+1-800-997-1228

Free Evaluation

Please click here to get started
Questions and Answers > EB-5 Requirements

How can I ensure a new spouse will qualify for permanent residency through EB-5?

I invested through the EB-5 visa program and my spouse and I have received our two year conditional residency. However, we are now going through a divorce. How will our conditional residency be affected, respectively, by the divorce? If I remarry in the near future, how can I ensure my new spouse will qualify for permanent residency?

Click here for a Free Evaluation

Answers

  • Avatar

    A Olusanjo Omoniyi

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    As of now, the divorce will not significantly affect your conditional residency. Actually, your focus should be on how you, as the main applicant, can ensure you meet the requirements for permanent residency. If you marry in the near future, all you need is to file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, for your new spouse in order to secure permanent residency. Advisably, consult an EB-5 attorney to ensure you can take appropriate steps in addressing these myriad of issues you raised.

  • Avatar

    Lei Jiang

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Divorce will not affect your current spouse. For your future spouse, you can add her/him to your I-829 or file an I-130.

  • Avatar

    Fredrick W Voigtmann

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    If you are divorced, your former spouse can still be included in your petition to remove the condition. You must file a separate I-130 immigrant petition for your new spouse, however, and that will be subject to the availability of immigrant visa numbers. Currently, there is about a two-year backlog in that category.

  • Avatar

    Philip H Teplen

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    You can include a new spouse in the I-829 application as long as you are married on time. Alternatively, if you marry later but prior to final adjustment, you new wife can qualify as a follow-to-join.

  • Avatar

    BoBi Ahn

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Generally, the former spouse of an entrepreneur, who was divorced from the entrepreneur during the period of conditional permanent residence, may be included in the original entrepreneur''s petition, or may file a separate petition to remove conditions on his or her own. The EB-5 visa covers any derivative spouses and children in the original petition. If and when you remarry, you can file an I-130 petition for your new spouse, as a lawful permanent resident petitioning for his/her spouse.

  • Avatar

    Lynne Feldman

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    She will not qualify automatically - you will have to petition for her in the FB-2a category.

  • Avatar

    Ed Beshara

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Under your circumstances your divorced ex-spouse may still apply for the unconditional permanent residency while your new spouse can also apply for the unconditional permanent residency.

  • Avatar

    Karen-Lee Pollak

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    The former spouse of an investor entrepreneur may be included in the I-829 petition or file a separate petition to lift the conditions on permanent residency if the divorce occurs after conditional permanent residency is granted. There must be an actual divorce decree. See 8 CFR section 216.6(a). However, the new spouse cannot be included in the application and the entrepreneur would have to file a family-based permanent residency application for the new spouse when the conditions on permanent residency are lifted.

  • Avatar

    Jinhee Wilde

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Your immigration lawyer who helped you in obtaining the conditional residency will be able to answer this question. If you get a divorce before you apply for the removal of condition, then your current wife will not get the benefit of the removal of condition and her conditional green card will expire. Likewise, if you get remarried before that removal of condition application gets filed, your new wife could be added to that application. However, if your new wife is not in the United States, then you will have to take additional steps to get her into the United States as your spouse under the conditional green card process before you file that removal of condition application.

  • Avatar

    Salvatore Picataggio

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    As the principal petitioner, your status will not be affected at all. Your former spouse may file for removal of conditions separately, as the former spouse has their own conditional permanent residency. The removal of their conditions will be the same basis in the U.S. project as your removal of conditions. A new spouse, for lack of better phrasing, may not be considered to have conditions to be removed. That is, you apply to remove conditions to the conditional permanent residency. The new spouse will not have conditional permanent residency, so you cannot remove conditions when you never had any! However, once you remove conditions and you are a lawful permanent resident, you can then get married and apply for the new spouse through the I-130 and I-485.

  • Avatar

    John J Downey

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Your spouse should obtain an immigration attorney to file for permanent residency. If and when your final divorce decree is received, you are free to marry after a certain period depending on the jurisdiction, and may then file for your new spouse.

  • Avatar

    Stephen Berman

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    If you are divorced, your spouse cannot remove the condition from her residency.