I've been married to a US citizen for 3 years, we lived in the States for 2 years, i arrived to the states on a k3 non-immigrant visa. A year later my immigrant petition was approved, but i never filed for adjustment of status. Currently i am back to my home country, and would like to know whether it is possible for me to apply for a green card from my home country, since i've been married to a US citizen for over 2 years? Will the fact that i never filed for the adjustment of status and never had an interview or immigrant visa stamped in my passport create further complications? (one of the reasons for me going back to my home country was to renew my passport, since it was about to expire.)

Is your spouse with you? I'm not sure if you can reenter the US on your K-3 (is there an expiration date?) and then file for AOS or if you have to start the application process all over again.In theory you can apply for your GC from your home country, but do you plan on returning to the US? I'm asking because you have to stay in the US for a certain period of time per year and cannot be out of the country for over 6 months and reenter without reentry permit. Otherwhise your GC will be declared void

Re-entry permits are required prior to departure for absences over one year, not 6 months. If she did not AOS, wouldn't she have begun accruing out-of-status time prior to her leaving the country? 180 days would trigger a 3 year ban upon attempted re-entry.

thanks for your responds. i went to us embassy today, they told me that we'll simply have to start the whole immigration process all over again, so our options are either to file for k3 or I-130. however the last answer about being absent for more than 180 days resulting in 3 year ban, why is that? should i just go with what the embassy told me or worry about this 3 year ban?

Hi Nika

Sappyconifer was talking about 180 days of illegal presence in the US (lets say your K3 expired before you left, and you never filed for AOS) that would trigger 3 year bar.

Can you give us some dates? When you entered the US on K3 for the first time? is it still valid? K3 is good for 2 years and is a multiple entry visa.

Anyway, I am sure the embassy people took a good look in your situation and gave you a good advice. Can you do DCF ?

Dates would help, because I misread your first post and did not intend to confuse matters. I read your post to mean that you had been here on a K3 for 2 years and a year later the I130 was approved (equalling 3 years) and you left without doing AOS, meaning that the K3 was already past its 24 month expiration with no possibility for extension.

Thank you very much for all your responds, i was starting to get really worried.
dates. i entered on k3 on may 19, 2003, and was told that it was valid till may 19, 2005. i left US on march 31, 2005 and was planning to come back before may 19 and file for AOS right away, but it didn't work out that way, sonow i'm in armenia. so i did not overstay anything, and my entire stay in the states has been legal, right? My husband and i r discussing filing for another k3- but still haven't been able to get any advice whether it would be more reasonable to do the I-130?

And sorry for my ignorance, what is DCF?

DCF is Direct Consular Filing, some countries do it and some don't. If you can do DCF it is very much to your advantage. It used to be quicker to file file for a k-3 but now it is often faster to file for I-130. It's my understanding that you could apply for both and if the I-130 is processed first then drop the k-3. Being that it is so important I'm wondering why you didn't file to adjust status before.

i'll blame my ignorance, although i know that's not a very good excuse...

My husband called USCIS today to ask one more time about what we should do, some of the information they gave us was rather disturbing- they said that my case still might be open because the I-130 was approved last july and within the next 2 years it will stay open until i file for AOS- so now that i am out of the US i'll have to wait until the case is closed and then start everything all over again. this doesn't make sense though.

when i asked at the embassy here, they sent a request to USCIS on my behalf, told me they could not renew my K3, we'd have to file for a new k3 or I130 cuz since i left the country the case has been closed/aborted. now what shall we do? is there a way to find out whether the case is closed or not? also, even if the case is still open, is there a way/papers to file asking to voluntarily drop the case so that we can file a new one? i am really truly confused, would GREATLY appreciate any advise that i can get.

Lets brainstorm.. Many couples go for K3 and CR-1/IR-1 using the same I-130 (whatever goes through first). If it is true that your approved I-130 is valid for 2 years, maybe there is a way to use it now for IR-1 visa. Where is the I-130 located now ? Can it be re-directed to the National Visa Center? and then to the embassy?

The information you got from the embassy sounds more correct than the one from the USCIS.

Maybe it would be a good idea if your husband gets an opinion from an immig. lawyer.

it's what i asked him to do next week. The case has been forwarded to NVC, and it's still open, that's why they told me we couldn't file for K3 as long as the case is open, but what they said does not make sense at all- they said file for another I-130!!!! which means once you file for I-130 you also become eligible for k3, right? i can completely understand why there's a need to file for i-130 (i left the country, never filed for AOS) but doesn't that mean that they will have to CLOSE the old case to be able to open a new one?