Question: How can my child who will be studying abroad receive his green card? Question Detail: I plan to apply for the EB-5 visa, but my son, who is 18 years old, will be studying medicine for the next six years in Europe. Will he get his green card if he does not reside full-time in the United States? Would he be eligible if he visited us during his vacations? How can my son also receive his green card through EB-5?
Answer:
Your son may study abroad and receive his green card as a derivative dependent child on your EB5 visa. Your first concern is to apply early enough so that your son does not reach the age of 21 years before your application is approved and a visa is available to you.Currently it is taking 13.8 months for the USCIS to process the I-526 Form, the application for an EB5 immigrant visa. In a previous Answer to an F1 Student, I have discussed processing times and availability of visas and refer you to that Answer on the EB5 Investors website for more detail. Assuming your EB5 application is approved and a visa is available to you, your son would likely process through the U.S. Embassy in your national country, enter the U.S. as a conditional permanent resident and then apply for permission to return to his U.S. domicile following some time abroad.The document is “advance parole”.After applying, your son must wait in the U.S. until his or her fingers are printed and then may be in Europe for two years.After two years, he must return to the U.S. to renew the advance parole. In our firm, we prepare the application for advance parole and file it as soon as the student arrives at the airport in the United States. That way, a minimum length of time is required before the student returns to his or her studies. Generally the process is timed to match breaks in the study year.Depending upon school breaks, some student clients return for seasonal breaks and are not out of the U.S. for six month or more at any time. In that manner, the student does not need advance parole. With or without advance parole, your child will be able to come and go as a U.S. permanent resident and visit you as his medical schedule permits. He is not required to be physically in the U.S. full time, but the U.S. must be maintained as his domicile to which he intends to return from abroad.
Attending an interview to remove the condition from your son’s status is the only other time he must be in the United States.Assuming application approval and availability of a visa, your son, like you, would have been granted U.S. conditional permanent resident status on entering the United States. Prior to the second anniversary of having entered the U.S., you and he must apply to remove the condition.Some months after applying, the USCIS will schedule an interview to meet to determine that that you are eligible to have the condition removed. Your son will also have an interview scheduled. It is possible to reschedule an interview if the appointment cannot be met. But, simply failing to attend an interview would cause the conditional status to expire by law resulting in no U.S. status. We express to you and your child a welcome to the United States, assuming your investment goes as planned.
