Q. I am a U.S. citizen. If I petition for my fiancée in Indonesia, how soon after she arrives can she get employment authorization? Does she qualify as the fiancée of a U.S. citizen, or must we marry first?
P., Long Beach

A. Your fiancée can apply for employment authorization immediately after she enters the United States in K-1 fiancée status. You need not marry first. However, you'll save money if you marry and she then applies for permanent residence.

Under the new filing fee rules, the fees for employment authorization and travel permission are waived for applicants for adjustment of status to permanent residence. Your fiancée (or wife, if you marry before she applies) should get her Employment Authorization Document (EAD) within 90 days of filing.

Note that if she were to work before getting authorization, the law would forgive her and she could still get permanent residence.

Adjusting mom's status

Q. My mother tried to get residence through marriage, but that didn't work out. If I petition for her, can she get her green card?

My mother came here unlawfully in 1981. She married a U.S. citizen who sponsored her for residence in 1990. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved the petition. However, the marriage ended before she could get legal status.

I am a natural-born U.S citizen. I have petitioned for her. Will her immigration history affect her right to get permanent residence?
Curious Daughter,
Brooklyn

A. Your mother should be able to get permanent residence based on your petition. It may seem odd, but her immigration history will help.

Because her husband petitioned for her when he did, she can interview here for her residence, the process called adjustment of status. That's important. If she didn't qualify to interview here, she would have to return home for her immigrant visa interview and risk getting stuck there.

The law says that if an employer or family member filed for a permanent residence applicant before April 30, 2001, that person can interview in the U.S.

Readers should note that individuals who started cases after Jan. 14, 1998, but on or before April 30, 2001, must have been physically present in the U.S. on Dec. 21, 2000.

The USCIS is clear that an applicant can earn the right to interview here based on one type of petition or employment-based application then qualify for residence based on a different petition or application. So the petition your mother's husband filed for her qualifies her to now adjust status.

The only restriction is that to benefit from this rule, known as the 245i grandfather rule, the case must have been approvable when filed.

Approvable when filed means that at the time the USCIS received the petition, your mother was married to her husband, and that marriage was bona fide (real). In your mother's case, she has a strong argument that the petition was approvable - in fact, it was approved.

To be safe, she should be prepared to prove that her marriage was genuine. If she can do that, she has a permanent right to interview here under the 245i rule.

No underage sponsors

Q. My young children were born here. Can they sponsor me for permanent residence now, or must I wait until they are adults?
Diana, Manhattan

A. To petition for a parent for permanent residence, a U.S. citizen must be at least age 21. At one time, undocumented immigrants from some countries could qualify for permanent residence simply by having a U.S. citizen child of any age. That's no longer true.

Allan Wernick is a lawyer and director of the City University of New York Citizenship and Immigration Project. He is the author of "U.S. Immigration and Citizenship - Your Complete Guide, Revised 4th Edition." Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, Daily News, 450 W. 33rd St., New York, N.Y. 10001. Prof. Wernick's Web site: www.allanwernick.com

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Allan Wernick

allanwernick@earthlink.net