Question about getting married.

[disneymom]

Hello,

So, my boyfriend has a current petition with his US citizen mom. She applied on March 2008 (he's over 21). Now, bf and I are talking about marriage, but before we do anything, we want to make sure his petition is not gonna be affected by our marriage. I have no legal status besides being a deferred action by childhood arrival recipient, and so is he. Should we just wait until his petition gets approved?? TIA

PS: I'm not looking into getting in the petition, I don't want to be added

 

[Jackolantern]

He's over 21 and currently unmarried, so that would put him in the Family 1st preference category, otherwise known as F1. Currently the wait for F1 is about 7 years*, which would mean about 2 more years from now since the petition was filed 5 years ago. See http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5885.html

If he gets married, that would move him to Family 3rd preference (F3), which has a wait of almost 11 years, but you would be able to join him as a derivative beneficiary ... EXCEPT that under current law, neither of you are eligible to adjust status in any of the family categories from 1st to 4th preference. Those family categories require being outside the US, or inside the US with legal status in order to obtain green card approval. But leaving the US would trigger the 10-year ban. So neither of you is getting a green card through his mom's petition unless the law is changed (or unless he qualifies under an old law from over 10 years ago ... see below**) or he waits outside the US for 10 years or gets a waiver (which is very difficult).


*20 years for Mexico, 15 years for the Philippines, as you can see in the Mexico and Philippines columns in the Visa Bulletin.

**if he was here in the US early enough and had the necessary paperwork filed on his behalf before the cutoff in April 2001 to qualify for 245(i), he might be able to get a green card in the US despite the lack of legal status.