Getting married in July to fiance with F-1 (OPT), need advice

[sckulp]

Hi everyone,

We are in a slightly complicated situation -- my fiance and I are getting married at the beginning of July, and we want to get her a green card as soon as possible afterward. I am a US citizen, she has an F-1 visa, under OPT. She has a job right now, but she is leaving the job in June, and has not yet found a new one in her field. So, the OPT expires on July 30.

I am thinking that if we apply for the green card before July 30, everything is fine. However, we really want to go to our honey moon out of country for a week, and then visit her family in China, and have a reception there, since most of her family won't be able to come to the US for the actual wedding.

The question is... is this possible? Is she allowed to leave the country, and come back before the end of July? Or would the person an immigration inspection at the airport force her back to China, since her visa would expire in like a week? I know that we can apply for an advance parole, but this takes a couple months, and if she does (hopefully) find a job, it would start in late august/september (she's a teacher), and so we won't be able to go anywhere then.

We were thinking that we could get a marriage certificate right now (or like, next week) and then apply for the green card and advance parole immediately, but then I think they would deny it due to lack of evidence (no wedding pictures or real ceremony)... Does anyone have thoughts? Help with this would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Jackolantern]

She should forget about using the F1 visa to travel again. Way too risky at this stage.

If you marry now and file the paperwork ASAP, she should get the Advance Parole before (but not long before) the end of July. You won't have much evidence to submit with the application, but you can accumulate evidence while waiting for the interview, and then bring it to the interview. Make sure that includes evidence of both of you traveling to China (ticket receipts, boarding passes), and preferably pictures with both of you taken at a recognizable place in China.

Note that it can take a couple of weeks to get the results of the I-693 medical exam. So start making calls today to get an appointment.

 

[newacct]

Not only is she not going to be able to enter on F1 because she intends to immigrate, even if that wasn't an issue, they do not let people re-enter the U.S. on OPT without a job offer or proof of continuing job, which she won't have.