F1 to get married to Green Card Holder

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advice

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I m on F1 and my I20 is expiring on April 2012. My question is that if I marry a green card holder how long it ll take to get my green card. She is a green card holder for 2.5 years. It is getting too expensive for me to pay for college and after graduating I m not planning to go back to college. Is there any visa I can get like fiance visa or something like that.
 
When is your wife gonna be eligible for citizenship. How did she get his get card. I was the F1 student and just applied for AOS. Ask if you have any questions.
 
advice said:
I m on F1 and my I20 is expiring on April 2012. My question is that if I marry a green card holder how long it ll take to get my green card. She is a green card holder for 2.5 years. It is getting too expensive for me to pay for college and after graduating I m not planning to go back to college. Is there any visa I can get like fiance visa or something like that.
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There is a wait of almost 3 years for spouses of green card holders. While you wait out those 3 years for the F2A category to reach your priority date, you have to either be outside the US, or inside the US legally on some other basis than the marriage (the marriage and associated immigrant petition won't grant you any status while you wait out the 3 years).
 
Jackolantern said:
There is a wait of almost 3 years for spouses of green card holders. While you wait out those 3 years for the F2A category to reach your priority date, you have to either be outside the US, or inside the US legally on some other basis than the marriage (the marriage and associated immigrant petition won't grant you any status while you wait out the 3 years).
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Not necessarily. When my Wife and I came to US she was a green card holder and I was F1. She needed 3 more years to meet requirements for green card. Most of the lawyers told me to wait since the waiting time was 5 years at that point. If I applied when I came here I would have gotten my green card a year ago. So my advice would be if you get married apply right away. This doesn't give you status or anything but you never know if they are going to seed the process up. Like I said If I applied in 2008 the visa number would have been available for me in March of 2010 i think. Take a look to visa bulletins and you'll see what am I talking about. But you have to maintain your status through that time. If you are out of status permanent resident cannot sponsor your GC I think.
 
skoja said:
Not necessarily. When my Wife and I came to US she was a green card holder and I was F1. She needed 3 more years to meet requirements for green card. Most of the lawyers told me to wait since the waiting time was 5 years at that point. If I applied when I came here I would have gotten my green card a year ago. So my advice would be if you get married apply right away.
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I never said the OP should wait to apply after getting married. I'm saying that after the petition is filed, he can expect to wait almost 3 years.
 
That's right. Or even more than 3 years you never no. But I made a mistake not applying so I would suggest to everyone just file that I130 and try to maintain status. I'm guessing his wife is going to need another 2.5 years to become USC so it is not easy to do it.

The thing that made things easier for me is that I went to some kind of technical university. After I finished technical course (10 months) I was eligible to apply for Optional Personal Training (OPT) that gave me EAD card for a year. That might be one option to consider.
 
Ok so once she becomes citizen then I again have to wait extra 2 years to get my gc permanent?
 
If you've been married for at least 2 years when they approve the GC, it will be a 10-year card and you won't have to file for removal of conditions 2 years later.
 
Thanks for all your help, my biggest concern is my drivers license, Is it possible to renew it with something, like once I file for my papers. Do they give me any confirmation or something. I live in Ohio.
 
Thanks for all your help, my biggest concern is my drivers license, Is it possible to renew it with something, like once I file for my papers. Do they give me any confirmation or something. I live in Ohio.
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While you wait out the 2 or 3 years or however long it takes for your F2A priority date to become current or your spouse to become a citizen, during that wait you get no immigration-related benefits from the marriage (no driver's license, no work permit, NOTHING), and you would be illegally present (and therefore deportable) unless you find some other method (i.e. separately from the marriage) to maintain legal status, like extending your F1 status or switching to H1B.
 
Is it true that the time to get the GC has been reduced to 10 months?
showthread.php?317362-F1-OPT-getting-married-to-a-Green-Card-holder-Please-help&p=2232673#post2232673

One more question, I heard that the OPT is now valid for 3 months only instead of 1 year, is it true?
 
advice said:
Is it true that the time to get the GC has been reduced to 10 months?
showthread.php?317362-F1-OPT-getting-married-to-a-Green-Card-holder-Please-help&p=2232673#post2232673
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That was in 2010, when there was a large unexpected forward movement in the visa bulletin for F2A. Historically the wait for F2A has been 4-5 years, in 2010 it dropped to under a year, then it went back up to 3 years and has been holding at just under 3 years.

Look at the F2A date yourself in the visa bulletin: http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5640.html

One more question, I heard that the OPT is now valid for 3 months only instead of 1 year, is it true?
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No, it's still a year. Perhaps the person you heard about got a pre-graduation OPT for the summer only, or the 3 months is referring to the time it took to get approved.
 
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