Green card through marriage or employment -- which is better?

[Octavia 0]

I am a US citizen and my fiance is here on an O-1 visa. He's been here for almost 10 years, first as a student and then on O-1s since then. We've been together for three years, engaged for one, and our wedding is planned for about a year from now. However, his current O-1 will expire a couple months before that, so we need to figure out what our best course of action is. Any help would be greatly appreciated! He does have a lawyer who has handled his previous visa applications, but I want to make sure I know what questions we should be asking and all that.

As far as I know, my fiance is eligible to apply for his green card through employment, but his lawyer said it's very complicated. If we decide to try for this type of green card, he'll need to start the application process pretty soon.

His lawyer says that it's much better to apply for an adjustment of status and spousal green card, but I have some concerns about this. First, I'm a grad student with a pitifully small income (mainly dependent on loans), while my fiance has a great (and well-paying) job. If he's unable to work for any period of time, it would be a serious hardship for us -- I doubt his employer would be happy, either. Also, the nature of his work requires a great deal of travel, often outside the US, so travel restrictions would be a problem. From the reading I've done, it looks like there's some way to waive the restrictions but I'm still really confused about how to do it.

So, where to go from here? Try for a green card through employment? File for a new O-1 and get married according to schedule? Get legally married before his current O-1 expires, even though we'll still be having the big ceremony later on?

It seems like it should be so much easier to find information than it actually is...makes me feel kind of dumb for not being able to find simple answers...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

[diadromous mermaid 36]

I agree with the lawyer, that marriage-based wou8ld be simpler. Why can't you use his income to help qualify? Sounds like a transition to an EB-1 would be obvious. Aliens pending approval can get AP and an EAD.

I am a US citizen and my fiance is here on an O-1 visa. He's been here for almost 10 years, first as a student and then on O-1s since then. We've been together for three years, engaged for one, and our wedding is planned for about a year from now. However, his current O-1 will expire a couple months before that, so we need to figure out what our best course of action is. Any help would be greatly appreciated! He does have a lawyer who has handled his previous visa applications, but I want to make sure I know what questions we should be asking and all that.

As far as I know, my fiance is eligible to apply for his green card through employment, but his lawyer said it's very complicated. If we decide to try for this type of green card, he'll need to start the application process pretty soon.

His lawyer says that it's much better to apply for an adjustment of status and spousal green card, but I have some concerns about this. First, I'm a grad student with a pitifully small income (mainly dependent on loans), while my fiance has a great (and well-paying) job. If he's unable to work for any period of time, it would be a serious hardship for us -- I doubt his employer would be happy, either. Also, the nature of his work requires a great deal of travel, often outside the US, so travel restrictions would be a problem. From the reading I've done, it looks like there's some way to waive the restrictions but I'm still really confused about how to do it.

So, where to go from here? Try for a green card through employment? File for a new O-1 and get married according to schedule? Get legally married before his current O-1 expires, even though we'll still be having the big ceremony later on?

It seems like it should be so much easier to find information than it actually is...makes me feel kind of dumb for not being able to find simple answers...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

[tanyaru 3]

I am a US citizen and my fiance is here on an O-1 visa. He's been here for almost 10 years, first as a student and then on O-1s since then. We've been together for three years, engaged for one, and our wedding is planned for about a year from now. However, his current O-1 will expire a couple months before that, so we need to figure out what our best course of action is. Any help would be greatly appreciated! He does have a lawyer who has handled his previous visa applications, but I want to make sure I know what questions we should be asking and all that.

As far as I know, my fiance is eligible to apply for his green card through employment, but his lawyer said it's very complicated. If we decide to try for this type of green card, he'll need to start the application process pretty soon.

His lawyer says that it's much better to apply for an adjustment of status and spousal green card, but I have some concerns about this. First, I'm a grad student with a pitifully small income (mainly dependent on loans), while my fiance has a great (and well-paying) job. If he's unable to work for any period of time, it would be a serious hardship for us -- I doubt his employer would be happy, either. Also, the nature of his work requires a great deal of travel, often outside the US, so travel restrictions would be a problem. From the reading I've done, it looks like there's some way to waive the restrictions but I'm still really confused about how to do it.

So, where to go from here? Try for a green card through employment? File for a new O-1 and get married according to schedule? Get legally married before his current O-1 expires, even though we'll still be having the big ceremony later on?

It seems like it should be so much easier to find information than it actually is...makes me feel kind of dumb for not being able to find simple answers...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

I`m sorry, I don`t know how O visas go, but here is my thought.

Is he going to renew his visa??? If so and you will decide to go with a mariage based GC then he can still work and because of that you can use his legal income on an affidavit of support as well.

Hope that helps.