To stay or not to stay? (J-1 and K-3)

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Same goes for any visa holder they all expire or are revoked when you file for AOS.... so its no diffrent....

There are risks in every option with immigration.... nothing is for sure...

Kezzie

The difference I was trying to point out is that someone on a k-3 , even when they arrive in the USA, has 2 years of legal status on that visa. And they can even leave and re-enter the country during that time on it. By then the AOS would be done and they would never have been out of lawful status.

And although a K-1 expires in 90 days, according to what I have read, they can remain for 6 more months without creating any issues of overstaying. That gives them about 9 months to do AOS and get a decision.

In her case...her husband's J-1 visa expires in less than a month. Then he will be out of status. And although most likely the AOS would go through and he would be granted the green card, she should still check into it carefully and take into account all possibilities......which includes what would happen to them if for some reason, they were denied.

Below is an excerpt of an article I read which points out a few things.

The CIS does not consider the time that an application for adjustment of status to automatically extend lawful nonimmigrant status. This means that while an application for adjustment of status is pending, the applicant may be accruing illegal status if her tourist, working or student status has expired. Although section 245k of the Immigration Act grants applicants a six month grace period of unlawful status before being denied eligibility for adjustment of status, if that six month period expired while the adjustment was pending, refiling of the application for adjustment of status will result in a denial based upon unlawful status.

Marriage to a USC however changes much. As I said, if one is married to a USC, is in the US legally, is otherwise elligible, THEY CAN adjust status with NO more risk of denial then if entered on a K visa.

I too am very interested to see where this was quoted from.

doing a quick google I found the source http://www.asianjournal.com/print.php?a=8634 It is an asian journal, NOT USCIS information. It is also an article about Visa Screens for nurses. Even if this was factual, it has nothing to do with adjusting status after marriage to a USC after being in the US on a J-1 visa.

That's not correct...and it can't be discounted just because it doesn't directly specify her case. A lot of that article, true, does not apply and discusses other areas of immigration etc.....but the point is , and it's an important one, that since her husband is nearly off of status and his J-1 period ends in 3 weeks or so, they have to consider the same facts that that particular paragraph mentioned. (notice that part that does say "student visa").

However...they also do say that it is only if they "refile".......and most likely they won't have to. But it is still something to consider. If that happened, I would think they would need to also file additional paperwork for a waiver.

I really don't think it would come to that....and chances are they are wise enough to file the paperwork correctly and in time (while he's still legally here), but I also think she needs to consider all of the possibilities of him staying....so close to the time his visa is expiring.....and not find out the negative consequences and possibilities the hard way because they didn't know about them ahead of time. (even though unlikely to happen)