Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with permanentresident

Just registered for Selective Service; can I still apply for naturalization?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:30:45 -0800

I'm 25 and a Permament Resident of the United States. I want to apply (and am eligible) for citizenship. Stupidly, I neglected to register for Selective Service until now. However, I was able to get my registration processed before my upcoming 26 birthday (the absolute deadline for registration). Can I apply for citizenship, or will I not have the requisite five years of good moral character, since I haven't registered until very recently?

Can't remember trips for citizenship application

limon — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:15:20 -0800

US permanent resident, applying for citizenship. I've made many brief road-trips to Canada over the past five years to see my family and can't possibly remember them all. There are also two trips to Europe I can't precisely date. The citizenship application requires that I report all trips out of the country. What should I do? I really don't want to wait another five years for citizenship. Can I ask to view my entry/exit record with USCIS so as to be able to reconstruct my travels on that basis? Is there a better way to do this?

Australian Migration Agent Needed - good with Creative Industries

divabat — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:28:22 -0800

Where can I find an Australian migration agent who's good with the creative industries, or otherwise unusual career paths? I'm finishing my Creative Industries degree (one month then it's over yay!) and am considering getting permanent residency. My main obstacle right now is declaring a Skilled Occupation for the General Skilled Migration visa.

My degree is an Interdisciplinary one, which essentially means it's a hodgepodge of stuff that doesn't necessarily fit neatly into one job title. My submajors are CI (Arts) Management and Creative Writing. My current work placements and past work experience were usually with non-profits and/or young people, so I'd love to claim Youth Worker as my "skilled occupation" - however, the accessing body only looks at your degree, nothing else, and I don't have a Social Work degree.

Most of the skilled occupations on that list don't even apply to my degree; the ones that do don't carry any points. Considering I need 120 points, and the job carries at least 40, this will be an issue. Even if I do opt for the temporary bridging visa (to make up for lack of points), I still need to declare an occupation to work in exclusively for a year.

What I need now is a good migration agent or lawyer that is experienced with dealing with unusual occupational/degree cases like mine. They would be able to look through my course transcript and figure out which high-value skilled occupation I best fit, or find some other way for me to fit in. My dad has a friend who's a migration agent but he proved to be useless. I'm not sure if my uni's Career Service would know much about visas and migration, but it's worth a try. I don't know of too many others that could help. The one person I can think of in a similar situation to mine (originally a German student, now the Marketing officer for the youth arts org I'm interning at) has a sponsored work visa - that's also an option, but that depends on a company willing to sponsor me for a while.

Where can I find such an agent? I'm Brisbane-based but anywhere in Australia is fine. Do you know of any good agents, or resources for agents? Would any artsworker websites be good with this aspect too?

Something kinda like the Peace Corps, but not?

carpyful — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:34 -0800

Alternatives to the Peace Corps for a non-US Citizen (Permanent Resident) living in the US? I am a recent college grad who wants to go abroad and hopefully work/volunteer for a good cause. I was looking into the Peace Corps, but two issues came up:

1. 27 months is a long time :x I am ideally looking to commit 12-18 months.
2. I live in the US, but I am not an American Citizen. I am a US Permanent Resident with a Brazilian passport.

I like the fact that the Peace Corps does good for the world and the fact that they provide you with living expenses, student loan deferment, and other benefits.

I was wondering if there are any programs that I can look into that fit what I am looking for.

I've been looking into the Americorps and I am interested in their program, I was just wondering if the hive mind could perhaps suggest programs I've never heard of.

So is there a program that's right for me, or am I SOL?

Will USCIS visit us at home?

Anonymous — Fri, 04 May 2007 16:43:38 -0800

I'm a 2 Year Green Card holder married to a US citizen (I came on a K1 Visa). Now we're filing I-751 - Removal of conditions on permanent residency. Will USCIS visit us at home to see if there's I came to the US to be with my wife two and a half years ago on a K1 fiancee visa, and now have a 2 year conditional Green Card. The card expires in 90 days, and we're filing to have the conditions removed and get my 10 year Green Card. We are familiar with the process, have all our ducks in a row and papers in order, and know there may be an interview. Our question is whether USCIS will/may visit us at home without warning.

I read a couple of immigration newsgroups and I don't see any discussion of the possibility of a surprise 'marriage proving' home visit. However, I do see the odd anecdote, often almost in passing. I can't find anything to point to right now, but a poster will say something like "He was very nice, as was the gentleman who came to our house without notice early one morning to check we were really married..." I'm worried this is common, as the rare, scary stuff that happens to folks gets discussed ad infinitum.

So how likely is this? Our marriage is totally, awesomely genuine, but that doesn't mean we have nothing to hide! We don't have kids and tend to leave porn and various interesting sex related items around. I don't know exactly where 'passionately married' stops for USCIS and 'bad moral character' begins. Some of these items might also be 'gender non-traditional'. Please don't say 'why not just hide the porn?' unless you think it is likely they will come; I'm not going to sanitize our lives for a year plus unless I have to. I also work away from home often, potentially for a week or two at a time. I know that's not going to look so good to a marriage inspector. So does this really happen? What will they do if they come?

I would also love to hear I-751 interview experiences, but I guess that's straying into chatfilter...

Please respect that I have legitimate reasons for posting this anonymously (that are not fully covered above) and we are NOT trying in any way to defraud the immigration process.

Ways for an American to become a permanent resident or citizen of the UK?

Mayor Curley — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 06:56:11 -0800

UK immigration: My cousin (an American) is investigating ways that she can become a permanent resident or citizen of the United Kingdom. Does the UK have a repatriation scheme? I have records to prove that she's the direct descendent of a dozen English-born people, but the real number is at least in the hundreds and can be documented with a little legwork. Unfortunately, they came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony nearly 400 years ago.

We have another cousin who will eventually be a citizen through marriage, but that's probably years away. Could the naturalized cousin eventually sponsor the cousin in question?

Or is there a better option than either of these?