Student visa married to green card holder ( citizen in 2 years)

[Maria91 0]

Hello everyone

A friend of mine is in a very weird situation , could you help her ?

I never encounter this case before.

Her fiance and they will get married soon .

She is under student visa ( F1) and he is green card holder , he will be citizen in 28 months .

She planning to work under OPT at the end of my program in December 2013.

So she will work January 2014 to January 2015. Plus she will stay during my 60 days of grace so for now she is sure to stay until March 2015 with her husband.

In August 2015 her husband will get the citizenship and will sponsor her to get a green card . So between March and August what are her possibilities ?

If he sponsor her right after our marriage while still under his green card should she get her status adjusted in august 2015 and receive the green card this month or should she wait 5-6 month after August ?

Thanks !

Edited February 4, 2013 by Maria91

[Darnell 8,478]

all hinges round his citizenship acquiring date, for what she can do, and how.

There was another case like this, discussed here earlier in the week.

[newacct 688]

How can you be sure that "he will be citizen in 28 months"? The length of the naturalization process is uncertain and there are some people for whom it has taken more than a year.

She may be able to find a job during OPT that will sponsor her for an H1b visa, so it is possible that she will still be in legal status when he gets citizenship.

If she isn't able to do that, and her authorized stay ends before he applies for citizenship, I would be worried (I don't have any knowledge about this; just guessing) that maybe it will come up during his citizenship application that his spouse is staying in the U.S. illegally; and that maybe it will negatively impact his citizenship application. Maybe someone who has more experience with this can chime in.

[hmh33 117]

F2A (spouse and children of LPR) immigrant visa numbers are currently available for priority dates prior to October 2010: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_5856.html

That is approx 27 months ago. But for petitions filed now, the time until a number is available could be greater or less than 27 months. If it ends up being less than 26 months, then an I-130 filed within the next few weeks for her (as the wife of an LPR) would let her file to adjust status before her post-OPT grace period expires. And if it takes longer than 28 months, once the husband becomes a USC he can notify USCIS to "upgrade" the petition. Worst case, she'd have to either leave the country for a couple of months during the gap, find another temporary nonimmigrant status, or go out of status for a short period (this might be a pretty bad idea since ICE has been tough on F-1 overstays recently). In any event it seems that for now the best thing for them to do is marry ASAP and file that I-130. Then see how things develop over the next couple of years.

[AnotherLostSoul 167]

I am totally confused...you say "my program" and "our marriage" so I have a hard time following who are you talking about, who is in what situation...if it is you and your wife you might as well say that...the whole story would make more sense...please clarify...