Employment based green card to marriage based green card

[jakim]

Hi,

I have been in the employment based green card application for some time now (since 2007), and i have had everything approved to the extent the last communication i received from the USCIS is that they will contact me for 1. interview 2. acceptance 3 denial. (i.e. i've submitted my medical -twice, and finger prints etc).

However, i recently got married to a US citizen, and would like to file for a green card through marriage.

1. How can i cancel my employment based petition? (i.e. forms to file? letters to write? etc etc)
2. Should i apply for the green card through marriage first before cancelling my employment petition?

Any information would be much appreciated.

thanks

James

 

[Jackolantern]

If you've been married for less than 2 years, and your I-140 is approved and your priority date is current, your employment-based GC will probably approved within a few months, and it might be better to wait till the end of the summer and see what happens with the employment-based GC.

The employment-based GC will be a 10-year green card if approved, whereas the marriage-based one will be a 2-year conditional card if you've been married less than 2 years, and you'll have another round of paperwork and possibly another interview 2 years later to convert to the 10-year card.

But if you're going ahead with the marriage-based one anyway, you don't have to cancel the existing employment-based process. You can have both going at the same time. Near the end of the process they may ask you to withdraw one or the other, but there's no need to do that unless they ask.