Singapore Expats

I'm an American citizen (currently permanent resident here in sg), my wife is Singaporean. We're planning to migrate to USA.

We will be going the i-130 -> ds-260 route.

Looking for any insights re: current processing time for i-130 when conducted here in Singapore?

If you (or a friend you know) has gone through this process in the last 1-2 years, would appreciate hearing about the experience and timeline. Thanks

@malcontent may know

rbusch wrote: ↑

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 9:57 am

I'm an American citizen (currently permanent resident here in sg), my wife is Singaporean. We're planning to migrate to USA.

We will be going the i-130 -> ds-260 route.

Looking for any insights re: current processing time for i-130 when conducted here in Singapore?

If you (or a friend you know) has gone through this process in the last 1-2 years, would appreciate hearing about the experience and timeline. Thanks

First, I’m assuming you do not qualify for expedited processing directly at the U.S. embassy (only for cases where your U.S. employer is transferring you back to the U.S. imminently).

Whether IR1 (immediate) or CR1 (conditional, married less than 2 years) makes almost no difference in processing times. Expect to wait around one year for I-130 petition to be approved. The petition is basically “permission” for your spouse to apply for a green card.

After that, DS-260 is the green card (immigrant visa) application and processing time is even more varied, depending on location. For Singapore, my current guess is around 6 months, but it could range anywhere from 3 to 12 months.

That means total time could be up to two years, but this is always changing.

I recommend Visajourney. They collect timelines from users in their forum and crunch the numbers for you.

https://www.visajourney.com/times/ir1-s ... istorical/

There’s a bunch of charts and it’s confusing, but that’s because the process can take many paths. For example, your I-130 can be sent to one of several processing centers around the country, you won’t know which one until after you get your NOA1, which can be pretty quick if you file online like I did. This takes a couple of hours, even if you’ve got all the information ready to enter and upload, and you’ve got to pay the fee. Once approved, the petition is good for one year, but you can extend it by one year each time you log in and/or contact the NVC (which is where your approved petition goes). Once the DS-260 is approved, your spouse has just 6 months to enter the U.S. (any location, even Guam) and activate their legal permanent residence.

Note that the calendar year that your spouse does this is also the year your spouse becomes a resident alien for tax purposes (even on Dec 31). Be sure they realize any capital gains the year prior (but sit on any losses). Wash sale rules don’t apply to gains, so you can immediately repurchase after selling (reset the basis). It might also be possible for you to gift them your appreciated assets (up to foreign spouse annual limits) to reset your basis tax free. Also, have your spouse do an account and asset scrub to avoid foreign tax and reporting complications after they become U.S. taxable. At the very least, get rid of any PFICs.

In the off chance that anyone is searching for similar information.......

We submitted i-130 on 29th December 2024.

Approx 13 months later USCIS approved i-130.

There was about a 3 week wait for the NVC to take over.

It took us about 5 weeks to gather everything needed to submit DS-260 and i-864.

Interview date is set for the beginning of June 2026.

All in from beginning to interview is about 1.5 years for our case.

Fingers crossed that the visa will be approved...

Thanks to those who helped with info early on, much appreciated

Australia is running about 2 years for partner visas (although if you can get an ETA into Australian your partner can then apply onshore and be in Australia during processing).

rbusch wrote: ↑

Thu, 07 May 2026 6:36 am

In the off chance that anyone is searching for similar information.......

We submitted i-130 on 29th December 2024.

Approx 13 months later USCIS approved i-130.

There was about a 3 week wait for the NVC to take over.

It took us about 5 weeks to gather everything needed to submit DS-260 and i-864.

Interview date is set for the beginning of June 2026.

All in from beginning to interview is about 1.5 years for our case.

Fingers crossed that the visa will be approved...

Thanks to those who helped with info early on, much appreciated

Congrats! The hardest part is done and your wait is nearly over. I hope you heeded my advice and completed the foreign asset scrub & gain harvesting in 2025 so that your 2026 tax year can be simple and tax efficient. Since your interview is in June, your spouse will become a U.S. person for tax purposes in 2026.

You will probably want to make a 6013(h) election — not 6013(g) — to file a joint return with your NRA turned RA spouse for 2026. The alternative is to file part-year dual status alien return which is messy and usually tax punitive. If you use a tax pro, make sure they use the H and not the G, as many don’t know the difference (even AI can’t get it straight)… there are major implications if you ever move back overseas.

Incidentally, I did the 6013(h) election and submitted our first joint tax return for 2025 last month. Unfortunately we still have a lot of accounts that can’t be closed in Singapore, and my wife still had a Pte Ltd which required the dreaded form 5471. All told, my tax return was over 35 pages long and took me months to prepare.