If I’m both a US and French citizen who has been living there for 1 1/2 years and my French girlfriend is now 3 months pregnant, how long can she come and stay in the US for?
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If I’m both a US and French citizen who has been living there for 1 1/2 years and my French girlfriend is now 3 months pregnant, how long can she come and stay in the US for?
Before she was pregnant our plan was to go to the US to stay for for a minimum of a year to visit my family and see if we both are interested in calling it home. We still would like to keep our plans now that she is pregnant and give birth to our child in the US. The problem is that she will be 5 months pregnant when we would like to arrive in the US and we need to be sure we can stay for about a year before she and the newborn can travel. What is our best option? What type of visa is necessary? Do we need to get married before or after arriving in the US?
Asked on September 27, 2014 under Immigration Law, New Mexico
Answers:
SB Member California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
She will not be able to come to the US for that long of a period of time as just a French citizen on a visa waiver which limits her stay for up to 90 days. At that time, you can get married and then petition for her permanent residence (green card) on the basis of the marriage. That will allow her to remain in the US. If she just wants to be able to stay in the US to give birth to your child, there is no visa that will allow her to do this. Also, if she overstays the visa waiver but does not adjust status to permanent residence, if she then departs the US at some point after the birth of your child, she will not be permitted to enter the US in visa waiver status and will then have to obtain a visa even for tourism in the future.
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