TN VISA RECENTLY MARRIED TO AMERICAN BUT HAVE NOT STARTED GREENCARD PROCESS

[canucka 0]

hi, i'm a canadian working in the us with a TN VISA.

i recently got married to an american but have not filed any paperwork to start the process to get a greencard. if i have not changed anything with my TN status, do you think it will be difficult for me to go across the border to canada and return into the us? will the border guard be able to know that i got married a few months ago? i have read other postings in which people say that once you get married you now have intent to immigrate, but if i havent applied for a greencard yet, and nothing else has changed with my job, could it not be possible that i could plan to stay for the rest of my time on the visa and then my husband and i plan to move back to canada?

we have not decided yet if we will stay in the us or immigrate to canada, the holidays are quickly approaching and i have been told its too late to apply for a special permission (not sure what that is called) to be able to cross over and return.

can anyone please offer any advice or links to help me out?

thank you!

[Pitaya 2,577]

Welcome to the forum.

[TBoneTX 47,594]

Welcome to the forum -- am moving your thread to the Canada regional forum, for probably the best concentration of knowledgeable advice.

[fellaamazing 72]

TN visa, or any visa, converting to green card is tricky.

I really hope your TN visa has enough time left to completely process your green card.

If you do, good. If not, you will be in limbo, and probably have to wait in Canada once your TN status expires, possibly losing job. Since you are married, you have already established an intention to make US your permanent home, rather than temporary, which was always meant to be your intention with TN visa.

In any case, you should start the process of filing I-130. Do it using premium processing. I recommend consular processing over adjustment of status. And DO NOT visit Canada or go out of United States until your consular processing appointment.

It is not about border guard anymore. It is about history of your entry. Every time you enter US using your TN status, you reassert your temporary intention. That history can be troubling getting you green card.

Disclaimer: I am not immigration attorney. Ask professional for particular advice on your case.

Edited October 27, 2015 by fellaamazing

[brentos 53]

TN visa, or any visa, converting to green card is tricky.

I really hope your TN visa has enough time left to completely process your green card.

If you do, good. If not, you will be in limbo, and probably have to wait in Canada once your TN status expires, possibly losing job. Since you are married, you have already established an intention to make US your permanent home, rather than temporary, which was always meant to be your intention with TN visa.

In any case, you should start the process of filing I-130. Do it using premium processing. I recommend consular processing over adjustment of status. And DO NOT visit Canada or go out of United States until your consular processing appointment.

It is not about border guard anymore. It is about history of your entry. Every time you enter US using your TN status, you reassert your temporary intention. That history can be troubling getting you green card.

Disclaimer: I am not immigration attorney. Ask professional for particular advice on your case.

There is no premium processing for family based visa's. That is just for employment based ones. So you are looking at 10-12 months or more from submitting your I-130.

[Melibelle 10]

I believe the only time having a TN will cause a problem is when it's up for renewal - you won't be able to renew it once this one expires. But as for traveling now, I don't see why it would be an issue. Presumably you are resident in the US now, so if they ask where you're going, you just say you're going back to your job. CBP doesn't know your marital status and you should have evidence of your ties to Canada from when they gave you the visa. I'd bring that stuff along, so you can show you still have intent to move back to Canada. We didn't travel after we were married, but I crossed the border a couple of times with him as my boyfriend at the time and no one questioned his intent while he had the TN. He was only hassled when he tried to come as a visitor.

If you do decide to stay in the US, do the adjustment of status well before your TN expires. Even though a TN is a non-immigrant intent visa, it hasn't seemed to have been a problem for us or other folks on here, so long as you didn't lie about intending to stay when they let you in. It actually didn't come up at all during our interview. It's a lot faster than you leaving the US and filing the paperwork abroad, which as the previous poster mentioned, could take 10 months.

Also, if you're thinking about going back to Canada, you might want to start looking at that paperwork now as well. When I checked last year, getting Canadian permanent residency was taking about a year as well.

[Melibelle 10]

CBP doesn't know your marital status

Sorry, I should update this to say that I don't believe CBP knows your marital status. It's possible, but I can't see county clerks forwarding marriage certificates to the immigration authorities. My husband's status in the US never came up when we were getting married.

[warlord 73]

With the TN status (remember it is not a visa), it is only a temporary document allowing working for a certain time limit (now 3 years). After that of course it is done and you need to apply for a new one. Since the TN status is a temporary permit only and not for permanent residency, it can be revoked easily.

With that, once you marry, technically your TN status is in active, however that part doesn't cause any concern if your TN status is still active for at least 6 or so months (longer the better) to work. The issue however, is with your case travelling. Once married the TN status because you have married a USC and have technically moved towards permanent residency (whether you consider that or not), has been abandoned. Now as I stated you can still work and they don't seem to worry about that at all. Leaving the country is where the risk will be the highest. Any officer that realizes you are married and still trying to cross over using the TN status is most likely to deny your entrance and terminate your TN status.

This is why it's the most important thing to do when getting married is file away the AP/EAD document. The EAD one just goes at the same time and is only for work, but the AP is the one you will need.

So avoid the hassle and game of Russian Roulette of wondering if the border agents will find out if you are married or not. Remember now days with scanning of passports and such, they are able to see a lot more details about a person than they used to see...

[khuranak 0]

With the TN status (remember it is not a visa), it is only a temporary document allowing working for a certain time limit (now 3 years). After that of course it is done and you need to apply for a new one. Since the TN status is a temporary permit only and not for permanent residency, it can be revoked easily.

With that, once you marry, technically your TN status is in active, however that part doesn't cause any concern if your TN status is still active for at least 6 or so months (longer the better) to work. The issue however, is with your case travelling. Once married the TN status because you have married a USC and have technically moved towards permanent residency (whether you consider that or not), has been abandoned. Now as I stated you can still work and they don't seem to worry about that at all. Leaving the country is where the risk will be the highest. Any officer that realizes you are married and still trying to cross over using the TN status is most likely to deny your entrance and terminate your TN status.

This is why it's the most important thing to do when getting married is file away the AP/EAD document. The EAD one just goes at the same time and is only for work, but the AP is the one you will need.

So avoid the hassle and game of Russian Roulette of wondering if the border agents will find out if you are married or not. Remember now days with scanning of passports and such, they are able to see a lot more details about a person than they used to see...

I just want to reply so people are not scared. I am a Canadian citizen and got married to an American citizen in Aug 2014. I then travelled in and out of US multiple times (to UK, 3-4 times to Canada , Mexico, and 3 times to India ) and never had any issues coming back in. Any time my wife was with me, I never tried to hide that we are married.

We finally filed for AOS a month ago in Feb'16 and I just got my biometrics appointment.

In the mean time, I have been working in US since 2012 and I'm on my 4th TN with 4th employer.

So yeah, as better as it is to get your AOS going, you can continue on a TN pretty much as long as you like if you can show some connection to Canada. I have my parents there and I used that to show intent to live in Canada until now.