Beach City, TX Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

Generally, a Lawful Permanent Resident (holder of a "Green Card") is lawfully authorized to remain in the U.S. (to go to college or for other reasons), notwithstanding whether her parents may depart. This is true regardless of whether the parents may intentionally (through renouncing their status) or unintentionally (through remaining outside the U.S. for an extensive time) terminate their Permanent Resident status. Additionally, depending upon when she became a Permanent Resident, the Lawful Permanent Resident daughter may become eligible to apply to become a naturalized U.S. citizen when she reaches age 18. Some immigration law firms, including mine, offer legal services on a "flat fee" basis so that a client will know the total expense from the very beginning, and a few immigration law firms, including mine, offer an initial consultation free of charge.

If your wife overstayed her authorization by at least 6 months, she could be subject to what's called the 3- or 10-year bar for unlawful presence. In such a case, she will be deemed inadmissible due to her past immigration violation but she can file for a waiver of the inadmissibility on Form I-601 by proving extreme hardship to you or her parents.

There is a new proposal regarding stateside waivers of inadmissibility grounds. It is not yet law. I don't believe there is any proposed change to the affidavit of support requirements, which you should note are in dollars, not pounds. The amount of income a sponsor generally needs to show depends on the household size.