USC marrying Foregin Citizen with pending family relative petition

[mcshiffleface 2]

Hi everyone, I have a bit of a marriage related predicament. Yes I'm "asking for a friend" (I'm person A in this case)

 

Person A:

• US Green Card Holder
• Expected to get US Citizenship through naturalization (5 year residency requirement will be met in June) by the end of 2024, unless something catastrophic happens.
• Canadian citizen.

 

Person B:

• Foreign Citizen, attending graduate school in Canada, holds Canadian student visa.
• Expected to get Post Graduate Work Permit for ~3 years after completing grad school.
• Apparently is part of a family relative petition that was submitted ~3-4 years ago. Petition was done for Person B's parents: B's mother's sister is a US Citizen, and petitioned for B's parents. B was included as a dependent.
• Applied for B1/B2 tourist visa in Canada, and has an interview scheduled for later in 2024. B has several extended family relatives in the US that they want to visit, as well as for tourism.

 

A and B plans on getting married, but will only do so after:

• A gets their US Citizenship
• B gets their Canada PGWP to extend their stay in Canada, as A is able to regularly visit Canada.

 

My questions are:

1. How does the pending family relative petition play into this? B is currently 24 and have potentially been aged out (need to confirm when exactly they submitted the petition however).
2. Is B even eligible for the B1/B2 visa that they applied for? (I suspect they might deny B's case because there has been an intent to permanently immigrate to the US, or am I wrong?)

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Boiler 43,857]

If they have not aged out now they will in the next few decades.

 

Up to the Consulate to determine if B qualifies for a B.

[Rocio0010 5,577]

19 minutes ago, mcshiffleface said:

Hi everyone, I have a bit of a marriage related predicament. Yes I'm "asking for a friend" (I'm person A in this case)

 

Person A:

• US Green Card Holder
• Expected to get US Citizenship through naturalization (5 year residency requirement will be met in June) by the end of 2024, unless something catastrophic happens.
• Canadian citizen.

 

Person B:

• Foreign Citizen, attending graduate school in Canada, holds Canadian student visa.
• Expected to get Post Graduate Work Permit for ~3 years after completing grad school.
• Apparently is part of a family relative petition that was submitted ~3-4 years ago. Petition was done for Person B's parents: B's mother's sister is a US Citizen, and petitioned for B's parents. B was included as a dependent.
• Applied for B1/B2 tourist visa in Canada, and has an interview scheduled for later in 2024. B has several extended family relatives in the US that they want to visit, as well as for tourism.

 

A and B plans on getting married, but will only do so after:

• A gets their US Citizenship
• B gets their Canada PGWP to extend their stay in Canada, as A is able to regularly visit Canada.

 

My questions are:

1. How does the pending family relative petition play into this? B is currently 24 and have potentially been aged out (need to confirm when exactly they submitted the petition however).
2. Is B even eligible for the B1/B2 visa that they applied for? (I suspect they might deny B's case because there has been an intent to permanently immigrate to the US, or am I wrong?)

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

How did person A get their green card?

 

1. There isn't necessarily a correlation between their pending family- based application and this new application. 

2. Anyone can be eligible for a B1/B2 visa. Not sure if that's what you want to ask. I think your question is: "what is the likelihood of a B1/B2 approval in this case?". Given that they have already demonstrated immigrant intent with their previous application AND the fact that they have strong ties to the US via person A and some more relatives, chances of approval are really, really low. However, there is no harm in trying so long as they are honest about their ties and petitions.

[mcshiffleface 2]

14 minutes ago, Rocio0010 said:

How did person A get their green card?

 

1. There isn't necessarily a correlation between their pending family- based application and this new application. 

2. Anyone can be eligible for a B1/B2 visa. Not sure if that's what you want to ask. I think your question is: "what is the likelihood of a B1/B2 approval in this case?". Given that they have already demonstrated immigrant intent with their previous application AND the fact that they have strong ties to the US via person A and some more relatives, chances of approval are really, really low. However, there is no harm in trying so long as they are honest about their ties and petitions.

 

Person A's green card was category E23. Parents were E21 and E22.

 

And yes, I could have worded question #2 better, you're spot on with what I was wondering. Thanks!

[mam521 1,848]

So, my question would be given the circumstances and knowing there's a chance B's visitor visa will be denied, what's the harm in getting married as soon as the PGWP is issued? Or sooner?  

 

Yes, it's significantly easier to bring B to the US when A is a citizen and there's nothing stopping waiting to file the I-130 after citizenship happens (you can file before and "upgrade" the petition, but it sounds like grad school will take some time anyway).  If you guys are married 2+ years, B enters the US on an IR-1, not a CR-1.  They get a 10 year greencard and you don't have to remove conditions.  The whole process takes 18-24mo as it is, with the I-130 being the slowest part of the process at the moment.  You could always pause the petition after the I-130 is approved and the petition is with NVC, planning to continue with it once a more final date for post grad graduation is known.  

[Boiler 43,857]

They can marry anytime. Seems the plan is to marry in a year or so.

[mcshiffleface 2]

Apologies for necro-ing this thread, but I wanted to provide an update on my situation. 

 

We decided we're going to live in Canada after my N-400 gets approved and I become a USC.

Will be living in a border city so I won't have to change jobs either (in fact it would be a shorter commute than it is currently for me lol)