inquisitive40

Hi all,
well anyone that is familiar with my posts on the newsgroups may remember that I was waiting for a final decree on my divorce before I could remarry my girlfriend of 5 years. Well yesterday we had our final decree and I can get married after August 7th. Now this fits in ok with our plans, we are currently getting all the papers together for AOS and it is looking like between medical and getting my wife to be's tax transcripts, it will be around the time of the wedding we will be ready to file. My question is, how does filing within days of the marriage look to USCIS? Is this standard pracitice or what are people's normal time frame? My real "tiny" concern is that I am out of status (4 years) and that it might raise questions with USCIS.
For the moment we are just enjoying the moment with my divorce being finalized.
Patrick

Rete

You would file that day if you were able to get your hands on the certified/registered copy of your marriage certificate. The certified marriage certificate is needed for the filing. Some areas are quick to get it to you, others take weeks. Find out in your area what the wait is. Perhaps you might be able to make arrangements to handle delivered the signed copy to the registar's office yourself and walk out with the certified copy.

Rete

inquisitive40

Well the lawyer I have had suggested to just go down to the court house and get married, so this is what we are doing (no money to do anything else) and so from talking to the clerk, she said we can get a copy after the wedding. Our intent that day will be also to change my wife's name at Social Security office and also her California driving license. We get married at 11am and hope to get as much of it done as possible, anything that she needs to go to an office for, cause her work hours are the same as all those offices.
Hopefully we can get a fair bit done that day.
Patrick

Rete

Sounds like a good plan to me, Patrick. You need the original certified copy from the city hall and as long as you don't have to mail it in and wait for it to be returned, no reason, outside of long times, why she can't accomplish all and still have time for a wedding dinner with you, the family and friends.

Rete

inquisitive40

Thanks Rete for the help.
Hopefully all will go nice and smoothly
Patrick

Nobby

I always think its a tad on the strange side why someone who isn't yet married, wants to know just how soon someone can file for AOS. Just makes me wonder! It makes me wonder even more why someone who got married one day.. would find the need to file AOS the next? Aren't there more important things to consider.

Why the big rush? If everything is above board, then everything will go smooth, regardless of whether you file the day you are married or lets say two or three months later.

Are you re-marrying someone you've already been married to?

TBH.. 'IF' I was the aducations officer it would raise my flag.. but I'm not. But having said that when my wife and I went for our interview he was somewhat surprised to see that we had been married for four months before filling AOS.

inquisitive40

Well we have been living together for the last 4 years and so now being able to get married now that my divorce is final is as much part of the immigration red tape as anything else. We are very happy as we are right now BUT being out of status is a huge strain every day for us both and so the sooner we can file and get the clock stopped on myself being out of status (also being able to work will be nice after being a stay at home parent for last 4 years).
In reality the fact that we have been together since I came here cannot raise any flag on our relationship being valid, the only worry would be at interview being asked about intent to come into the country to get married, again neither one of us could marry at the time, my wife to be was seperated but not divorced (wasn't even filed for when I came here).
I think that is our main concern, the whole intent to marry on entering the country on the visa waiver over 4 years ago. Our lawyer thinks there is no chance of that being an issue but is still something in the back of my mind. Was not something we thought at all about at the time, was only once I had overstayed my original visa did it hit us how it might look later to immigration if we did get married, again 3 months into living together really did not make it a done deal that we would ever actaully marry, failed marriages makes one a little cynical in that department.
4 years later we are still so very happy we have found each other that we now have to worry about being seperated again.
Patrick

Wee Besom

I would have to disagree about the waiting period.If I had known just how long it would take,I would have found out how I could file the day after the wedding too.I know that marrying the person you want to spend the rest of your life is the most important thing but the stress and pressure being in AOS limbo cannot be underestimated either.I say get it filed as quickly as you can.

Nobby

Well no probs then.. I was out of status for seven years.

Sorry if I read into your original message as to the urgency to change status.

One of the reasons we didn't file immediatley was.. that I didn't want to. In the end my wife insisted! Women always want to cause problems and put things right!

Hope all goes well for you, and to be honest, under your circumstances you'll sail through.. although it will take a while.

We had two interviews.. but mainly because they started new procedures back in the winter of 2001 with the new security checks etc. They never asked for anything. Then they put us on the backburner.. a bit like Margaret.. a fellow forum user here.

Last April.. we went for another and it was an absolute breeze.
Again we were not asked for ONE single document, not a photo, a bill in the same name, absolutley nothing. Zilch!

And as my wife and I had well past our 2nd anny and were only 4 days from our 3rd anny.. I got the 10 year card!

Anyway.. Best Wishes!

Nobby.

Nobby

BTW.. I never entered with the intent to marry. I didn't even know my wife then.

inquisitive40

Thanks for the info, is nice to hear someone else out of status when they applied. I hope my filing goes through quickly,, I really want to travel back to Ireland as my Mum is quite old and I also have a son from my previous marriage whom I miss terribly and really wanna see.
Patrick

Nobby

Well please feel free to disagree as that is your right.

However, I can only go by what was told to me by our AO at our AOS interview.

Our AO was a very nice guy who was so open that it was strange beyond strange.

He opened our eyes into how USCIS work.. the reasons they work the way they do, and why they won't change their methods.

Good Luck.

mrsm

We lived together for years before we married & we were quite content with that, but eventually me not having any status started to be a problem. Once we did marry, it still took us four years to file for AOS because of financial issues, so I was out of status eight years by then. As your lawyer has said the "intention to marry" probably won't be an issue, it's not as if you married the day after your arrival using the visa waiver. I expect you already have plenty of evidence of a legitimate relationship, photographs, letters addressed to you both etc, and I believe you have a joint bank account (from another post of yours I saw today).
We have our interview on Wednesday and I'll be posting our experience when we get home. I hope I'll have some positive info that you can use.

inquisitive40

Yes the financial part of the AOS is really hard for us also, I am actually gonna get a loan to cover the cost, hopefully once I get ead I can get work which will pay the loan off quickly.
BTW, we don't have a joint account, I just got a card on her account, never even approached the bank about adding my name, we do have joint health insurance which has been invaluable with my diagnoses of throid problems last year.
Patrick

mrsm

My mistake- but the health insurance is a start. We didn't have health insurance until I got a job!
Once you get the AOS process rolling and obtain your EAD & social security number you should be able to get the joint account if you want to. You won't need to show any "joint" evidence until your interview anyway and I don't know how long it takes in CA to get to that point.
Wish you all the best