Immigration Status Through Child

[overcast]

So I am an American Citizen and my girlfriend is not, she was over on a student visa until she graduated and now has some kind of continuation visa where she can stay in the country for another year to try and get a job.

We have recently found out that she is pregnant and is due 10 days before her visa expires many months from now. My question is, would she have a right to stay in the country indefinitely as the mother of an American citizen if we do not marry? Would she really be deported 9+ months pregnant if she is more than 10 days late with the pregnancy?

thx

 

[Jackolantern]

The US citizen child must be 21 in order for the parent to immigrate based on the parent-child relationship. So the birth of this child will not give her any right to stay anytime soon.

They're not going to deport her near the end of her pregnancy or right after birth. But if she doesn't leave the US or do something else to maintain legal status, eventually she'll show up on the radar, and she may be deported at any random time in the future, whether it is weeks, months, or years later.

 

[TheRealCanadian]

My question is, would she have a right to stay in the country indefinitely as the mother of an American citizen if we do not marry?

No.

Would she really be deported 9+ months pregnant if she is more than 10 days late with the pregnancy?

They don't show up on your doorstep the day after your visa expires to deport you. She needs to be careful on an overstay since a longer overstay has negative consequences.

 

[overcast]

Yes, but the overstay would be impossible to avoid on a medical basis so I had an idea there may be an exception for that. I know an overstay would complicate her coming back, so it is a big deal. I have heard stories of people overstaying just to have a longer holiday and then coming back years later to get rejected at customs.

td

No.



They don't show up on your doorstep the day after your visa expires to deport you. She needs to be careful on an overstay since a longer overstay has negative consequences.

 

[Jackolantern]

Does she have an F1 visa? If yes, it appears she is using the Optional Practical Training (OPT) which gives her a year after graduation to work in her field of study. However, OPT only allows being without work for a total of 90 days in the authorized one-year period. So if she stops working due to the pregnancy she may use up the 90 days long before the year is done. I'm not aware of medical exceptions to the 90-day rule.

However, if she manages to stay to the end of the authorized year either by working enough days or getting a medical exception, she will have an additional 60-day grace period to leave the country. The time spent in the US in that 60-day period is not considered a violation; it is a provision built into the law for student visas.