Expired I-20 and getting married

[loyaboya 0]

Hello Everyone!

I've been trying to find an answer to this question and decided to post.

I'm engaged to someone who is here on an F-1 student visa. For financial reasons, he took a semester off from school. Now he is back in school full time even though his I-20 has expired, and he has not applied to renew it. He will graduate this spring and his F-1 visa expires in June. We have been engaged for some time, but unfortunately didn't realize the urgency of this situation. We've decided that our best course of action may be to get married before his F-1 expires. But of course we're scrambling to find out what our options are so that we can make the best decision.

My question is this: will the expired 1-20 have an impact on anything once we get married?

Thanks so much for your help.

Edited December 31, 2008 by loyaboya

[Mint518 0]

Hello Everyone!

I've been trying to find an answer to this question and decided to post.

I'm engaged to someone who is here on an F-1 student visa. For financial reasons, he took a semester off from school. Now he is back in school full time even though his I-20 has expired, and he has not applied to renew it. He will graduate this spring and his F-1 visa expires in June. We have been engaged for some time, but unfortunately didn't realize the urgency of this situation. We've decided that our best course of action may be to get married before his F-1 expires. But of course we're scrambling to find out what our options are so that we can make the best decision.

My question is this: will the expired 1-20 have an impact on anything once we get married?

Thanks so much for your help.

It is not the direct answer to your question, but I am wondering why he has not (or do not want to) applied to renew I-20. I heard people (after being out of status) sometimes ask a school to "reinstate" I-20. I do not know how it works, but I think he could at least consult with the international advisor of his school about the possibility of reinstating his I-20. If he can do that, he could probably apply for OPT which extend his I-20 after his graduation (usually 12 months after OPT starts if he can find a job, or 90 days from unemployment).

Expiration of F-1 visa in June dose not really matter as long as he has valid I-20. If he wants to travel outside of the U.S., he needs to obtain new F-1 visa, but otherwise, his stay in the US is legal if I-20 is current.

[Mint518 0]

Hello Everyone!

I've been trying to find an answer to this question and decided to post.

I'm engaged to someone who is here on an F-1 student visa. For financial reasons, he took a semester off from school. Now he is back in school full time even though his I-20 has expired, and he has not applied to renew it. He will graduate this spring and his F-1 visa expires in June. We have been engaged for some time, but unfortunately didn't realize the urgency of this situation. We've decided that our best course of action may be to get married before his F-1 expires. But of course we're scrambling to find out what our options are so that we can make the best decision.

My question is this: will the expired 1-20 have an impact on anything once we get married?

Thanks so much for your help.

It is not the direct answer to your question, but I am wondering why he has not (or do not want to) applied to renew I-20. I heard people (after being out of status) sometimes ask a school to "reinstate" I-20. I do not know how it works, but I think he could at least consult with the international advisor of his school about the possibility of reinstating his I-20. If he can do that, he could probably apply for OPT which extend his I-20 after his graduation (usually 12 months after OPT starts if he can find a job, or 90 days from unemployment).

Expiration of F-1 visa in June dose not really matter as long as he has valid I-20. If he wants to travel outside of the U.S., he needs to obtain new F-1 visa, but otherwise, his stay in the US is legal if I-20 is current.

To supplement my above response, I found the following link. According to below, it seems I-20 cannot be reinstated if he has been out of status for more than 5 months.

http://www.hooyou.com/f-1/reinstatement.html

[loyaboya 0]

It is not the direct answer to your question, but I am wondering why he has not (or do not want to) applied to renew I-20. I heard people (after being out of status) sometimes ask a school to "reinstate" I-20. I do not know how it works, but I think he could at least consult with the international advisor of his school about the possibility of reinstating his I-20. If he can do that, he could probably apply for OPT which extend his I-20 after his graduation (usually 12 months after OPT starts if he can find a job, or 90 days from unemployment).

Expiration of F-1 visa in June dose not really matter as long as he has valid I-20. If he wants to travel outside of the U.S., he needs to obtain new F-1 visa, but otherwise, his stay in the US is legal if I-20 is current.

Yeah, it was too late for reinstatement but there was a process by which he could apply for a new I-20 (I think). But there was a hefty fee associated with it. Then he was able to re-enroll in classes with no problem and I guess it seemed like there was no point paying all that money to get a new I-20 for one more semester of classes. Basically we just didn't understand the process (or the consequences) and figured that if he was still allowed to stay in school then everything must be okay. It wasn't until we started setting a date for the wedding that we realized that we might have a problem. I feel silly now but the fact is that we still have to figure out a solution for the problem at hand.

So now I'm wondering if we will have a problem adjusting his status (after marriage) because his i-20 is expired.

I guess we thought legal=current visa and the I-20 was just to go to school, but it sounds like the I-20 is what makes you legal and the visa is just for travel?

[Mint518 0]

Yeah, it was too late for reinstatement but there was a process by which he could apply for a new I-20 (I think). But there was a hefty fee associated with it. Then he was able to re-enroll in classes with no problem and I guess it seemed like there was no point paying all that money to get a new I-20 for one more semester of classes. Basically we just didn't understand the process (or the consequences) and figured that if he was still allowed to stay in school then everything must be okay. It wasn't until we started setting a date for the wedding that we realized that we might have a problem. I feel silly now but the fact is that we still have to figure out a solution for the problem at hand.

So now I'm wondering if we will have a problem adjusting his status (after marriage) because his i-20 is expired.

I guess we thought legal=current visa and the I-20 was just to go to school, but it sounds like the I-20 is what makes you legal and the visa is just for travel?

Yes, I-20 does matter. F-1 visa is just for entry to the U.S. and the status is governed by the date on I-94 card. When F-1 holder enters to the U.S., their passport and I-94 card will be stamped with "D/S" (duration of stay) rather than specific expiration date, so that F-1 student can legally stay in the U.S. as long as he/she keeps I-20 current.

I often heard (although I have never personally confirmed with immigaration attorney) that illegal stay/overstay will be excused when married with USC and adjust the status through such marriage, so I think your fiance could sucessfuly adjust his status despite the expiration of his I-20. But I am not sure specifically when such illegal stay will be excused (i.e., whether upon application of adjustment of status or whether upon receipt of GC). So, if I am in his shoes, I would not travel outside of the U.S. until receiving GC (even if AP is granted), as I will be afraid of not be able to re-enter the US for another 3 or 10 years (As you might know, accrual of unlawful presence for over 180 days would triger 3 year bar to re-entry into the US, and accrual over 1 year of unlawful presence would trigger the 10 year bar to re-entry into the US).