Legal Question in Immigration Law in Utah

Hello, I am a US Citizen and my ex-husband is a British Citizen. When we met in 2006 he was here on a 2 ( or 3, can't remember)year conditional permanent residency visa. He then was able to remove the conditional and just get a 10 year permanent visa. We married during this process and had a daughter in April 2010. We then divorced in early 2011 but decided to get back together in 2012. We never re-married, just lived together with our daughter. He was offered an excellent job back in England so we decided to take our daughter to England and live. He had to give up his permanent residency in the US as a condition of his employment back in England. After 6 months in England, I was miserable and very homesick so I came back to the states with our daughter. Our understanding was that he would soon be able to follow, but we were then told by an USCIS employee that the only way he can come back to the US is through marriage or a work Visa since our daughter was only 2 at the time and could not sponsor him. I am wondering if we have any other options? We have now been back for about 6 months and my daughter misses him terribly, but I just cannot commit to marriage.

Thank you for your time.


Asked on 11/19/13, 8:13 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Marlene Hemmings Marlene Hemmings, Attorney at Law

It is unfortunate that he relinquished his U.S. Permanent Residency. Too bad he did not get legal advice first, since he should have just obtained a re-entry permit instead.

However, now that he has no legal status in the U.S., you two would need to get re-married, so that you could petition him for U.S. legal permanent residency. If not, your daughter would need to be 21 years old to be able to petition him.

Another more difficult, lengthy & costly option is for him to be "sponsored" for U.S. permanent residency through employment.

There are always employment-based non-immigrant visas, but they would only give him temporary legal status in the U.S., assuming he qualified for one, and had a U.S. employer-petitioner.

Good luck to you all!

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Answered on 11/19/13, 10:22 am


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