fredlaw

1. if you are out of the US for over 1 year, without an advance parole, you can lose your green card when you try to reenter.

2. with the advance parole, filed before you leave the US you can stay out for 2 years

3. if married to a US citizen you can obtain citizenship at the 3 year mark but for any time out of the US over 6 months, most of the time you lived in the US does not count for the 3 year time period.

4. when you reenter the US and are ask where you live, if your answer is somewhere out of the US , yes, your "Green Card" can and in most cases will be taken.

5. if your Green Card" is taken you must then start the netire process over again, the same as the first time you applied.

6. i agree, homeland security( us immigration) and the state department (issues the visas) have no respect for each other and at times can be 100% oppsite of their answers. be careful

7 a 10 year visa is not automatic when you are married. both state and immigrations frown on a visa in lieu of a green card. if you are in the US and visit out of country and then reenter the US within just a few days, you may be denied a reentry using the 10 year visa. it's not really written in black and white about how long you must be out of the country but is up to the inspection officer when you try to re enter. the visa is much much cheaper and "uncle sam" wants all the money he can get. the visa is about $200.00 total and the green card is now about $2500.00 total.

8. i do this for a living so i keep pretty current

forgot one thing you must file within the jurisdiction where u live. california, vermont ect

someone mentioned to use both the I-129F and the I-130 both. don't do that use only one of th. using two forms may give you two seperate control numbers that will really screw u up later. right now the time from start to finsh is about 9 months with the I-129F and about 2.5 years with the I-130. the fees went up a lot on 31 july 07. the adjustment of status went from $325 to $1010.

make sure you have everything translated over there. here, i charge $25 per document to translate from thai to english. i tell everyone to have it done there but when they don't i charge a lot. INS is really clamping down on seeing your fiance'e within the last two years also. this just started

to have someone do the paperwork here is pretty expensive and as stated, follow directions and it can be done easy.

i do immigration law for a living

uner US law a visa is issued by the US State Department (Embassy). thst visa is valid for entry into the US until the expiration date on the visa. upon entering the US the determination is made by Immigration officers (homeland security) on how long an individal may stay. in most case the length of stay is 6 months unless something seems "fishy" then the length is shortened as to what the immigration officer decides. The date they must leave by is stamped or written on an I-94 which is stapled in the passport. if a visitor wishes to stay longer than the amount of time stamped on the I-94 they must submit an I-539 before the expiration date and submit it to INS.

the second question about the best visa to get for "his lady" is a regular tourist visa which is very hard to get from Thailand. Thai's seem to get lost in the US and "really" do forget how to get back to teh airport when their I-94s expire. i believe about 80% of visa applications are denied from Thailand. not right but its done!!!