LA2016

I'm a newbie on here and this is my first post!

I'm a UK citizen and just over 5 years ago my same-sex partner (a US citizen) came to the UK and we entered into our civil partnership.

During this time we've lived very happily in the UK, but would now like to do the reverse, i.e. I go through the process to get a green card, starting with form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative (which my partner will have to complete as he is the US citizen and sponsor me).

I've had conflicting advice as to whether our civil partnership qualifies me as 'spouse' - or whether we have to actually get married (when we had our civil partnership the UK did not have same sex marriage) - can anyone advise on this?

I'm concerned that if we do get married now, that will essentially reset the clock on the past 5 years - so I'm quite confused on this point. I did read on another forum that if we do get married it is backdated to the date of the civil partnership, but I'm not sure on this.

Also, when my partner started the process to come to the UK, we used an excellent agent, based in the US, to help us through the process.

Does anyone have a recommendation for someone to handle the reverse back to the USA, and is it better to get one based in the UK or USA?

Would really appreciate any pointers - I'm starting to get a little stressed as I know it can take between 6-9 months to go through the process and am keen to start soon.

Many thanks for any help.

ian-mstm

You must get married in order for US immigration to process an immigrant visa for a spouse. The US does not recognize a civil partnership for immigration purposes. The information is not conflicting - so those who are suggesting you don't need to get married, are simply confused.


It will reset the clock for US immigration purposes - but so what! There's no requirement to be married for xx amount of time. The requirement is only that you are married. Full stop!


It might be... it might not be. Again, it doesn't matter.


Unless you have a criminal history or an overstay issue with the US, you can do it yourself. Most do - it's pretty straight forward!


You can't start the process until you're married... so that's the first thing. If your US partner is currently living in the UK, he can file the I-130 petition (to start the process for your immigrant visa) directly to London. Timeline is about 6 months from filing to getting the visa.

Ian

maumaulondon

The information above is not correct. You can convert your civil partnership into a marriage certificate. It is a very simple process and will cost you only £45. You’ll get a marriage certificate, dated when your civil partnership was formed.
More details here:
https://www.gov.uk/convert-civil-par...land-and-wales

sir_eccles

This! It took a little while for this part of the law to be implemented but I believe it is now fully in effect. You must do this to be able to be seen as married under US immigration law.

rpjs

An interesting question is when, in such circumstances, would USCIS deem the marriage to have commenced for the purposes of the immigrant being admitted with or without conditions. My money would be on from the date that the civil partnership was converted to a marriage, but I shouldn't be surprised if this is something USCIS has yet to make a determination on.

sir_eccles

Read the link.

S Folinsky

My good friend and colleague J Craig Fong is expert on same-gender immigration issues.

ian-mstm

It seems I was in error. My bad!

Ian

Rete

But you learnt something new about the UK same sex marriage laws.

LA2016

Thanks everyone for the comments, so very much appreciated. Will contact our local register today.

S Folinsky

Out of idle curiosity, I took a gander at the UK government site on the issue of converting a civil partnership into a marriage. It seems that in England and Wales, the new marriage certificate will bear the same date as the commencement of the civil partnership.

Will the US recognize this for purposes of imposing the two year condition, I have no idea.

LA2016

Hi, what do you mean by 'imposing the two year condition'? I'm confused..

Edit: sorry ignore my post - realised that you meant the two year 'Conditions on Permanent Residence Based on Marriage'.

S Folinsky

I was about to answer when you amended your post! In talking about "resetting the clock" I knew that about the only time the length of the legal marriage is imposition of the two year condition. It does not matter if the marriage is ten minutes or ten years old.

[I am not implying that it would only take 10 minutes to get a visa in the normal scheme of things. I remember news about a case from some years back involving a wrongful deportation and the waiver, visa petition and the immigrant visa took about a day. If I recall correctly, it was an extraordinary set of facts.]

furrmacist

Hi LA2016!

I'm a fellow UK 'mo applying for a green card as the spouse of a US Citizen.

We formed a UK civil partnership in 2009 in Bristol and in February 2015 we converted it to a marriage under the provision in the new law. The process was very simple - we attended the registry office in Oxford and sat while the clerk typed our details into two different computers then printed out something for us to sign. You can make this a special ceremony like another registry wedding if you like, or just sit there and do the admin like we did.

When we were done we were issued with a marriage certificate (we actually got two, so we had a spare!) that has an issue date (hand-written by the registrar signing it) of Feb 2015, but has printed in column 1 (When Married*): September 2009.

The * included below the certificate as follows:

"The above marriage was converted from a civil partnership on XX February 2015 and the details recorded in columns 2 to 8 are as stated on that date. By section 9(6) of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (subject to any contrary provision made by or under that Act for any particular purpose) the marriage is to be treated as having subsisted since the date in column 1, on which the civil partnership was formed."

When we completed the I-130 / G-325a etc, we listed the date of our Marriage as Sept 2009, as that is what it says on our Marriage Certificate. HOWEVER, the *Place* of our marriage has now changed, as our original CP cert was issued in Bristol in Sept 2009, but we performed the conversion in Oxford in Feb 2015, and so our certificate says the marriage was registered at the Oxfordshire Register Office, Oxford.

So for all the forms we've used date of Sept 2009 and Place as Oxford, UK.

That might require an explanation at interview, but I can't believe we're the first people this has happened to, and they let you keep your CP certificate, so you can take that along to explain. I wouldn't submit it as evidence tho.

That's right

Absolutely. It must be marriage.

Considering the date of marriage is the recorded as the original CP date, and taking into account the * included above, do you think that it wouldn't reset the clock? You're right that it makes no difference save whether a conditional 2-year or unconditional green card is issued.

Out of interest, our I-130 has been approved and once I book my medical I will be ready to submit the Notification of Readiness. At what point would one expect to hear whether an IR-1 or CR-1 visa (unconditional or conditional GC) will be issued? My experience may help the OP.


Good Luck LA2016, and message me if you have any specific questions!

Furrmacist

Noorah101

You will find out at the interview which class of immigrant visa you will get. Then you will find out at the US POE what class of PR you receive. If the marriage is more than 2 years old, and they mistakenly stamp you CR-1, you can politely show your marriage certificate to have it corrected then and there.

Rene