How Divorce Affects Immigration
Marriage and immigration goes hand in hand in many countries all over the world. People become citizens just by the mere fact that they are married to the citizen of the country. Therefore, in case of a divorce the immigration in some cases is affected. Although immigration cannot be used as a factor of remaining in a bad relationship, you ought to think of the consequences that may fall on you once you have opted divorce. This article therefore will give you scenarios in which divorce affects the immigration of a person so that you can make a good choice for yourself.
Two years of conditional citizenship
Once you have married a citizen of the United States for example, you become a citizen of the United States by the mere fact that you have married the resident of the country. This means that you are required to become his or her spouse for two years before you can divorce him or her. This is because once you have divorced him or her within the 2 years of marriage, it will be seen that you were using the marriage excuse to become a citizen. However, after the 2 years, you become a full citizen of the United States and thus your immigration will not be affected.
Immigration based on the spouse
In case your residence or citizenship depends on the status of your spouse, you will be in deep trouble once you terminate the dependency of your two statuses. For instance, in case your spouse is a holder of H1B visa and therefore has the permission to adjust the status application and the priority date has not yet been issued. Any divorce or separation will affect your immigration status and thus disqualify you to be a dependent. Once this happens your options of obtaining, a green card is limited.
Permanent citizenship
In case you got a citizenship because you married a citizen of a country, it remains very hard for you to obtain the permanent residency in the country especially the United States of America. Your immigration status of being affected by divorce depends on the path that you followed to be a citizen of a country plus the time which you received the benefit due to marriage. You must prove without doubt that you didn’t use dubious means in using the marriage to the citizen of a country so as you can gain citizenship of the country you are in. however in case you are a green card holder plus a permanent resident before the divorce, it will never affect your immigration status.
Therefore, whenever you are thinking divorce it is good to think about your citizenship status in case you got it due to the marriage.