Filing petition I-130 for spoude

S

suraj chapagain

Member
Hi there,
Recently I got a green card and just got married too. I am trying to file I-130 petition for my wife who is also here in United students in F-1 opt status. One of my close relative told me that I can file I-130 form and i-485 (adjustment of status) form same time at the beginning, which i doubt it. Is it true that I can file both form at a same time? Since the priority date does not seem current, How long it gonna take to get done whole process through green card?
 
Nope. You can file them at the same time only if she's in the Immediate Relative category (spouse, minor child, or parent of U.S. citizen), or if visa numbers in her category are currently current. Neither is the case. She's in the F2A (spouse and minor child of a permanent resident) category, for which visa numbers are currently only available for petitions filed more than 2 years ago.

You can file the petition, but it does not give your spouse any extra ability to stay in the U.S. She must still maintain some legal status in order to legally stay here. When the petition is approved AND her petition's priority date is current for F2A (petition will probably be approved first, so basically it's the wait for priority date to be current that determines wait time), she will be able to either file for Adjustment of Status (if she's in the U.S. at that time and in legal status), or go through Consular Processing (otherwise). Since there is a 2+ year wait on priority dates right now, maybe everything will take close to 3 years.
 
Thank you so much. I really appreciate your feedbacks.......I have got few more question if you don't mind.....
1. How about the work permit? Can we file work permit along with the I-130 form?
2. How long it gonna take to get I-130 approved? Is there any case where it has not been approved in past?
3. So the biographic information form (G-325a) has to be only submitted for my spouse right?
 
1. No, you can only apply for an EAD at the same time as, or after, applying for Adjustment of Status (I-485). (Of course, as an F1 student, she can also work under OPT, but that's a separate issue.)
2. It depends. Several months or a year or more, depending on the category. But how long it takes to get approved doesn't really matter in your case, because you also need the priority date to be current to go to the next step, and the wait for that is estimated to be 2+ years, so as long as I-130 approval is before that, there is no difference between if it gets approved in one month or one year.
3. A spouse-based I-130 needs two G-325a's: one for each spouse. See the I-130 instructions.
 
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