Want to bring niece and nephew to live with us for a bit from abroad

[Anonymous]

Short-term boarding school would be adding disruption and stress to an already stressful situation for the kids. Children are not lego pieces.

[Anonymous]

If struggling and trying to get on their feet is merely financial give them the money you would spend on tuition, visas, lawyer bringing kids over.
If it's mental illness maybe money would help.

[Anonymous]

How long are you thinking? A year is different than a semester.

School is one consideration, health insurance is another. Depending on their ages aligning grades with our school system is challenging at times.

Also while this is a super kind offer and may make a huge difference to the kids and your sibling, be very delicate in how you approach the offer because if they’re truly struggling, and you’re suggesting spending 5k just on flights for the kids and not offering them help directly, it may come off as heartless.

[Anonymous]

Even though they are fluent in English and good students, there will still be a huge culture shock. In was just reading in the Montgomery county schools forum about a brutal fight that happened in a high school, and another poster said how this happens in all schools, and they are right!

[Anonymous]

Public schools cannot deny any student- regardless of paperwork. There are a ton of students here that aren’t citizens and don’t have papers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long are you thinking? A year is different than a semester.

School is one consideration, health insurance is another. Depending on their ages aligning grades with our school system is challenging at times.

Also while this is a super kind offer and may make a huge difference to the kids and your sibling, be very delicate in how you approach the offer because if they’re truly struggling, and you’re suggesting spending 5k just on flights for the kids and not offering them help directly, it may come off as heartless.

This. Flights, tuition, and health insurance for 2 kids is going to approach 50k. Not to mention the added cost of food etc once they’re here. If this money could alleviate your sisters situation even partially, it would be so much better for the children if they could stay with their mother in their home country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools cannot deny any student- regardless of paperwork. There are a ton of students here that aren’t citizens and don’t have papers.

True that if they are undocumented the school still has to take them. Also true that a stunt like this could subject the kids to deportation and cost them the ability to enter the US in the future. Not to mention the expense to op if a kid has a medical issue while here and uninsured. School is the least of what op needs to talk through with a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

OP,

As a foreigner here on a visa, who originally came to the US as an F1 college student, you really MUST consult an immigration attorney: they do non-immigrant and immigrant visas and green cards, and they will tell you what your options are for the non-US minor to stay more than 90 days on US soil.

The most important thing you need to remember is that this child CANNOT overstay their waiver (if you do a 90 day tourist stay) or visa. That will setup a red flag on any future visa or green card application.

So next stop, lawyer. You don't have a choice.

[Anonymous]

Affirming a previous post, if you give an answer at immigration control that does not match your visa class you can be sent home without entering the US.

My dad had a friend from Taiwan who was legally working in the U.S. His wife did not want to live in the U.S. She thought she could occasionally visit using a tourist visa.

Once she mentioned at the border that she was coming to visit her husband and they sent her back immediately and barred her from returning for a while.

I mention this because a tourist visa would be incompatible with schooling. Even though you probably could enroll.

[Anonymous]

Do your niece and nephew want to disrupt their schooling to come live with you? Are there no local options for them?

[Anonymous]

I would definitely offer 1) 20k to your sibling and 2) for the kids to live with you for 3 months in the summer. This is likely same cost to you over the course of a school year, but would likely be much more helpful (and doesn’t leave the kids without their parents for too long).

[Anonymous]

You have to worry about them being rounded up in Trump’s immigration sweeps. Many colleges are sending out warning letters to their foreign students. The rhetoric of Trump’s is not about illegals but immigrants and foreigners.

Apparently Trump and company are trying to structure their actions to avoid any due process and punishment those caught.

[Anonymous]

Sponsor the soon to be college kid for student visa. Let them finish high school abroad.
Bring them for summer first.

[Anonymous]

Please consult an attorney. I regret not doing this for my overseas relative (also EU country). The teen went to a boarding school and ended up getting pulled out before the school year ended. Many of the boarding schools depend on full pay internationals to help keep the school afloat. They know what to tell the parents when there is actually little supervision in the dorms. If the family is going through a turbulent time, I think the kids would be much better off living with you and attending a day school.

[Anonymous]

These are all questions that you'll need an excellent lawyer for. And there is the consideration that your sibling may or may not like the idea. If the problem is health or mental illness or something similar it might be a complex but helpful thing, specially if they happen to be old enough for high school. One consideration though, if you are considering public school for them is that as one previous poster mentioned, brutal fights are commonplace in most public US high schools while some kids might get used to this, it isn't something to be taken lightly on your part when considering how helpful you can be to your family member who is struggling.