Sorry this is more of a just calm my nerves type thing regarding changing resident status.
I married my wife (Japanese) at the beginning of the year and am submitting an I -130 within the week to start the green card process for the US. This is because with my job I’m expected to eventually return to the states.
My timeline is submit I-130 in April, current wait time is 13 months so receive her visa in May 2025, and go back together towards the end of 2025.
Right now I’m on year 2 of a 5 year intra company transferee, so even though we married I haven’t switched my visa status to spouse.
Of course it’s all good faith with my company that I can stay until next year and while I’m on good terms and everyone says I’m on the right track, as we all know with big companies management changes and promises aren’t always kept. Of course my company has done a lot for me so I want to continue down that path if it aligns.
If push comes to shove of course my priority is my family so I would stay with my wife in Japan if the situation arose where she can’t get a completed visa in time to return with me to the US. I was hoping to know the worst case scenario of if my company says I have to go back to the USA and my wife’s visa is still not in sight(rather, I won’t go back until she has the final visa allowing her to go as well). In that case my understanding is I would apply for change of status since we’re married we would have to submit documents (from how I saw most are similar to i-130).
Long story short: Since I’m currently in Japan and my wife is Japanese I could stay in Japan while the change of status to spouse is processing and look for a different job right?
Thanks for any advice, it would really help my anxiety after reading the thread here the other day about japanese culture people don’t adopt and the comment re: companies not really caring about families. (I’ve noticed in general this sub and reddit as a whole is terrible for anxiety but here we are)
Best!
by HeckinBigChonker