Border crosser spouse will need waiver for green card

Q AMy girlfriend and I plan to marry. She came here by sneaking across the border. Can she get a green card? I am a U.S. citizen.

Once you marry, petition for your wife. If U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approves the petition, she can apply for a waiver.

Your wife can get a green card, but because she entered without being admitted by a border officer she must return home for her immigrant visa interview. If she has been here unlawfully for more than 180 days, she faces at least a three-year bar from returning; 10 years if she has been here unlawfully for one year or longer. Fortunately, she can apply for a waiver of the “unlawful presence” bar and get an answer before she travels abroad.

To get the waiver, your wife must prove that her U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent will suffer “extreme hardship” if the family is separated. Under a program called “provisional stateside waiver,” she can apply for the waiver while in the United States.

If USCIS approves the waiver, the unlawful presence bar will no longer apply. If USCIS denies the waiver, she is no worse off than if she never tried to get a green card.

QI naturalized three years ago. I married my wife abroad in 2014. She immigrated in 2016. Can she naturalize after three years’ permanent residence? Can she apply before she has been here a full three years?

AYour wife qualifies under the special three-year rule for the spouse of a U.S. citizen, but she must wait until she has been with you in the United States for three years to apply. A permanent resident may apply to naturalize after three years permanent residence if he or she has been married to and living with the same U.S. citizen spouse for three years. The applicant may apply two years and nine months after becoming a permanent resident if, at the time USCIS receives the application, he or she has been married to and living with the same U.S. citizen spouse for three years.