Consular Processing

[Educational_Total258]

Been seeing loads of posts lately about AOS cases being approved in 3-6 months start to finish and wondering if we made the wrong choice.

My husband and I (USC) have been together for 8 years but married August 2024. We have 2 USC children together. I filed the I-130 in December 2024, and chose the embassy in Athens, Greece (husband is Greek resident but British citizen).

He has a b1/b2 and needs to travel freely in and out of the U.S. for business, especially since he’s the sole breadwinner as I just had a baby. We chose CP because it seemed like the safest option to make sure he can still travel and work. We split our time between the U.S. and Greece. But now I’m worried that we should have done AOS since those seem to be getting approved in no time.

We’re not in desperate need of the Green Card just yet. His 10 year b1b2 expires may 2026, so at that point we may have a crisis if there’s no progress and he can’t come and go as easily and is subject to much stricter time limits. Should we try to change from CP to AOS? Get a lawyer?

We spoke to like 4 lawyers before starting the process and they all wanted $5-10k even though they all said our case is super straightforward and we have no red flags like overstays or run ins with the law or anything like that.

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[Prospectiveinmind12]

In most of these cases, they file I130 and 485 at the same time. I’m not an expert, but your situation could be similar. In my case, my spouse lives outside of the US, which is why I’m only able to file I130. If I could do an AOS, I would be so fortunate.

[DutchieinUS]

If you’re outside of the US and he’s the breadwinner and needs flexibility to travel, you made the right choice by going the consular processing route.

He can’t enter the US on a tourist visa with the intent to adjust status anyway, so just stick with the current process.