Green Card Advise for the Son of a Citizen and marriage

[mx6mandave]

Hi,
I am in the process of submitting my I-130 under the Unmarried Child over 21.

I am a UK citizen by birth

My father is a US citizen by birth, unfortunatly he didnt submit my application before my 21st birthday and as he didnt have the residency requirements to transmit citizenship I am stuck with applying this route.

My question is this:
I am planning to marry at the end of this year. I want to get the application in as soon as possible as I did not realise there is such a huge wait, I presumed as the son of a citizen I would have priority no matter what age I was.

Can I apply now as an unmarried child over the age of 21 and then get married at the end of the year and change my status in my application? Or would I have to apply all over again?

Would it be quicker to wait until my visa is approved, then marry and then apply for my wife?

Would the application for my wife in this situation be immediate or would there be another lengthly wait.

I suppose what im asking is:
Is it quicker to apply as unmarried and recieve my visa then marry and apply for my wife
or
Apply now as unmarried then change the status to married.
or
Wait until we are married then apply?

I cant find this information anywhere and would appreciate some comments also what are the approximate waits for each of the options?
Thanks

 

[Concerned4us]

If you marry before you receive your GC, the petition moves to the proper category with the same priority date. If you marry after you receive a GC and file for a GC for your wife, she will not qualify for an immediate GC. She will have a several year wait as of current priority date. So you may recieve a GC faster but you will not be able to live together in the US.

You really need to read the USCIS family based immigration information. The state.gov has the Visa Bulletin which lists the processing date information which changes monthly.

 

[Jackolantern]

Is it quicker to apply as unmarried and recieve my visa then marry and apply for my wife

The first option puts you in family 1st preference, which gets you a green card a few years faster (5 years instead of 9 years), but the green card would be for you alone. Then you have to apply for your wife, which would mean another few years wait for her (currently 3 years for spouse of green card holder, but historically it has been at 4-5 years).

Apply now as unmarried then change the status to married.
or
Wait until we are married then apply?

There isn't a real difference between the last two options; either way you end up in the 3rd preference category and have to wait about 9 years. But both you and your wife would get a green card at the same time.