I-130 & F1 status

[BM4210]

Ok here is our situation:
i got married Jan of 2002, 4 days after I got my green card notice approval (missed out by 4 days)in Jan of 2002

i Filed an the I-130 application for my wife in June 2002. Received 1st Notice of receipt 2 weeks after stating that the case will take up to 345 days to process.
my wife is on F1 visa right now and would like to apply for EAD: is it feasible ?.

Also, we both have applied for our PR for canada, and it looks like we will get it by en of this year.

Now my other question is Whats next for us:
should we give up on the I-130 and move to canada until i become US citizen or wait here ?
When will her I-130 get approved? it is at NSC
After the approval what do we do next?
thanks in advance for your comments

 

[mgh2001]

my wife is on F1 visa right now and would like to apply for EAD: is it feasible ?.

>> She can based on OPT Training only. Not on filing of I-130 or anything else.

Now my other question is Whats next for us:
should we give up on the I-130 and move to canada until i become US citizen or wait here ?

>> Its really your decision. Getting the I-130 petition approval does nothing until you become a U.S citizen. Having an I-130 petition filed for a spouse does not give her any special rights (even after approval). She still has to wait for an immigrant priority visa dates or until you naturalize to file I-485 and adjust status. You cannot move to Canada and hope to get naturalized here ( see requirements for Naturalization - you need to reside continuously in teh U.S for certain # of days to be able to naturalize).

When will her I-130 get approved? it is at NSC
>> Typically it takesa long time (like 1-2 years) since theres
nothing one can do based on I-130 approval - see above.

After the approval what do we do next?
>> Not much. Just have to wait until visa dates are available or you naturalize

>> one thing to keep in mind is that your wife cannot travel on F-1 since an F-1 requires non-immigrant intent and having an I-130 filed for her clearly conveys immigrant intent. This applies even coming in from Canada.

The best approach is for her to get on an H-1 or L-1 visa and ride it out for the next few years. perhaps if Congress acts and eases the V-visa restrictions, there might be some relief.