Coworker got remarried before 5 years of being a Permanent Resident

[Southern_Canadian 0]

Hey guys,

I hope this is the right forum to post this, if not... feel free to move it to where it belongs.

I trained a new employee for my department yesterday and it turns out that he moved to the US a few years ago on a K1 Visa from Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) as well. Such a small world!!

We were talking about Canada and the things we miss and he brought up that he got a divorce from his ex wife after two years of marriage and filed for Removal of Conditions and was approved. He will be filing for Naturalization in December as he will have been a Permanent Resident for 5 years. What striked me as odd is that he got remarried to a US citizen last year.

The odd part about that is I thought I read somewhere that you can't remarry a US Citizen until being a Permanent Resident for 5 years. Hmm, I might be wrong but he is worried that it will mess things up for him in the future, when it comes time for the Naturalization process. We searched on here yesterday but we didn't find anything about this type of situation. I told him I would check to see if anyone knew of anything and told him that he should make an account on here because everyone is very helpful.

So, what he is wondering is will it mess things up for when he files for Naturalization or will he be fine? He was also wondering, if there is this 5 year rule for people that get divorced before 3 years of marriage, why was he given a Marriage License? I doubt if they typed his name in the system that a big advisory flashed saying, not allowed to remarry for X number of years! Lol then again, maybe it did and the lady ignored it? Ha!

Any ideas, opinions, suggestions, etc are appreciated. I feel bad that he is worried now.. I didn't meant to make the guy worried!

Thanks guys!!!!!

[YuAndDan 153]

No law or restrictions as to not being able to get married with less than 5 years residency.

You may be confusing when an LPR can file for citizenship, which is 3 years if continuously married to same US Citizen entire 3 years, or at 5 years of residency if not married to same US Citizen.

[Haarp425 26]

You can get married if you are divorced, widowed, or single, regardless of your status in the USA. No 3 or 5 year rules applies.

[Southern_Canadian 0]

When we did a search yesterday, we found this:

Q: What if I remarry a US citizen?

A: Still, the alien must have been married to a US citizen for 3 years, before becoming eligible under Section 319 of the INA. In the case of a remarriage to a US citizen, the alien will accrue 5 years of permanent residency becoming eligible for naturalization in accordance with the regulations specified inSection 316 of the Act, prior to the new marriage qualifying the alien under Section 319.

Guess we got it confused!

Thanks guys for the help! I can't wait to tell him the good news when he comes to work at 2!!

[TracyTN 237]

You definitely got it confused. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear the news!

[YuAndDan 153]

Since this turned into a Citizenship topic, I will move it there...