TPearson

I am getting married to a US citizen maybe 5 months before my first H1B visa period expires. Would it be better for me to get my employers to apply for the two year H1B visa extension or for me to start the greencard through marriage application. I am grateful for any advice.
Tim

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

Is there any reason why you wouldn't apply for the GC based on marriage?
You can even do both concurrently.

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:11:59 +0000, TPearson wrote:

    >
    > I am getting married to a US citizen maybe 5 months before my first H1B
    > visa period expires. Would it be better for me to get my employers to
    > apply for the two year H1B visa extension or for me to start the
    > greencard through marriage application. I am grateful for any advice.


--
Remember, I am strictly a layperson without any legal training. I encourage
everybody to seek competent legal counsel rather than relying on usenet
newsgroups.

Please support H.R. 539, H.R. 832 and S. 1510. More information at
http://www.kkeane.com/lobbyspousal-faq.shtml

Please visit my new FAQ at http://www.kkeane.com (always under construction)

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TPearson

No, there is no reason why not. I was just wondering if I wouldn't be able to apply for both at once and if the GC would take too long and would prevent me travelling as I have to do through my work and whether it was complicated to go from H1B to GC.
Thank you for your advice and any more you are able to give me
Tim

Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email

On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 13:36:35 +0000, TPearson wrote:


    >> Is there any reason why you wouldn't apply for the GC based on
    >> marriage?
    >> You can even do both concurrently.
    >> On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:11:59 +0000, TPearson wrote:
    >> > I am getting married to a US citizen maybe 5 months before my first
    >> > H1B
    >> > visa period expires. Would it be better for me to get my employers to
    >> > apply for the two year H1B visa extension or for me to start the
    >> > greencard through marriage application. I am grateful for any advice.
    > No, there is no reason why not. I was just wondering if I wouldn't be
    > able to apply for both at once and if the GC would take too long and
    > would prevent me travelling as I have to do through my work and whether
    > it was complicated to go from H1B to GC. Thank you for your advice and
    > any more you are able to give me

Yes, you can do both at once. The GC may take quite a while, but you
should be able to travel while it is pending. In theory according to the
letter of the law, you should be able to use your H-1B to travel. In
practice, I believe some people mentioned that there might be problems
with doing that with a marriage-based GC, since CIS is really just set up
for doing that for employment-based GCs. The problem is that when you use
your H-1B to travel, you are supposed to show the I-485 receipt notice,
but local offices, who handle marriage-based I-485s, don't issue those
notices.

But you can certainly apply for Advance Parole and use that to travel. In
that case, after you return, you should have an EAD in order to continue
working. This method is pretty much guaranteed to be no problem.

--
Remember, I am strictly a layperson without any legal training. I encourage
everybody to seek competent legal counsel rather than relying on usenet
newsgroups.

Please support H.R. 539, H.R. 832 and S. 1510. More information at
http://www.kkeane.com/lobbyspousal-faq.shtml

Please visit my new FAQ at http://www.kkeane.com (always under construction)

My email address in usenet posts is now invalid for spam protection. See
my Web site for information on how to contact me.

Please feel free to enjoy some of my photographs at my Web site
http://www.ingopakleppa.com ! Comments are welcome.