Need opinion about marrying after getting a GC

M

Miss.PinK

Registered Users (C)
OK. Some people say that it will took 5 years for our spouse to get their gc if they marry us (the GC holder). BUT if we are a citizen then it took them only 6 months to get a GC.

Is this mean. it's better to wait until I get my citizenship n get married?

or juz married while I have a GC and apply my spouse a gc.
what about "when" the GC processing still take in place and I get my citizenship. NOW that is CONFUSING!

and one more thing. I apply greencard lottery last year. what's gonna happen if I get that GC lottery while I already have a gc from asylum. now this one is confusing too.

anyway .. any comments are welcome. I have these questions for quite a while ...
 
I can only answer this one :"and one more thing. I apply greencard lottery last year. what's gonna happen if I get that GC lottery while I already have a gc from asylum. now this one is confusing too. "...Nothing will happen. Just one opportunity someone else might have had will be wasted because they do not offer it to the next randomly chosen person. I had applied too but I have never really been lucky with "lottery" so I doubt I would win anyway.
 
Miss.PinK said:
OK. Some people say that it will took 5 years for our spouse to get their gc if they marry us (the GC holder). BUT if we are a citizen then it took them only 6 months to get a GC.

Is this mean. it's better to wait until I get my citizenship n get married?

or juz married while I have a GC and apply my spouse a gc.
what about "when" the GC processing still take in place and I get my citizenship. NOW that is CONFUSING!

and one more thing. I apply greencard lottery last year. what's gonna happen if I get that GC lottery while I already have a gc from asylum. now this one is confusing too.

anyway .. any comments are welcome. I have these questions for quite a while ...
Click to expand...

If you have a GC, you can apply for I-130(peition for alien relative), your spouse. The wait times for that category(F2A) is 4 years right now.

WHen you apply for your spouse, you send your forms to USCIS and they dont approve your case until visa is ready for your spouse or they approve it 1 or 2 years before your visa is ready. The embassy doesn't get any paperwork from USCIS until they are ready to process your spouse visa.

When you become a citizen, there is no wait, the wait is only the processing time and you can upgrade your I-130 petition very easily.

IF you win the lottery, you can't do anything, you are already adjusted. If you didn't have your GC, you coudl've filed the application.
Hope this helps.
 
this is essentially correct, pink. for USC petitioner (status IR-1), the visa is available immediately, which can mean as little as a few months you will be on your way. it depends where you live and i don't know how backlogged san francisco is now. but it will be quick. there is nothing saying you can't get married now and petition later. question for you is- how far along are you to getting GC? if you already have it, it might be worthwhile to wait. if just getting it now, you may be just as well to petition. it also depends (in GC case) on what country you are coming from. there are numerical limits (status F-21 or C-21). some lines are much longer than others.
 
Miss.PinK said:
OK. Some people say that it will took 5 years for our spouse to get their gc if they marry us (the GC holder). BUT if we are a citizen then it took them only 6 months to get a GC.

Is this mean. it's better to wait until I get my citizenship n get married?

or juz married while I have a GC and apply my spouse a gc.
what about "when" the GC processing still take in place and I get my citizenship. NOW that is CONFUSING!

and one more thing. I apply greencard lottery last year. what's gonna happen if I get that GC lottery while I already have a gc from asylum. now this one is confusing too.

anyway .. any comments are welcome. I have these questions for quite a while ...
Click to expand...

If you have greencard and you win a lottery, you have to cancel one of them. You can't have two greencards at the same time, and also it does not make sense.

About the greencard, citizenship and marriage, it is good idea to apply visa for you spouse any time. For example, If you have greencard and you marry and you apply a visa for your spouse once you become a citizen all you need is send a copy of your naturalization certificate to the service that is procesing the case, this time your case will be moved from the greencard category to the citizen category. Also applying visa for your spouse while in greencard status strengthens your credibility..............Good luck... :)
 
You should also know that once you apply for your spouse. You CANNOT expect your spouse to be approved for a student visa or a vistor visa. Lot of Green Card Holders get stuck in this situation where you apply for your husband/wife's I-130, they try to obtain student/visitor visa and everytime they get denied. If you lie on your visa application that you have no fiance\husband in U.S and get denied, later on when obtaining approved visa on your case, you will be stuck as to why you lied on your visa application before.

Student/Visitor Visa is a non-immigrant visa whereas your spouse intentions are to immigrate to United States, hence the denial. H-1 is a dual intent visa but its very hard to get h-1 with the limited quota.

Before you fall in love, make sure you look at your status...I didn't and even though my wife is here on H-1, we are in a limbo since her visa expires in a year and her company will not sponsor her GC...So in a year time, either she has to leave or transfer her h-1 to student visa($$$costly)..

However, if they approve the amnesty, EVERY illegal alien would be allowed to bring his spouse without any problems. BUT LPR spouses will have to wait for visas...
 
Thank You

Thank you for all the information. I am glad to know that I'll be given an option to upgrade for my spouse case. Does he need to be present in United States though during all the process? But what will he do in here? he cannot work, ... the only option probably taking his master degree.

or .. can we process his GC without him has to be present in united states?
coz' he has a job in my country.
 
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ok, i see you just got your card. so you have a full five years to wait. there is no regulation as to whether he is in country or not, however you must remember, as want says, that he will not be approved for any NIV if he has a pending I-130 (or any pending IV). if he is already here, you can petition, but be aware that he must not depart unless he can return on a valid visa. which will be difficult to obtain. he can overstay his current visa as long as he does not trigger the bar to entry by departing. they will waive the overstay for the IR-1 category. this is only if he entered lawfully.
 
Miss.PinK said:
Thank you for all the information. I am glad to know that I'll be given an option to upgrade for my spouse case. Does he need to be present in United States though during all the process? But what will he do in here? he cannot work, ... the only option probably taking his master degree.

or .. can we process his GC without him has to be present in united states?
coz' he has a job in my country.
Click to expand...


Miss-Pink what country are you coming from? There are certain countries, Like Ethopia, Afghanistan...etc, that you can apply refugee status for your spouse. You file an Affidavit of relationship. It normally takes a year to two, but there are no requirement for you to work or have money. But this purely depends on the country you are comingg from. if you are not coming from those countries then you need to go for the visa........
 
faysal said:
Miss-Pink what country are you coming from? There are certain countries, Like Ethopia, Afghanistan...etc, that you can apply refugee status for your spouse. You file an Affidavit of relationship. It normally takes a year to two, but there are no requirement for you to work or have money. But this purely depends on the country you are comingg from. if you are not coming from those countries then you need to go for the visa........
Click to expand...
Hi Faysal,

Can you please elaborate on this? It's seems very interesting and might work on my case. Can you please tell me if you can do this if spouse is already in the US? Thanks!
 
i have to disagree just a bit here, pink. there is a I-730 form for asylees, which establishes your relationship to your spouse. but this is to be used only PRIOR to being granted your asylum. too late for you. the AOR process is different and is now being looked at much differently by CIS. can't go into the details here, but it would be much more helpful for someone who came through an OVERSEAS refugee program and NOT asylum in US. similar but different. perhaps faysal had a different experience, but that may have been a few years ago or under different circumstances. sorry to say, but there is no magic door here. path available to you is I-130. it is not bad news, you simply must be patient. you are way ahead of most hopefuls.
 
Miss.PinK said:
or .. can we process his GC without him has to be present in united states?
coz' he has a job in my country.
Click to expand...

Yes, the process can be done while he is in his country, but remember that he won't be able to get a visa of any kind to come here while his case is pending.
 
nasrmobin said:
You may want to call your local resettelment Agency and ask them for more details. I filed with IRC (International Rescue Committe). Ask for AOR program and tell them your story.

Good Luck
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Thanks nasrmobin. And did it work for you? I am just hearing about this and I am very curious about it. When you say local resettlement Agency, do you mean local as in America or local in my COP? Was your spouse in another country? When I searched the USCIS about AOR only one thing comes up and it says something about Kenya and it doesn't say much! I will try to find more info as well, but can you tell me how it works, whom it works for etc...?
 
uhm...

thank you for all the information. I'm from Indonesia. and honestly, I prefer that he stay there (in our country) until he can get his greencard. I don't want him to come here with no status and do nothing (I don't think he can work legally in here if the status still pending, rite?). he better off in our country do his thing 'n reunite with me when the time is come.

so it's okay for him to stay in our country until all the process done 'n he get his greencard ?
 
Miss.PinK said:
thank you for all the information. I'm from Indonesia. and honestly, I prefer that he stay there (in our country) until he can get his greencard. I don't want him to come here with no status and do nothing (I don't think he can work legally in here if the status still pending, rite?). he better off in our country do his thing 'n reunite with me when the time is come.

so it's okay for him to stay in our country until all the process done 'n he get his greencard ?
Click to expand...

Well first thing you need to do is GET MARRIED and have a marriage certificate in hand. YOu need to file I-130 so that at least you are in the line. Laws can change in an instance, for instance there are couple of bills in congress that says that if LPR's applied for I-130 for your spouse and its been 1 year, your spouse will get a V Visa to come here and work etc. Some bills have it as 6 months..some at 3 years...There are bills in congress that eliminate the family backlogs so it depends where in line are you.

You can wait till you become citizen or you can file I-130 now as an LPR and hope that laws change. In 2000, before exiting the white house, Clinton passed the V Visa bill that allowed anyone LPR spouse waiting for over 3 years to be able to immigrate to the United States. But it applied to certain individuals who filed the I-130. That bill expired.

Both bills(by republicans & democrats) presented in the Senate including provisions to help LPR spouses by giving 250,000 more visas, cutting the wait time to maybe 2 years since the filing of your I-130. So the timing is right for this issue to be resolved finally.

Read this article published today that talks about this issue. Unitefamilies.org that was created for this issue and I am a member of that board helped push this article to production. I am organizing a rally for LPR's ONLY in washington d.c that is only for this issue. Separation of LPR spouses/kids. Please join that board and make sure you have your voice heard by faxing/calling your senators.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed.../04/12/families_pay_price_of_faulty_policies/
 
Want

WANT:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! .. :D
I'm so grateful to find this website. Everybody so helpful. Thanks again. And goodluck to everyone that still waiting. Hang in there!!!.
 
MGTgrl said:
Hi Faysal,

Can you please elaborate on this? It's seems very interesting and might work on my case. Can you please tell me if you can do this if spouse is already in the US? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The first thing you need is to know is that the person whom you are filing for must have included in your original case, which means for example if you are an asylee you must have claimed him/her in your original grant of asylum.

If your family member is in the US and you claimed on your original claim you can apply for them regarldless of where they are...however, there might be some time limitations, which I am not sure of..
 
faysal said:
The first thing you need is to know is that the person whom you are filing for must have included in your original case, which means for example if you are an asylee you must have claimed him/her in your original grant of asylum.

If your family member is in the US and you claimed on your original claim you can apply for them regarldless of where they are...however, there might be some time limitations, which I am not sure of..
Click to expand...

Faysal, if the family member was included in the orginal case, where is the problem????

This is about a different issue and asylee who marry after grant of asylum.
 
wantmygcnow said:
Well first thing you need to do is GET MARRIED and have a marriage certificate in hand. YOu need to file I-130 so that at least you are in the line. Laws can change in an instance, for instance there are couple of bills in congress that says that if LPR's applied for I-130 for your spouse and its been 1 year, your spouse will get a V Visa to come here and work etc. Some bills have it as 6 months..some at 3 years...There are bills in congress that eliminate the family backlogs so it depends where in line are you.

You can wait till you become citizen or you can file I-130 now as an LPR and hope that laws change. In 2000, before exiting the white house, Clinton passed the V Visa bill that allowed anyone LPR spouse waiting for over 3 years to be able to immigrate to the United States. But it applied to certain individuals who filed the I-130. That bill expired.

Both bills(by republicans & democrats) presented in the Senate including provisions to help LPR spouses by giving 250,000 more visas, cutting the wait time to maybe 2 years since the filing of your I-130. So the timing is right for this issue to be resolved finally.

Read this article published today that talks about this issue. Unitefamilies.org that was created for this issue and I am a member of that board helped push this article to production. I am organizing a rally for LPR's ONLY in washington d.c that is only for this issue. Separation of LPR spouses/kids. Please join that board and make sure you have your voice heard by faxing/calling your senators.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed.../04/12/families_pay_price_of_faulty_policies/
Click to expand...
Thanks Wantmygcnow now for the link and the info. i will definitely sign up! ANd count me in on the rally. I live in VA and I am torn by the same issue because I got married after asylum approval. Now I am lucky that my husband is here with me, but his case is not going anywhere so I am not sure how long he is going to be able to stay here even after I get GC!

Also, I read the article and I had a question about one sentence: "If Sumathi had first gotten married and then applied for her green card, her husband would have been able to move here right away. " Does this apply only to people that apply to GC through other means and not asylum? I am asking this because I got married after asylum approval but before I applied for GC. How does it work?

Thanks :)
 
Miss.PinK said:
OK. Some people say that we are a citizen then it took them only 6 months to get a GC.

Is this mean. it's better to wait until I get my citizenship n get married?

and one more thing. I apply greencard lottery last year...... now this one is confusing too.

anyway .. any comments are welcome. I have these questions for quite a while ...
Click to expand...

Miss.Pink,

What is that you'd really like to do? If you feel getting married will make you happy, go for it. Don't worry about what if and etc.

USCIS has set rules and you have received several suggestion, I wont act like an expert but with so many Immigration legislation pending and not knowing what is next, If I were you I'd just make plans for the big day.

Adios. :)
 
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