Ilona

Hi everybody,

I hope you could help me, as I am totally confused.
I've been to US as W&T J-1 visa, then I was an au-pair, J-1 visa for a
year. Tjis one ended in March, 2003, but I applied for change of
status to F-1, as I was accepted to university. But it was denied in
August. I just got married to US. citizen. We've been engaged since
May.
Was I considered an illegal now while I was waiting for F-1, because
it was denied now, or was it still legal?
And does it make it more difficult as I was out of status?
Can I have problems getting green card?
Should I hire a lawyer?
Thanks a lot.

DCMark

I think you are ok as long as you file for AOS now and do not leave the US.

This is assuming yout J1 visa does not carry the 2 year rule.

No Spam

I think you're in potential hot water.

You didn't say whether you are still in the United states?

Does your J-1 visa come with a 2 year home residency requirement? If
it does you're in real trouble. The 2YHRR also is labeled as the
212e. If your visa doesn't have a home residency requirement, then
perhaps you can get this straightened out by going quickly to the
correct office and filing papers with your spouse. Hopefully they
will accept your paperwork. You may need to exit the country within
180 days of your visa running out of status or you could be banned
from the USA for 3-10 years to come and marriage to a US citizen may
not make any difference.

Your name makes me wonder if you are from either Hungary or Romania?

I'd recommend you contact your husbands congressman's office and talk
with an expert there. That may be a start, and other than that you
need to contact a lawyer or get on the newsgroups and ask questions
and answer questions until people know how to help you. I'd spend the
next few days trying to get some answers and get a handle on what
trouble you are really in, then go from there. Where is your husband
in all of this?

You've really put your marriage into major difficulty and I don't
really believe you were totally "clueless" about your visa and status?

Shannon

If there is no other problem with the residency requirement, the fact you are out of status should not affect the decision on your green card application.

Unless you have to go home to fulfill J-1 visa obligations you should NOT leave the US unti you are certain you are not out of status. Particularly long out of status. In those cases you can get banned from re-entering the US even though the situation could be rectified while you are still here.

Shannon

Ilona

no, I do not have a two year residency requirement.
And soI guess I am still in 180 days, just I have to file real fast.
What congressman has to do, could do in this case?
how do I jeopardize my marriage now? I do not violate law, I didn't
overstay too much?

Shannon

You should be fine. It is better to file now though, in case you want to travel abroad before you have Conditional Permanent Residency. If you are over 180 days you are liable for a ban (there is some confusion about how the days are counted... you may need to read more or consult a lawyer if you are at all unsure).

No Spam

    > no, I do not have a two year residency requirement.

Whew! Good for you then.



    > And soI guess I am still in 180 days, just I have to file real fast.

Others that frequent this newsgroup can give you better advice on what
you need to do next, but there is something about overstaying 180 days
that can affect your status. I think others would agree that you
shouldn't sit around much longer without doing something.

I think "Shannon" mentioned the "Conditional Permanent Residency"
which you may want to be aware of first before filing the paperwork to
adjust your status. I think the residency requires you to stay in the
USA for 2 years, unless you file to get pre-approval for a visit to
another country. It sounds though like you want to get your papers
filed to stay in the country.




    > What congressman has to do, could do in this case?

A congressional office deals with these sorts of questions all the
time. They can probably give you a few options if you call them in a
matter of 10 minutes. Consult with them, and read and post questions
to the newsgroups to get an understanding of what your options are.
I'd recommend you get something started within 2 weeks.




    > how do I jeopardize my marriage now? I do not violate law, I didn't
    > overstay too much?

If you had a 2 year requirement on your J-1 visa then you would be in
trouble. "Bearer is subject to 212(e) " is sometimes stamped on J-1
visa's. But you say you don't have that so you may skirt the law
here. So long as you can get your papers filed that you are married to
a US citizen. Overstaying a visa doesn't look good to the IRS and you
may have some problems later in interviews. Hopefully you've taken
pictures and have documents showing you've had a long relationship
with your husband?

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I'm an immigration lawyer, but I'm not YOUR immigration lawyer. But based upon the facts you have posted in this posting and other ones in this string, it appears that you should be just fine provided you haven't left the country.

There may be a technical problem on the 212(e) 2 year FRR depedning on well documented it is. IAP-66 forms are usually messy -- I think many sponsors and consulates are carless on purpose to CYA in checking the lower right hand corner. If you are quite fortnate, your visa will have been clearly annotated "not subject to 212(e)" or some such.

But I've seen documentation all over the planet on this.

As an aside, a change of status to F-1 has ALWAYS been one of the more difficult applications in immigration law and the word have never seemed to get out on that one. Go figure.

Ilona

I really do not have that requirement, the lawyer saw my passport with visa.
do you think I will have a problem because I was denied F-1?
We will probably hire a lawyer for 3000 $ on Tuesday.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I have not seen your denial -- I don't the reason it was denied although I have a pretty good guess if it was the standard BS boilerplate. Without seeing the denial, I simply don't know. I would venture a GUESS that it probly won't.

As an aside, BCIS often uses "boilerplate" language in its denials and they use it badly. There is one type of boilerplate we've been seeing a lot of recently in the employment based area and we have been responding with boilerplate of our own that we are entitled to be informed of the evidence and reasons and we can't respond because you haven't complied with that. Well, recently we were shocked, just shocked to see a notice where they DID give the evidence and reasons.