Marriage again

[rkumar803]

Hi,

I am a greencard holder for 3 years now. I have been dating someone for some time and planning to get married. Both of us are in the US. She is a H1 holder and does not want to work after marriage for a few years..

What is the best course of action for her to retain her legal status, while not working...

Please advise.

kumar

[JoeF]

She has to be in valid status of her own. In most cases, except H1 and L1, that means that she can't have immigration intent and has to have strong ties to her home country.
Since that's rather unlikely with a marriage to a PR, she probably would have to keep working on H1 as long as possible. It takes 5+ years for the PD for spouses of PRs to become current. If her H1 runs out sometime before that, she would have to leave, because she would not be able to change to another non-immigrant status (the immigration intent again).
If you apply for citizenship as soon as you become eligible, the time may be a bit shortened (depending on the N-400 processing time). Once you are a citizen, she can file an I-485 right away, since there are no quotas for spouses of citizens.

[rkumar803]

re:marriage again!

Thanks JoeF

[kirank]

Re: re:marriage again!

Guys,
I need help! :-). I have a greencard, but am not married. It will take 4+ more years for me to become eligible for citizenship. My to-be wife is in india. We might get married in India before she comes here....she is planning to apply for f1(student) visa and come here. What if I show that we are married here once she comes in....? Can I file for her application once we marrry in usa and she can stay here sice her f1 will be valid ?

What sort of route should I take ? Any experienced people who have faced a similar challenge, pls respond.

Thanks
kiran

[kirank]

Re: re:marriage again!

basically , can I apply for her Adjustment of status here while she is on f1 ?

also, can I change my status in w4 as "married" instead of single ? :-)

[JoeF]

Re:marriage again!

If you marry in India, it is unlikely that she will even get an F1 visa.For an F1 visa, she has to show strong ties to her home country.Quite unlikely with a US PR husband.
If she gets the F1 visa before the marriage, she can still get into trouble at the POE.They ask lots of questions there, again, to make sure that she intends to go back to her home country after finishing her studies.
She of course really has to go to school here, so if she actually gets an F1 and gets in the country, you may want to move to whatever city her university is located.
As long as she is in the US, marriage and immigration intent doesn't matter, except if the marriage happens too soon after she enters (BCIS would assume that she had the intent to marry all along, and they would see using the F1 to enter the US as immigration fraud.)
She of course has to stay in valid status, i.e., she has to continue attending the university.
And, of course, if she leaves the country, e.g., for a vacation, she would not be able to come back with the F1, again because of the immigration intent.

[JoeF]

Re:marriage again!

> basically , can I apply for her Adjustment of status here while she is on f1 ?

You can never file AOS for somebody else.
You can file an I-130 with her as beneficiary. Once the I-130 is approved and the PD is current, she can file an I-485.
But anyway, you should focus on step 1 before thinking about step 2. Getting her here on F1 is the hard part.

[kirank]

Thanks, Joe, for your help !