Hello and thank you for reading!
My fiancee is from Japan and I'm from France. I'm the one who was selected. My case number is 2014EU00038xxx. We currently reside in the U.S., in Los Angeles, but not for long, as we're nearing the end of our F1 visas and are out of money, so staying here until late next year to do AOS would be impossible.
Before I was selected, we were thinking about getting married sometime this summer. After I was selected, obviously, we thought about it a lot more seriously. We met with an immigration attorney in a one-on-one free consultation who told us that we could file for AOS on July 1st (three months before the start of the 2014 fiscal year because they supposedly want to give people some time in advance) regardless of my case number! He said if we file for AOS on July 1st, we could then stay in the US for the duration of the process. He said his goal would be to get us our green cards by December, or January/February 2014 at the latest. We thought that was amazing!
In light of that information -- which we thought was accurate -- we decided to get married on June 14th, to be able to file for AOS on July 1st. But after talking to numerous people, each and every one of them telling us that we could not file for AOS until late next year around August or September because my number was fairly high, we thought it might be best to go to France and do Consular Processing.
The problem is, if we get married in the U.S., it will take four months for our marriage to be recognized in France, and an additional 15 days for my then-wife to receive her French spouse visa to be able to stay in France for the duration of the process. I had never heard of forms DSP-122 and DS-230 until I looked at the instructions for Consular Processing. I discovered the deadline to file those forms was the end of September at the very latest. We did the math, and getting married in the U.S. wouldn't work out, not in time for her to be able to file DS-230 as my spouse, and not even in time before the end of the 90-day tourist visa she would enter the country with anyway.
Then we thought we could get married in France, but the process would take roughly about as long since she's a foreigner, so that doesn't work either to file DS-230 by the deadline. We were starting to think it would be impossible for her to file DS-230 in time and thus benefit from my potential green card.
Then we thought about this: what if we do get married in the U.S. on June 14th and then file DSP-122 and DS-230 from here, in the U.S., since she would immediately be recognized as my wife in the eyes of the United States and thus would be able to file as my spouse. Then, later this summer, she would leave the U.S. to go back to Japan and I would leave to go back to France, and she would join me in France after a few months after obtaining her French spouse visa, which should be around November. We could then stay in France until next year for the remaining of the Consular Processing.
So my questions are:
1) Can we file DSP-122 and DS-230 as husband and wife in the U.S., then go to France after our marriage is recognized there and do Consular Processing?
2) When would she HAVE to be in France for Consular Processing? In other words, are there parts of the process that would require her to be in France and be recognized as my wife before November or December?
Bonus question:
3) What's up with that attorney guy? He was getting his information from a book called "Kurzban's Immigration Law Source Book."
Thank you very much for reading this lengthy post and for your help.
My fiancee is from Japan and I'm from France. I'm the one who was selected. My case number is 2014EU00038xxx. We currently reside in the U.S., in Los Angeles, but not for long, as we're nearing the end of our F1 visas and are out of money, so staying here until late next year to do AOS would be impossible.
Before I was selected, we were thinking about getting married sometime this summer. After I was selected, obviously, we thought about it a lot more seriously. We met with an immigration attorney in a one-on-one free consultation who told us that we could file for AOS on July 1st (three months before the start of the 2014 fiscal year because they supposedly want to give people some time in advance) regardless of my case number! He said if we file for AOS on July 1st, we could then stay in the US for the duration of the process. He said his goal would be to get us our green cards by December, or January/February 2014 at the latest. We thought that was amazing!
In light of that information -- which we thought was accurate -- we decided to get married on June 14th, to be able to file for AOS on July 1st. But after talking to numerous people, each and every one of them telling us that we could not file for AOS until late next year around August or September because my number was fairly high, we thought it might be best to go to France and do Consular Processing.
The problem is, if we get married in the U.S., it will take four months for our marriage to be recognized in France, and an additional 15 days for my then-wife to receive her French spouse visa to be able to stay in France for the duration of the process. I had never heard of forms DSP-122 and DS-230 until I looked at the instructions for Consular Processing. I discovered the deadline to file those forms was the end of September at the very latest. We did the math, and getting married in the U.S. wouldn't work out, not in time for her to be able to file DS-230 as my spouse, and not even in time before the end of the 90-day tourist visa she would enter the country with anyway.
Then we thought we could get married in France, but the process would take roughly about as long since she's a foreigner, so that doesn't work either to file DS-230 by the deadline. We were starting to think it would be impossible for her to file DS-230 in time and thus benefit from my potential green card.
Then we thought about this: what if we do get married in the U.S. on June 14th and then file DSP-122 and DS-230 from here, in the U.S., since she would immediately be recognized as my wife in the eyes of the United States and thus would be able to file as my spouse. Then, later this summer, she would leave the U.S. to go back to Japan and I would leave to go back to France, and she would join me in France after a few months after obtaining her French spouse visa, which should be around November. We could then stay in France until next year for the remaining of the Consular Processing.
So my questions are:
1) Can we file DSP-122 and DS-230 as husband and wife in the U.S., then go to France after our marriage is recognized there and do Consular Processing?
2) When would she HAVE to be in France for Consular Processing? In other words, are there parts of the process that would require her to be in France and be recognized as my wife before November or December?
Bonus question:
3) What's up with that attorney guy? He was getting his information from a book called "Kurzban's Immigration Law Source Book."
Thank you very much for reading this lengthy post and for your help.
