Green Card - Should I apply through marriage or through employer?

L

luckypin

New Member
My employer is willing to sponsor my green card, has gone through the advertisement process and is almost ready to file the application. I'm also getting married to an American citizen next month. I'm not sure if I should stop the company process and apply through marriage. Can you give me advice on this? How long would each method take? Are there any complications in either way?
Thanks!
 
What would be the category of the employment-based green card? EB1, EB2, EB3, or something else? And are you from India or China? Those factors greatly influence the length of time and complexity of the employment based process.

The employment-based green card has an advantage in that upon approval you directly get a 10-year* green card, whereas you would get a 2-year conditional card for marriage-based followed by another round of paperwork and possibly another interview to extend it to a 10 year card. And employment-based green cards usually don't require an interview, but the interview is mandatory for marriage-based.

The big disadvantage is that if you are in EB2 India/China, or EB3 (any country), or the employment-based process will take years.


*except EB5 investor green cards which initially result in a 2-year card.
 
If you're going to apply for marriage-based, don't stop the employment-based one until you actually get married and have filed the papers for the marriage-based process and gotten the receipt for it.
 
Thanks for the answers. My category is EB2 and I'm not from India or China. I hear in my case the process may take about a year, compared to about 6 months through marriage. Is that what you've observed?
 
luckypin said:
Thanks for the answers. My category is EB2 and I'm not from India or China. I hear in my case the process may take about a year, compared to about 6 months through marriage. Is that what you've observed?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's approximately in line with what I've observed here and elsewhere. Maybe a bit faster.

But with marriage-based you'd be facing the extra cost and paperwork a couple years later to extend from a 2-year to a 10-year card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top