My wife is going home to Ukraine in late March for a visit and we're also taking a trip to Spain this November. I sent in the paperwork for her I-131 (Advance Parole)on December 30th to our Santa Ana (Calif.) BCIS sub office. Before the USPO could even return my Certified mail receipt signiture card she rececieved her approval notice. Timelines were: BCIS received application on December 31, application approved January 6th with notice to us received 9th. Now you through in the weekend and a couple of days off for the New Years holidays and they basically turned her request around in less than two business days. That is AWESOME! The last I checked with the BCIS National Service Center they told me that Santa Ana was taking 30 days to approve I-131's. So I need to give the new BCIS their appropriate due on this one.
A question I have for the Board for those of you who have travel overseas with your RW/UW wives. Since my wife can't become a citizen until she meets her residency requirments she'll be traveling with me on her Ukrainian passport. As you know it's a crappy passport to travel on since almost every normal country requires a visa for travelers with a Ukr. passport. So we'll have to jump through these hoops for the next 4 - 5 years. It looks like the best way to go is to get her a Schengen visa and focus on traveling to those countries over the next few years. Which is good since Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria are at the top of our travel list. Does anyone know how long the Schengen visa is good for before you'll need to renew it? Thanks.
Mark
