Can I get married while on immigrant visa obtained under unmarried children of LPR ?

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lnphan

Registered Users (C)
My mother is a LPR and she sponsored me under the category of adult unmarried children of permanent resident.

I have a long-time girlfriend, with whom I have a child out of wedlock.

My application is finally processed a couple of months ago. I went through the interview and was approved. I currently have a visa to enter the U.S. with family based green card. I have a letter saying that my greencard will be issued when I arrive at the U.S. and will be mailed to me within 2 weeks.

Right now it's November 2010, and I don't plan to come to the U.S. until February 2011, right before my visa expires.

My question is, can I get married to my long-time girlfriend before I enter the U.S.? My application is already approved. I already have a visa to enter the U.S. Will my marital status be brought up at the port of entry and jeopardize my permanent resident status?
 
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If you marry before entering the US with the immigrant visa, your GC will be voided.

If you get married, then you successfully enter the US and get the GC because they didn't ask about your marital status, they'll catch it later when you apply to sponsor her. Then they'll revoke your GC and deport you, like what happened to the Filipino couple in the news who got married before each of them entered with unmarried-child immigrant visas (sponsored separately by their respective parents). They got deported decades later when USCIS discovered when they got married.
 
Jacko--,

I remember reading about that case. Didn't all come out when they applied for naturalization?
 
You currently only have the Immigrant Visa stamp in your passport. You will become a permanent Resident once you enter the US. You could just come to the US, get your Permanent Residence Card, then go back and get married in a few months or so. Why take the chance.
 
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Jackolantern said:
If you marry before entering the US with the immigrant visa, your GC will be voided.

If you get married, then you successfully enter the US and get the GC because they didn't ask about your marital status, they'll catch it later when you apply to sponsor her. Then they'll revoke your GC and deport you, like what happened to the Filipino couple in the news who got married before each of them entered with unmarried-child immigrant visas (sponsored separately by their respective parents). They got deported decades later when USCIS discovered when they got married.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info. I tried to google for "fillipino couple deported from the U.S." but couldn't find anything... Do you by any chance still able to find more online on this case? Thanks.
 
I won't try to take a chance. I was just wondering if it's legal to do so. If it is, why not, right? But look like it's not legal, so I won't. :)
Thank you for all your help. I think I'll just do a K1/3 visa for my girlfriend and we'll get married in the U.S.
If anyone have links about the deportation case, I'd like to have it.
Also, does anyone know how long it usually take nowadays to get K1/3 visa?

Thank you.
 
I found another article about that couple.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/12naturalize.html?pagewanted=all#

It seems that it is a bunch of hype and has been drawn out for almost 20 years. It turns out that their immigration fraud was found out when they filed N-400's in 1991. They quickly got ordered deported and have been fighting it ever since. Most if not all of the "wonderful contributions" to American society that the complimentary articles play up seem to have happened AFTER they got ordered deported, including the births of their children, the oldest of which will soon be old enough to petition for them.

Amazing.
 
That's pretty amazing how it's OK for us to refuse extradition to punish foreign criminals on our soil, but on the other hand willing to kick out perfectly good people with stability, social connections that contribute to society.

Thanks for the link to the article!
 
But if they initially commited immigration fraud, they are not the type of people who should be allowed to remain, IMO. They are not "good people"; "good people" do not knowingly violate the law.
 
Anyway, thanks all for the help you gave.
My course of action is get the greencard first, then come back to home country to get married, then file for family-based category under permanent resident. I believe my preference will be 2nd preference. I checked the visa bulletin and it said process time is 5 months or less.
 
That's not really the processing time, that's the visa number backlog. The I-130 approval for the 2A category appears to be taking 6 months or more for most people. So if the visa bulletin continues with its current trend, it's likely for the I-130 to be still pending when the priority date initially becomes current, forcing your overseas spouse to wait some more months for the I-130 to be approved and forwarded to the consulate.
 
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