Moving to the US from CAN

Thanks for all your help!

You have completely misread your situation. The reason your wife does not need a nonimmigrant status (Cdns don't get visas) is because your wife is NOT eligible for non-immigrant visa, because you are a US citizen.

Therefore she needs to apply for Immigrant IR-1 processing before going down. She willl need to stay behind until this is completed.

Oh my... so there's no way for her to live in the US with me while the Immigrant IR-1 is processed? She can't come down at all???

This won't do - my wife has to be able to come down with me or else I'm not moving!

What other options are there?

What if she found a job in the US and they got her a work visa?

What about an educational visa?

Is there anything else?

The immigration IR-1 visa takes a long time to process from my understanding - up to a year...?

It's a catch-22. Unless she maintains ties in canada, she can't even visit you.
The only work visa she can get is H1 (not TN, or F1 or any other).

And she can't do Ir-1 unless you are planning to move down. You should have got this started the instant you wanted to move. She can onlhy visit you if she has full-fledged life in Canada.

One option is for her to "visit" wink-wink the US, and then apply for all her paperwork I-130/I-1485/I_131(AP) and if she wants to work I-765.

The trouble with that is that she really has to pretned that she is going on vacation, and then stay put in US for about 3-4 months while her paperwork goes thru. So there is a bit of subterfuge involved, and she would need to travel separately from you the first time, and look like she going on vacation.

And if you get caught lying--which may be minimal you can thank AGN for that advice! But keep in mind it does NOT affect AGN it will only affect you two as you wife may then face a ban. And yes people go that route and I'm sure most are succesful, but sure sucks if your not!! Visajourney.com has all the free advice on relationship visa. K1 if for unmarried people, and since your married for longer than 2 yrs, you would go for the Ir-1 Visa. Whole forum on that. Paperwork is fairly easy, its the waiting that can be a killer! It seems to be picking up, I saw 1 that finished in just over 6 months, maybe it was luck?? It recent history it has been in the 8-12 month range. I could truly care less on how you two get to the USA. I came in on a CR-1, perfectly legal, but I don't judge others. Just be aware if you get caught, its not going to be pretty. Her showing up with a carload of crap and saying she is just visiting, most likely is not going to cut it. Just remember your the one that faces the piper of things go wrong--not the people giving the advice.

And one can visit while the process is underway, but again its up to the port of entry (POE) officer. Ensure one has strong proof of ties to Canada (utilities, lease agreement, letter from employer, return airfare, etc etc) and yes sometimes that is not enough! But I know most Canucks on VJ have no problems. Ones that do tend to have no proof and some just run into am grumpy POE officer or they say the wrong word such as "live" and not "visit" Best of luck

hey, just trying to be pragmatic.

The poster seems unwilling to accept being apart for any period of time.

"Visiting" and subsequently adjusting is the only way to accomplish this.

It's a catch-22. Unless she maintains ties in canada, she can't even visit you.
The only work visa she can get is H1 (not TN, or F1 or any other).

And she can't do Ir-1 unless you are planning to move down. You should have got this started the instant you wanted to move. She can onlhy visit you if she has full-fledged life in Canada.

One option is for her to "visit" wink-wink the US, and then apply for all her paperwork I-130/I-1485/I_131(AP) and if she wants to work I-765.

The trouble with that is that she really has to pretned that she is going on vacation, and then stay put in US for about 3-4 months while her paperwork goes thru. So there is a bit of subterfuge involved, and she would need to travel separately from you the first time, and look like she going on vacation.

Hi Flames9,

If you think of any other options that we could explore, I'd love to know your thoughts.

AGN,

really appreciate your guidance/feedback thus far. I'm a complete newbie to all of this. THANKS!

hey, just trying to be pragmatic.

The poster seems unwilling to accept being apart for any period of time.

"Visiting" and subsequently adjusting is the only way to accomplish this.

I already described: she visits, stays, and file all her paperwork from within US.

her entry has to look like a visit. Risky.