Fiance visa allow me to continue working after opt expires?

G

Garef

New Member
I am getting married this summer and as of just now I am on a opt work visa which expires on July 17th. I am wanting to know, seeing as I already have a job and am living in the United States, if there is any way to continue working while I wait for my green card work authorization after the wedding? If I apply for a fiance visa will this allow me to work after my opt has expired or is there nothing that I can do, am I going to be out of work for roughly the three months that people have told me it takes for your work authorization to come through? Any advice or info would be great. My employers want to keep me on, but I don't know if they would wait so long for me. I also don't know if I could afford to be out of work for so long.

I hope that makes sense to somebody.

Thanks.
 
If you are already in the US, you cannot change your status to K-1. Are you intending to leave the US, get a K-1 visa overseas and return?

Garef said:
If I apply for a fiance visa will this allow me to work after my opt has expired or is there nothing that I can do, am I going to be out of work for roughly the three months that people have told me it takes for your work authorization to come through?
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Once you enter with a K-1 visa, your F-1 status is gone and your OPT authorization is void.

Also, K-1 status does not allow you to work. It allows you to apply for employment authorization, but that is mostly useless because of its shorter term and the fact that you can apply for a 1-year employment authorization when you file the I-485.

So forget about the K-1 visa. Get married and keep working on the OPT. At least 90 days before the OPT expires, file I-485 and I-765 so you can get an EAD to continue working.
 
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Thanks for the quick replies. The problem may lie in the fact that, I am not intending on getting married until very close to the 17th of July which is the date my opt expires. Am I right in thinking that I can't apply for work authorization until I have been married? If so, will I need to take time off of my job after my opt has expired to wait for my new work authorization?
 
Correct. When your OPT EAD expires you will have no authorization to work in the US. You would have to wait for your EAD pending GC to be authorized, and you can't file that till you get married and file the I-130 and I-485.
 
Why don't you have a civil ceremony in March/April and file for AOS? You can have your big wedding reception as planned in July.

Garef said:
Thanks for the quick replies. The problem may lie in the fact that, I am not intending on getting married until very close to the 17th of July which is the date my opt expires. Am I right in thinking that I can't apply for work authorization until I have been married? If so, will I need to take time off of my job after my opt has expired to wait for my new work authorization?
Click to expand...
 
Garef said:
Thanks for the quick replies. The problem may lie in the fact that, I am not intending on getting married until very close to the 17th of July which is the date my opt expires.
Click to expand...
So get married sooner if you don't want a break in employment. You can't apply for the employment authorization until you are married and have filed the other GC-related paperwork (I-130, I-485, etc.). And you need to allow 90 days (preferably a bit more, just in case) for the employment authorization to get approved.
 
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I have thought about getting the wedding taken care of at a registry office, but, I kind feel like that makes the big day less special, call me stupid, but I also know my fiance would feel the same. I guess I'll just need to bite the bullet and save save save.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate your time.
 
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