, and he said he didn't know. He hadn't bothered to find out but just figured that he could bring her back and forth with him.  I told him I had my doubts. Most of our friends who have Filipina wives stay put in the USA until the wife satisfies green card requirements or obtain US citizenship before returning to the PI after a few years for a brief visit, so he will perhaps be in uncharted waters if he erroneously expects his annual long term stay here to continue after he marries and sponsors a Filipina wife to the USA for at least a few years while she fulfills her new immigrant status obligations.

   If anyone knows more about this, or where on the US immigration site or other legal web sites I might find this info, I would appreciate it and pass it on to him. I have done a cursory search, but located no details as of yet, but I do recall from the mentions of other Fil-Am friends, that some do exist.

   He hates northern winters and their attendant incurred costs of winter living at his age. He also lives on $1500/month and lives in efficiencies with no A/C while here, skimping on everything (Yes, he is a regular Mr. Koriput eating at carendaria's and staying at P 600/night places on his visa runs, preferring ferries to jets, to save on excess baggage fees, and taking jeepneys when possible.)  In the event that he income qualifies to bring a young woman to the USA, I doubt that his life of cheap and easy winters in the PI will continue.  But he thinks he can pull it off with no evidence to the contrary, optimistically dreaming and hoping with willful ignorance at this point.     

   If anyone knows or remembers about a new Filipina wife's restrictions or complications on leaving the USA the first years after marriage, while fulfilling her legal obligations please inform me so I can advise him as to what he may be facing.  Perhaps he thinks he can leave her at home in the US and come here alone in the winter for 2 or 3 months, but I told him that he will probably be financially and personally responsible for her, if that is what he is considering.  

  Any thoughts, opinions or hard facts ?  

 

[Snowy79]

I think his first issue will be getting any type of visa depending on the age difference and even with the visa, getting past immigration at the airport on the way out.  If there's too big a difference they will get questioned before she gets near the departure gate.  I took my partner to Cambodia just for a few days and she had to answer a few relation based questions before being allowed past security.

I read the USA has stopped certain work visas for Filipinos as the tended to disappear after landing so I'm sure they are clamping down. 

[Old55]

Six months rule if I remember correctly. She must not be out of the States for more than six months every calendar year until citizenship.

 I doubt it makes any differents in this case he hasn’t enough income to be approved.

Young Filipina wife 70+ broke man living in States. 😆 

[Yeochief]

Olivia and I got married on 16 January 2017 in the Philippines.  Had all of the paper work ready to go before that (USCIS also the U.S Embassy web site in Manila).  She got approved and arrived at the end of September 2018.  Got her Social Security Card within 10 days of arrival and Green Card within two weeks.  But it took right at 20 months from the time we got married and submitted the paper work.  Very long process.

[Joey G]

 

Leaving the country BEFORE you get a green card will cause problems.  

I don't know why immigration at the airport in the Philippines would care much on the way out, because the hoops the Phil govt will put you through to get to that point is where they would get involved. But if one thought that an "age difference" at the airport would be an issue, then go through separately... it's not like they would know who you are unless you broadcasted it.

Last point... getting through the US side of interview in Philippines may be the place she'll really get some questions about the age difference... not that it's impossible... people do it... but they will ask.

Good luck !

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Old55
Removed link

[Reboot]

Hi manofthecold.

I brought my wife here on a K1 fiancee visa. She arrived May 2017. A few months after arrival, she had her temporary status card granted while we waited for her green card. That  temporary status included advanced parole which we applied for, meaning travel outside the US was permitted. So we were able to travel to the Ph the summer after she arrived no problem (2018), where we had a wedding ceremony (we were legally married in the US not long after she got here but didn't have a proper wedding till we went back to her home).

She just got her green card last week and we will be back in the Ph this summer for our second visit since she came. The best place I've found for help with these issues is a website called VisaJourney.com. I also have an excellent lawyer I hired who has been through this process personally (his husband is from Poland) as I was very cautionary about this process with the current administration being strict with immigration.

I can forward info to you if you like.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Reboot

[earthdome]

I concur that with an income of $1500 per month he will not meet the financial requirements for the visa unless he can get a cosponsor. But even if he were to get a visa his new wife will be required to have health insurance which is getting pretty damned expensive in the USA. Regarding travel back to the Philippines, you don't receive your permanent resident green card until you have lived in the US for 2 years, the one she would receive would be a temporary green card. With the temporary green card immigration can deny her entry. A rule of thumb I read was that it is ok to leave and return on short vacations but if she is out of the US for more than a month or two she could get denied reentry.

[manofthecoldland]

1 hour ago, Reboot said:

I can forward info to you if you like

Thank you Reboot. Additional info will not be necessary, but thanks for the kind offer.

I have taken a look at the web site you  mentioned and will convey it to him in the hope that he will start researching more actively.  Back in the early nineties, he married a 40 yr. old Pinay that he met here and brought her to the USA. The marriage was a mismatch and ended after 10 years. Being a Philo-phile, he came back for more since he loves the country, but once burned (his opinion) his future relationships went nowhere.

He indulged in the usual skull-duggery at the time to get that wife an annulment here, Then he did the paper chase to bring her to the USA, as well as her two sons.  This time, facing a lonely and feared old age, he decided to pay $500/P 25K to a Cebu immigrant visa aide outfit, who would alleviate him of dealing with the finer points, but has not much done on his own to move it forward.

I think it best to just let him hit the roadblocks if he persists, since he knows that he probably won't income qualify. Well versed in the standards of corruption and duplicity sometimes employed here to get around rules and regs., he has somehow gotten it into his head that this outfit can help him 'fix' and skirt the obstacles to get what he wants.  I told him, "No. Don't go down that path.", but he's a stubborn and sometimes foolish fellow. 

You know how it is when you offer friends sound. rationale advice from an outside perspective. Their thinking is often more emotion driven than realistic, and the advice goes unheeded.  I think I will just let nature take its course after I convey the web site you've provided.... step back..... and mouth the usual sympathetic platitudes of first aid when and if he crashes while tilting at windmills.  I usually do that for him since he is a close and long-time (45 yrs) friend.  

Edited February 27, 2019 by manofthecoldland
omitted word

[Gary D]

It's the girl I feel sorry for.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Gary D

[Clermont]

3 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

  I think I will just let nature take its course after I convey the web site you've provided.... step back..... and mouth the usual sympathetic platitudes of first aid when and if he crashes while tilting at windmills.  I usually do that for him since he is a close and long-time (45 yrs) friend.

Yes Jim, that is about all you can do, no doubt it will end that way.