apply for my wife (F1) marriaged base to LPR (husband) PLEASE HELP

[jasonmz83]

hi, I have few questions regarding my situation, any help would be greatly appreciated:

I am currently a LPR over 7 months, category AS8 I just got married to my wife who is currently a F1 student with visa expiring in April 2011. I am trying to apply for her base on marriage to LPR:

1. Base on my situation I heard many people submit i130, i485, 1765 etc...together but then I heard online where in some case, certain case has to wait until i130 is approved before I can submit for 1485, so in my case can I submit i130 1485 together?

2. With her F1 status expiring in 8 more months, assuming I will get everything over to USCIS her case would most likely in pending status by the time her F1 expires in 04/2011, my questions is when it gets to that point does she have to maintain her F1 status by continue paying tuitions and attending schools even though her visa has expired, so that she can maintain her legal status in the US, or is that not required since i130 is pending/approved?

 

[okalian]

The average time for I-130 based on spouse of an LPR is somewhere around 4-5 years.

And yes, she must maintain any status (F1, H1, etc) until her I-130 gets approved. A pending I-130 is not a status, while a pending I-485 is.

Spouses of US citizens are ones who're eligible for BOTH i-130 and I-485 to be submitted at the same time because there's no waiting period (priority) for their I-130 to be processed. I-485 is submitted when the immigrant has an immigrant visa number available immediately, which is the case only with spouses of US citizens.

In your case, you can only submit I-130 for now.

 

[LucyMO]

And yes, she must maintain any status (F1, H1, etc) until her I-130 gets approved.

She needs to maintain her status until her priority date is current, which may be well beyond the approval date on I-130. Approved I-130 does not provide her with a legal status either.

The average time for I-130 based on spouse of an LPR is somewhere around 4-5 years.

it's not the average time for I-130 to be approved. It's time needed for the priority date to become current in her category, that is, when her immigrant visa number will become available.

Spouses of US citizens are ones who're eligible for BOTH i-130 and I-485 to be submitted at the same time because there's no waiting period (priority) for their I-130 to be processed.

I-130 processing time applies even in the case of USC spouses. However, what they don't need to wait for is an immigrant visa number, because for immediate relatives of US citizens immigrant visa numbers are available immediately - without a quota. Since the visa numbers are available immediately, I-485 can be submitted concurrently with I-130.

However, different rules may apply to the original poster, since he appears to receive his GC as a derivative asylee or something like that.