A family case asks you to prove something you have never had to explain before.

What I handle

• Marriage-based green cards

  IR-1 or CR-1 for the spouse of a U.S. citizen, and F2A for the spouse of a permanent resident, which is a different category with a different wait. If the marriage is under two years old on the day permanent residence begins, which on a case finished abroad is the day of entry rather than the day of approval, the green card comes back conditional and there is a second filing later. Plan for both from the beginning.

• Adjustment of status, or a consulate

  Adjustment of Status means finishing the case inside the United States without leaving. Consular Processing means finishing it at a U.S. embassy abroad. Which one is available to you depends on how you entered and what your status is now, and choosing the wrong one is expensive in a way that is hard to undo.

• K-1 fiancé(e) visa

  For a U.S. citizen bringing a fiancé(e) in to marry within ninety days of entry, followed by a green card filing here. It is not automatically the simpler route. For a couple who could marry in Korea first, it sometimes adds a step instead of removing one, and the right answer depends on where you both are and what you can prove.

• Removal of conditions

  The second filing on a conditional green card, where you show that the marriage that was real two years ago is still the record. The couples who have trouble here are usually not the couples with a problem. They are the couples who kept nothing.

• Naturalization

  Form N-400, once the residence and physical-presence requirements are met. Two things are worth checking before you file rather than after: the time you have spent outside the country, and anything in your record you have never had to explain to the government in writing.

• Petitions for other relatives

  Parents and unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens have no wait at all: a visa is always available to them. Everyone else on this list, including adult and married children, siblings, and the spouses and children of permanent residents, sits in a preference category, and there the category sets the wait, the wait moves with the Visa Bulletin, and neither of us gets to hurry it. What we do control is that the file is ready on the day the date becomes current.

• Reentry permits, before a long trip

  A reentry permit is a travel document you apply for before you leave, and what it does is narrower than most people are told. It means a long absence cannot be held against you on its length alone. It is not a shield for the green card itself, because an officer can still look at where your life actually is and find that you gave up permanent residence, and the length of the trip is only one of the things they weigh.

  Two practical things go wrong often enough to say out loud. You have to be inside the United States when the application is filed, so this is planned before the trip rather than handled from abroad. And they do not stack: while one is still valid a new application is denied unless you turn the old one in. The permit usually runs two years. It runs one where you have been outside the United States for more than four of the last five years, added up. That is the number worth checking before a trip is planned around it, because someone coming off a long posting abroad reads the two years, applies for another long absence, and is issued one. A few narrow categories keep the full two, so it is worth asking rather than assuming in either direction. It also does nothing for the citizenship clock, which is counted separately, and that is where long trips do the quiet damage.

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