Filing for Citizenship Soon -- With or Without Wife ?

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AsyleeTravel

Registered Users (C)
Hi,

I am going to be eligible for citizenship in the next few months. I got married about a year ago in a religous ceremony outside of the U.S. and my wife came here on a non-immigrant student visa. I am eligible to file for citizenship soon (LPR based upon asylum) and was wondering if I should:

* Apply for citizenship as Single and after I become a citizen, then have a civil court U.S. marriage
OR
* Apply for citizenship as married and show foreign marriage (documentation?) and current status as living together

Could you please advise which would be better in terms of timing, documentation, possible delays/denial etc?

Thanks for the help!
 
Unless the government where you got married recognizes religious marriages as legal marriages without additional paperwork, you are not legally married, so you would have to put "single" on the application.

Is your wife still a student with a nonimmigrant visa? If that is the case, don't get married before you get citizenship and apply for her I-130 and I-485, or she gets an H1 visa. Otherwise she could be turned away upon reentering the US, because being married to a green hard holder is evidence of immigrant intent, which is not allowed with a nonimmigrant student visa.
 
Jackolantern said:
Unless the government where you got married recognizes religious marriages as legal marriages without additional paperwork, you are not legally married, so you would have to put "single" on the application.

Is your wife still a student with a nonimmigrant visa? If that is the case, don't get married before you get citizenship and apply for her I-130 and I-485, or she gets an H1 visa. Otherwise she could be turned away upon reentering the US, because being married to a green hard holder is evidence of immigrant intent, which is not allowed with a nonimmigrant student visa.
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JACKOLANTERN: Thanks! Yes, she still is on a F-1. Once I file for her I-130 and I-485, can she travel and does she get permission to work?
 
Jackolantern and AsyleeTravel,

I would disagree here based on oth common sense and findings in the Adjudicator's Field Manual:
Many interim decisions address state and foreign laws (e.g., marriage laws). Consult your local district counsel for further information on state laws and the Library of Congress for information on foreign laws. Your local district counsel will also assist you with conducting additional research.
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While the passage above suggests that the USCIS primarily relies on foreign laws to determine whether a marriage is valid, the following suggests that a common-law marriage may be recognized in the United States even if it was not recognized as such where it was performed.
Chapter 74.2
If the marriage is valid under the law of the jurisdiction in which it is performed, it will be entitled to recognition in all other jurisdictions. Furthermore, where it i s shown that a civil ceremony marriage has been performed, there is a strong prima facie presumption that it was properly and legally performed.

(D) Common-law Marriage . The concept of common law marriage presupposes an honest good-faith intention on the part of two persons free to marry, to live together as husband and wife from the very inception of the relationship. Some jurisdictions recognize common-law marriages and consider the parties to be married. For more information, search the Department of State website under “common law marriage” and the country in question.

Note that for a common-law marriage to be valid, the parties must have lived in that jurisdiction and met that definition of common-law marriage for that jurisdiction for it to be recognized. You will need to be familiar with the marriage laws in your jurisdiction in order to determine if the applicant and spouse are indeed married under common-law, if the marriage occurred in your jurisdiction.

Note also that if the applicant and spouse were married under common-law in another jurisdiction, most states recognize the marriage even though the state itself does not recognize common-law marriage as a means for its residents to contract marriage.
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Here is where common sense into play: if someone writes on a public forum that a religiouos marriage ceremony was performed, it would seem natural to disclose the same on a United States Government form, and to bring this up in the N-400 interview.

P.S.: This is not legal advice, just common sense.
 
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It still says "Note that for a common-law marriage to be valid, the parties must have lived in that jurisdiction and met that definition of common-law marriage for that jurisdiction for it to be recognized."

For USCIS to see them as married, either the religious marriage would have to be legally recognized where it happened, or them living together would have to be recognized as a common-law marriage in the state where they live.
 
AsyleeTravel,
I am in the exact same situation as you are in. I will be eligible for citizenship in no time. I have been doing some extensive research on the issue and so far I came to the conclusion that we should be truthful on N-400 application.

This may put a spouse under the gun, but from my research I found that lawyers (i.e. good lawyers) have been telling their clients that it is highly unlikely of BCIS to come after out of status spouses of tentative citizens.

Lets keep each other updated as to how we are going to proceed with the application.

Thanks.
 
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