green card through marriage or lottery

S

Sama1380

New Member
Hello,

I won the lottery for 2017. and my case number is really good. I'm going to marry and my fiance is citizen.
Now I don't know which one is better to apply. the only difference I know is that through marriage after 3 years I can be citizen but by lottery after 5 years.
Which one is faster to receive the green card?
Which one is cheaper?
which one do you recommend?

Thanks,
 
One downside of getting green card through marriage is that, since your marriage will have been for less than 2 years at the time you become a permanent resident, you will become a conditional permanent resident, and have to file for Removal of Conditions, an expensive ($590) process and a hassle in general. If you become a permanent resident any other way, you will become a non-conditional permanent resident. Also, immigrating through a family-based category will require the petitioner to do a binding Affidavit of Support (I-864); whereas for DV, it will just need a non-binding Affidavit of Support (I-134) which doesn't create any legal obligations for anyone.

Since you haven't married yet, if you are out of the US, immigrating through your fiance will require either 1) he comes to your country to marry you first, or 2) you go to the US with a K-1 fiance visa, and marry, and go through the Adjustment of Status process which takes 10+ months for K-1s these days, before you become a permanent resident. Both routes seem worse than doing DV because, 1) the K-1 route takes longer to become a permanent resident and costs a lot more, 2) the spouse visa route requires waiting until he comes and marries you.

The 3-year rule doesn't depend on how you got your green card. As long as you've been a permanent resident for 3 years, and been married to a citizen for 3 years, you are eligible for naturalization.
 
Thank you so much for your response.
I'm actually living in USA as a PhD student. (F1 visa which is expired last Dec. but my I20 is valid till the end of Dec. 2017)
How long do you think it will take for me through marriage?
And one more question
If I submit form DS260 but after receiving the email, I change my mind and want to apply with marriage, what will happen? Will I face any problem in new applying or in my future life?

Thanks,
Sama
 
If you marry and file for Adjustment of Status, it will take 3-6 months. You could do Adjustment of Status for DV too, but you need to tell them to move the file from NVC to USCIS, and I don't know how long that would take. One problem with DV is that you must become a permanent resident before the end of the fiscal year, or you lose your eligibility. The extra time it takes to move the file to USCIS and the slowness of AOS might drag that out too long, so you might want to stick with Consular Processing for DV (though it may not be that big a problem if your number is good).

Anyway, you can have multiple AOS's going on at the same time and they won't conflict. And yes, if you change your mind with the Consular Processing you could do AOS here; all you would lose is the fees you have paid.
 
newacct said:
If you marry and file for Adjustment of Status, it will take 3-6 months. You could do Adjustment of Status for DV too, but you need to tell them to move the file from NVC to USCIS, and I don't know how long that would take. One problem with DV is that you must become a permanent resident before the end of the fiscal year, or you lose your eligibility. The extra time it takes to move the file to USCIS and the slowness of AOS might drag that out too long, so you might want to stick with Consular Processing for DV (though it may not be that big a problem if your number is good).

Anyway, you can have multiple AOS's going on at the same time and they won't conflict. And yes, if you change your mind with the Consular Processing you could do AOS here; all you would lose is the fees you have paid.
Click to expand...

1. NVC has nothing to do with a DV case, KCC handles that.

2. The petitioner does not request for the file to be moved, the assigned FO (Field Office) contacts KCC directly to request for the DV case file.

3. Countless number of petitioners have successfully processed their DV selection via AOS before the end of the applicable FY.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top