Changing Visa Category from F2B- F1- F3 and keeping the same priority date.

[islamami]

I would really appreciate this if anyone can answer this for me. I have been looking for some answer desperately. Please help. Here is my story.

My brother's case was initially belonged to family-based category F2B where his priority date is October 98. My dad changed his status (got citizenship) Eight months ago. Now my brother's family-based category has been changed to F1 which has the visa priority date 2004. Sincer my brother has the older priority date so NVC started processing his case. But if he wants to marry his girl friend now, will his wife be benefited on his application? Again, if he is allowed to marry now, I am assuming his status will be changed again from F1 to F3 which has visa priority date of March 1999. So, will he be able to still keep his old priority date October 1998 even after changing his marital status? If so what should he do next?

Thanks in advance for answering my questions.

[dr_lha]

But if he wants to marry his girl friend now, will his wife be benefited on his application?

No.

[islamami]

Thanks for your response. But bear in mind my brother's case is still in pending. His decision has not been made yet. He is in F1 visa category (Family Baseed First Preference) now. We want to change it to F3 and keep the same visa priority date. Is it possible with out damaging his case.

[lynie12]

it would be better for him to wait for his f1 to be current instead of filing for f3 which will take 10-13 years of waiting just like the case of my dad.

[TheRealCanadian]

Originally Posted by lynie12

it would be better for him to wait for his f1 to be current instead of filing for f3 which will take 10-13 years of waiting just like the case of my dad.

FB3 should be current for him with a 1998 priority date unless he and his fiancee were born in Mexico or the Phillipines. If they marry before his GC is approved, she should be able to follow. If they wait until afterwards, she becomes FB2 and waits a half-decade or more.

[chromedOut]

I think dr_lha is correct. his i-130 priority date was established as an unmarried son of a permanent resident. by marrying his girlfriend he would change his status, and thus forfeit his current priority date as he would no longer be unmarried. he would be moved to the back of the line of the FB3 category.

[islamami]

Thanks to all of you. I really appreciate your help. I think I agree with TheRealCanadian. As I explained to the NVC officer, who pulled his case and told me that only reason he could get married now with out effecting his case because of my dad's US Citizenship. Since we are not going to refile his application so NVC will simply update his case by chaning visa category from
F1 - F3 but with out changing the priority date. Again, he has the older priority date which is October 1998 and currently NVC is processing F3 cases with March 1999 priority date. So according to the NVC officer my brother should be fine as long as he can provide all the documents to prove that he is gonig to be married by next week or so. I also sent an email (for in-query) to NVC to get some answer in writing.

Please share your thoughts if any one of you has the same experience like what we are going thru.

[TheRealCanadian]

Originally Posted by chromedOut

by marrying his girlfriend he would change his status, and thus forfeit his current priority date as he would no longer be unmarried. he would be moved to the back of the line of the FB3 category.

Not at all. A priority date can be retained between FB categories.

[chromedOut]

Not at all. A priority date can be retained between FB categories.

interesting. can you please send me a link where this is stated?

[LucyMO]

your priority date stays the same because it is nothing more than a date your petition was filed on. What changes is the category in which a person belongs due to status changes. The priority date stays the same.