marriage with a green card holder

J

jjpet1

Registered Users (C)
Hello everybody!

Here I have an urgent question regarding the status of a girl married to a green card holder ( => me :D). I would greatly appreciate it if anybody can shed any insight on this, thanks!

1. If the girl is already in US, after the marriage, can she apply for a I-130 (?) or some other petition to stay here legally? I mean can she stay in US infinitely before she finds a job to apply for a H1B or finds a school to apply for a F1?

2. If the girl currently is outside of US, can she come in on a visiting visa, say B1, J1 or some other type of short-term visa, and get married to me and stay here legally for the long term? (like going for a H1B or F1 later)

I know the two questions are pretty much asking the same thing with some minor subtle difference, it'd be a great deal of help if any of you can provide any input, thanks again!

--JJ
 
jjpet1 said:
1. If the girl is already in US, after the marriage, can she apply for a I-130 (?) or some other petition to stay here legally? I mean can she stay in US infinitely before she finds a job to apply for a H1B or finds a school to apply for a F1?
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You can file an I-130 for her, but this alone gives no right to stay in the United States. She'll need to maintain some other valid non-immigrant status. An F-1 with an i-130 will be problematic.

2. If the girl currently is outside of US, can she come in on a visiting visa, say B1, J1 or some other type of short-term visa, and get married to me and stay here legally for the long term?
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No. Essentially, the I-130 gives no right to stay, no special benefits or privileges, and makes entering on most non-immigrant visas harder.
 
oh no, god, why are they making GC holder's life so miserable!!! :(

TheRealCanadian said:
You can file an I-130 for her, but this alone gives no right to stay in the United States. She'll need to maintain some other valid non-immigrant status. An F-1 with an i-130 will be problematic.



No. Essentially, the I-130 gives no right to stay, no special benefits or privileges, and makes entering on most non-immigrant visas harder.
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well you can file i130 while on F1 but that does not give you any right to live here nor will help you to get in status , i am in same situation and i filed for my wife she was on F1 and her i130 was aproaved in 2005, so my point of view is file for i130 as soon as possible once u get married. some times your visa no. comes early then your spouses citizenship,
 
faith4u said:
so my point of view is file for i130 as soon as possible once u get married. some times your visa no. comes early then your spouses citizenship,
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I am of a different opinion - the filed I-130 makes entry on an F (or anything other than an H/L) much more difficult in return for next to nothing. The FB2A priority date takes over 5 years to become current, so the only advantage of an earlier priority date is if the N400 takes a while and the marriage occurs quite soon after the PR spouse gets a Green Card.

If the PR spouse is only a year or two away from citizenship, to me the drawbacks of filing the I-130 outweigh any possible advantages.
 
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