Get married and return to Canada or stay in US?

[catherine.85 0]

Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I are trying to figure out the best way for us to get married and be able to live together in the US. I'm a Canadian citizen and he is an American citizen. I've been staying in the US with him since January as a tourist. We've now decided we'd like to get married and start applying for permanent residence for me. I have a few questions I was hoping people could help me with.

If we get married in the states in a couple of weeks, will I be able to stay and live with him while my green card application is pending? I've been reading some conflicting information about this. One source tells me that I MUST stay in the US the entire time my application is pending or our application will be thrown out, and that it doesn't matter if I overstay my visit in the US so long as I don't leave until I have my green card. However, I've also read some things that say that i will have to go back to Canada to have my interview anyways? Is this true, or can I have my interview in the US?

The other option we are thinking about is getting married and then me going back to Canada while we apply for a green card. But I've heard that it may be difficult for me to visit him while the green card is pending, and that I'd need to prove that I have "strong ties" to Canada. I don't have a job or own property in Canada so this would be hard to prove to a border guard.

Thanks for your help

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

As sure as the sun will rise, you will get many comments on this subject.

Well, here's my take, and it's the correct one. Since you had no intentions to get married and adjusting status afterward while visiting your boyfriend in the US, it is perfectly legal, practical, and easy to adjust your status from visitor to LPR while you are here.

Had you have INTENT to do this (getting married + adjusting status) before coming here, it would have been illegal. However, since intent for the most part is happening in the head of people, it's hard to prove and thus never made an issue at AOS anyway, as long as there's no paper trail documenting it.

All this doesn't matter to you, as you had no intent. File the I-131, I-485 and I-761 (this latter one free of charge) concurrently and wait to go back to Canada until you have your AOS completed, in order to close things down there.

Congratulations, by the way!

[Otto 83]

I-761⁷⁶⁵

[pushbrk 13,044]

As sure as the sun will rise, you will get many comments on this subject.

Well, here's my take, and it's the correct one. Since you had no intentions to get married and adjusting status afterward while visiting your boyfriend in the US, it is perfectly legal, practical, and easy to adjust your status from visitor to LPR while you are here.

Had you have INTENT to do this (getting married + adjusting status) before coming here, it would have been illegal. However, since intent for the most part is happening in the head of people, it's hard to prove and thus never made an issue at AOS anyway, as long as there's no paper trail documenting it.

All this doesn't matter to you, as you had no intent. File the I-131, I-485 and I-761 (this latter one free of charge) concurrently and wait to go back to Canada until you have your AOS completed, in order to close things down there.

Congratulations, by the way!

This is correct for the circumstances described by the OP. One much match the options to the circumstances. Yes, she must remain in the USA until she at least has advance parole and better if she waits until the green card is in hand. On the other hand, if she has a need to leave the USA sooner, that would change the circumstances and the associated answer.