for jesse- pls help!

for jesse- pls help!

am an h1b worker and my visa is expiring this october. i have a fiancee, whose green card is still pending. my question is, in the event that we marry and he files for me, do i have legal status after october? suppose that i did not renew my h1b with my current employer, nor with a new one..

do i need to go back home and wait for the adjustment there? is there a difference between marrying him now while the green card is still pending, or marry him later after the approval has been out?

pls, i need some light!

thanks.

If you are on an H-1B and if there is a possibility of extending that, then I suggest you file for an extension. You marriage and subsequent filing of I-130 by your husband doesn't provide you with a legal status. When your husband does file the petition for you, it would still take 2-3 years before you can adjust. In the meanwhile you won't have any status based on that I-130. So, if you there's a way for you to extend your H-1B, you should pursue that.

thank you, jesse for your prompt reply. i will take note of your advice.

i came up with this question because one of the posts in this discussion board requesting a signed petition at immigration.com talked about unfair wait time facing the spouses and children of green card holders. the person who posted the discussion said that the law is more favorable to non-immigrants, whose spouses and children can adjust while the application is still pending. if a non-immigrant marries even a day before the gc approval comes out, then the spouse can adjust and be carried over to his gc application. as opposed to the same individual, in the event that he marries the very next day his gc application is approved, his spouses will be subject the the long wait, under the 2b category.

what do you say on this? also, at what stage is a green card approved? is it the date the green card is received in the mail or the date when the I-485 is adjudicated?

can a lawyer personally go to an INS office to ask the current status of an application,just so we will knw if we could marry now before the gc is approved, considering the scenario I stated above?

thanks a bunch, Jesse. You are a blessing to this discussion board.

If you were to be married before your husband gets a greencard and he includes you in his petition, then you can get your greencard as a derivative. In that case, there is no wait for you. On the other hand if you get married after he gets his greencard then he would have to file a separate petition for you and then you would have to wait a longer time to get your greencard.

In your situation, if your fiance is filing for his greencard, it would be beneficial for you two to get married. Because then you can get your greencard as a drivitative. (All this assumes that you came with inspection which I am assuming you did).

As for the date of when a person gets his greencard--it is the date on which the 485 is adjudicated and person's passport is stamped with I-551 stamp.

jesse, my fiancee's priority date seems to be april 2001 ( we have yet to check this), and todate, the California Service Center is processing November 2001 for the I-485. assuming that my fiance's I-485 has already been adjudicated/reviewed ( no news yet if there are additonal docs or there is a denial), is it still safe to get married now, before we get any correspondence from the INS or will it be too late? we would like to avoid the 2b category, so, we just wante to make it right..no interview has been scheduled so far..

and if we do get married now, what form do we need to fill up to amend and petition and include me in the petition?

thanks a lot, jesse. have a good weekend

this situation is being undergone by a friend of mine right now.. about marrying her fiance whose green card is yet to be adjudicated.

anybody who can answer this? what are the forms needed to submit in case an amendment ( adding a spouse to the 1-140/ I-485/ I765) is to be done..

thank you!

might be best to consult an attorney for the form. maybe you can use the same one who filed your fiance's employment based visa for consistency.

jusrt a thought.