Need advice on my status

S

sesame chicken

Registered Users (C)
Below is my current situation:
1)H1-B expires on Sept 1st 2007; Company is laying off people. I am one of them and as a result, my visa will not be renewed. But the company did agree to let me work for them till Sept 1st.
2) Have a boy friend who is a USC. I have known him for about 2 years. He has indicated of wanting to marry me some day. I also told him if he wants me to stay with him, we need to get married so I can get an EAD card, which can help me to find a local job, otherwise I have to look for jobs somewhere else. He said he would not let me leave him and he would marry me if that's the case.

Question 1): I only have 3 months left to stay in US legally. And as far as I know, my boyfriend and his family want to have a nice wedding if we do intend to get married. I know we need to get a marriage license before the ceremony and then return it to local clerk's office later for recording purpose. I wonder if I can start my paperwork right after I get the marriage license instead of waiting for it being recorded at the local clerk's office? beause wedding preparation could take about 1-2 months.

Question 2): If something goes wrong (such as missing documents) during the application process, will I be out of status if I don't get I-130 /I485 approval on time?

Thanks.
 
As per my knowledge, illegal stay upto 180 days is forgiven.
Even if you are out of status and married to USC, you are still forgiven.
 
Answer 1: You can go ahead and submit documents. But you need a marriage certificate for the I-130, you can start filing out forms and such but there is no point in sending something incomplete to USCIS unless you definately have to.

Answer 2: You status will be "pending" as soon as you receive a "Receipt Notice" from USCIS for your I-485. Which usually takes 2 weeks after you file it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The USCIS need a copy of your marriage certificate and not the marriage license so you need to get married first and wait for your marriage certificate to be recorded then get a certified copy of it to be submitted with your I-130or you can include uncertified copy of your marriage certificate when you file your I-130 then just bring the original certified copy on your interview.

You can start filling out all the USCIS forms you need now and prepare all the documents needed on each forms so they will all be ready for filing to USCIS as soon as you get your marriage certificate.

Goodluck!
 
If it's so urgent, why can't you two have a civil wedding first for immigration purposes and then have a big ceremonial wedding later on while the immigration stuff is going through?
 
Looking back, that's also what we did coz we cant wait to get married and it takes time to prepare a formal wedding.:D
 

Actually, we found out im pregnant that's why we cant wait to get married before it shows although we already started our formal wedding preparation in Dec 2006. We had a nice wedding with our family and 168 guests in March 2007.
 
We also had a civil ceremony first. But we planned it for 2 years anyway, including me proposing twice, one year apart. :D The real planning started about 2-3 weeks before when I woke up one day and realized our planned wedding day was approaching fast. We had a couple other constraints, like our religion didn't allow our planned wedding location (outdoor wedding) and 2007 was not a good year to get married per my in mother-in-law's culture, so late 2006 it was! But it was beautiful nonetheless at the coast and everyone had lots of fun. Our church wedding is to be in 2008 in a thousand year old church in my home country.

Long story short I agree with the other's advice to have a civil ceremony first and a ceremonial one later. You might find that your simple spontaneous civil ceremony will later be more memorable than your planned big wedding!
 
I am a USC and I married an Egyptian about 4 years ago and we had to send in the marriage lic and the marriage cert ( had a mosque wedding and a 'big white wedding' at a chapel) as well as photos and letters from from family as proof that we were really married. We had a lawyer just to be on the safe side (still did not save us). We moved from TX to MO and finally got the interview after 3 years of marriage and we had to submit more info, then we got the bad letter his I-485 was denied because they could not figure out my mom was a USC, she's his sponser, and now we are in motion to reopen limbo. The best thing I can tell you is get every little piece of paper you need then file because if you don't want to end up in limbo like us.
 
austriacus said:
We also had a civil ceremony first. But we planned it for 2 years anyway, including me proposing twice, one year apart. :D The real planning started about 2-3 weeks before when I woke up one day and realized our planned wedding day was approaching fast. We had a couple other constraints, like our religion didn't allow our planned wedding location (outdoor wedding) and 2007 was not a good year to get married per my in mother-in-law's culture, so late 2006 it was! But it was beautiful nonetheless at the coast and everyone had lots of fun. Our church wedding is to be in 2008 in a thousand year old church in my home country.

Long story short I agree with the other's advice to have a civil ceremony first and a ceremonial one later. You might find that your simple spontaneous civil ceremony will later be more memorable than your planned big wedding!
Click to expand...

What religion is that if you do not mind me asking? :)
 
PraetorianXI said:
What religion is that if you do not mind me asking? :)
Click to expand...

Roman catholic. I believe it might depend on the specific area (archdioscese) if they allow outdoor weddings but the one where we live in the US sure didn't. Per my wife's suggestion, we released a flock of white doves at the coast after the ceremony, it was very peaceful ... and I think we ended up with a nice opportunity of havings two weddings for two different sets of friends and families in both countries!
 
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