There will be substatial delays
If the marriage occurs after the green card is approved, there is then a substantial wait before immigration benefits can be conferred to the spouse. In this event, the new spouse is a family-based (FB) preference relative, falling within category FB 2A. The permanent resident spouse must file an I-130 petition for the foreign national spouse and wait for the priority date to become current to apply for the immigrant visa or adjustment of status. The waiting time for priority date availability in FB 2A has historically been from five to seven years. This continues to be the case, as of October 2003. Therefore, there is an enormous difference between marriage before the I-485 is approved and marriage after its approval for employment-based applicants for the green card.
With respect to marriage timing, one situation we see with alarming frequency is that in which an individual goes abroad to marry while the green card case is pending. S/He is married and returns to the U.S. shortly thereafter to resume his/her job and get things ready for the new spouse. The new spouse remains behind to wrap up personal matters before coming to the U.S. The primary spouse goes through the mail that accumulated during his or her absence and finds an I-485 approval notice that pre-dates the wedding. At that point, there is a serious problem. We urge people to plan ahead to avoid this situation. Of course marriage arrangements and timing are no simple matter, but things must be done well in advance of the date when a decision on the I-485 application is imminent. Given the slow pace of I-485 adjudications, this should be a manageable priority. However, one should not just rely on slow adjudications on the I-485s. A particular service center could always speed up the processing of these cases if they make I-485s a priority
