More info on combining marriage and CP
Hi guys, I spoke to my lawyer about combining marriage and CP. He said, "I strongly advise you to get married BEFORE the interview". According to him once the interview is done, the consular post MAY direct you to proceed with regular immigration for your wife (which takes 3+ years). He did say that it was open to interpretation by the consular post though.
The process according to him (and I think he\'s slightly wrong - read below) is to intimate the consulate ASAP once you know of the change in your marital status. He asked me to ask the consulate as to whether they wanted to accept my new wife\'s documents now or should I bring them to the interview. If they did accept them then, he said she would be interviewed with me and she would get her PR with me too.
I personally think he\'s wrong about two points,
1. I think you CAN get married after your interview has completed (but before entering the US), then go to the consulate, tell them you have got married, hand them your wife\'s papers. Other lawyers have said this as well - but I do acknowledge my lawyer\'s point that this approach is fraught with risk.
2. Say you did get married before the interview and intimated the consulate, I think the consulate will ask you to bring your wife\'s papers and submit them at your (the primary applicant\'s) interview. Then, the consulate will assign an interview date for your wife 2 months hence or something. This was what anand72 posted on this board and I think that is correct.
Just wanted to share ALL the information I had for what it\'s worth since there isn\'t a lot of information on this out there. I\'d suggest we keep in touch with each other.
One question I had was about the I-134. It says this has to be notarized, do you know if an Indian notary will do?
Oh yeah, my interview is on October 25th.