Canadian Family wanting to move to L.A

gharibians
New Member



Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Richmond Hill

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:47 am

 

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We are a Canadian family and we would like to move to Los Angeles, my husband has a lot of family there, we would like to buy a house and start a business before we go and move there, will this make it easier for us to get the green card?

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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 506
Location: Calgary

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 9:22 am

 

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No, not really. Having a business there will help you get a visa but not permanent residency, although if you get an E-2 business investor's visa you can get permanent residency from that. Alternatively if you've already got a business set up in Canada you could open a subsidary in LA and do an intracompany transfer on an L-1A or an L-1B, this is the simplest from a paperwork standpoint but they're only valid for seven or five years respectively.

The simpler but possibly more long-winded approach is to go in via family reunification. If your husband has close relatives in LA who are US citizens (or in some cases, permanent residents) then they can sponsor him, and he can bring in his family with him.

The relative has to be from the immediate family, parent, sibling or child. Different relationships have different preferences, all of those will be quite a long wait, i.e. parent sponsoring adult child, adult child sponsoring parent, or sibling sponsoring brother (this last category has to be US citizen).

The longest wait (fourth preference) is for sibling, you have to work it out mathematically based on (a) how many people are ahead and (b) how long they are taking to do each application, within the quota limit. I figure at the moment fourth preference is an eight and a half year wait based on the current processing time in the visa bulletin, however, that could get longer if more applications are received in the other three higher categories. Also, the immigration reform bill that was in Congress would have abolished the fourth preference category, although they will grandfather in current petitioners, if and when they get around to abolishing it.

Although it takes a long time it is a relatively straightforward application procedure, you basically file an I-130 petition with copies of birth certificates to prove the relationship and then wait for the visa number to be assigned and then you apply.

The US immigration system is heavily biased towards family reunification rather than employment-based immigration unlike other countries where it's usually the other way around. Paranoia about losing jobs to foreigners being the main reason. The immigration reform bill is supposed to re-balance it somewhat but I think it will be a couple of years at least until Congress gets around to it.
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Steve.

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