Transitioning from O1 to green card via marriage

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Maxfish21

New Member
I am a Canadian citizen working in the US on an O1 valid through July of 2015. I have been in the US for two years and this is my second O1 visa (different employers). I will be marrying a US citizen soon (for love!) and applying for my green card.

Are there any pitfalls to this transition? I know my O1 is a non-immigrant status and I truly did enter the country without any intention of becoming a lawful permanent resident or citizen. Will my GC application be processed any faster due to already having a US visa? And, once I receive my GC, can I get dual US-Canadian citizenship? I do have an attorney I used for the prior two O1 visas and will probably retain her again. Just wondering before I pay more legal fees if anyone has advice!
 
Maxfish21 said:
I know my O1 is a non-immigrant status and I truly did enter the country without any intention of becoming a lawful permanent resident or citizen.
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Then you should be fine, especially if you do not file your I-485 within 90 days of your last entrance to the US.

Will my GC application be processed any faster due to already having a US visa?
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No.

And, once I receive my GC, can I get dual US-Canadian citizenship?
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After several years.

Just wondering before I pay more legal fees if anyone has advice!
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Just have your spouse and yourself file the forms. You don't need a lawyer for this, except for at most a document review.
 
O1 visas are quasi-dual-intent visas, so applying to immigrate soon after entering with it generally isn't a problem. However the dual intent provision isn't as strong as with H1B/H4/L1/L2, so you probably couldn't get an O1 visa if you already had a pending adjustment of status application.
 
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