Marrying US girlfriend

[Gonzalo82 0]

Greetings,

I'm from Spain on a j1 visa doing a management training in HR in Los Angeles for 18 months. My visa expires on 9/14/2011 and I'm supposed to leave the country on 10/14/2011.my visa doesn't have the two year rule, so I won't need to file a waiver or something like that. I have a girlfriend ( born in US) for 6 months now, and we are planing to get married,but first I would like to go to Spain, until the 1st of September.

Now a few questios:

1-If we get married on the 5th of September, would I be able to file all the paperwork, remind in LA and keep working for the same company where I'm doing the training?

2- If so, how much will it cost?

3- Which forms should I file?

4- do I need to submit all the forms at the same time right?

The way I have it planned in my head, is by getting married on the 5th of September,move in with my wife, open bank accounts together, file all the forms needed (I130... while I keep working for the same hotel where I'm doing the training, will that works?

I know there are similar post but I'm getting more and more confused...

I cant afford a lawer so all the help would be highly appreciate it.Thank you very much!!

Edited August 15, 2011 by Gonzalo82

[Little_My 464]

This would all be doable without your plan to go back to Spain in between. The problem there is, that if you leave the US now before marrying your girlfriend and before filing, and then return on the J1 visa and marry right after that, you're effectively committing visa fraud. J1 is a non-immigrant visa and you are not supposed to use it to enter the US with the intent to immigrate, which is what you would be doing since you are already planning to marry a US citizen and file for a greencard.

My advice would be to skip the Spain trip for now, marry your girlfriend, file for the green card, and then wait to get the advance parole (AP) travel document before you leave the US. It will take approximately 70-30 days (so 2-3 months) from filing the paperwork to getting the AP card. Once you have it, you are good to travel while your application is pending.

If you take the AOS route, you would have to stop working for a few weeks / months. If you file early September, you would not have the employment authorization document (EAD) in time before your current J1 expires, which means you would not be authorized to work in between the expiration of your J1 and getting the EAD. EAD comes together with the AP, so within 3 months from filing the paperwork. If you filed by September 15th, you'd be able to work and travel by mid-December, possibly a bit earlier.

The fees are $1,070 for the I-485 (application to register permanent residence - $985 for the form and $85 for biometrics) and $420 for I-130, petition for alien relative, so together $1,490. However, you will also need to get a medical check done and possibly get vaccines, so I'd say it's good to prepare to spend about $2,000 all together.

You would file the I-130 and I-485 together, along with all supporting documentation and with the I-131 for travel document and I-765 for employment authorization. Yes, you send everything together.

The other option is for you to travel to Spain as you suggested, return and marry your girlfriend and stay until the expiration on your J1, and then return back to Spain and take the CR-1 route. However, with this option you'd have to return to Spain to wait to get the spousal visa, which can take up to 9 months.

[ceadsearc 516]

As the previous poster mentioned, you can't leave the country and come back already intending to marry on a non-immigrant visa. You can get married and adjust now, while you are in the country, as you didn't plan to get married when you first came on your J-1.

Additionally, it does not seem that there will likely be any way to continue employment without a break, as your visa expires on 9/14/2011 and while, once you file for AOS, you are temporarily allowed to stay in the country past your visa expiration date while everything is processed and thus are not out of status, you are not granted the opportunity to automatically work - that requires your EAD to be processed, which generally takes about 2 months.

[Gonzalo82 0]

Awesome!! Thank you very much for the information. It sucks, but I will postpone my visit to Spain until I get a parole permit. I'm going to review all the info that you guys provided me really carefully when I get home (working night shifts...)

Once again, I am really thankfull to find a site like this one!!

Million thanks!!!

[Ban Hammer 13,491]

one post removed and one quoting it for

Condone or instruct, either directly or indirectly, others on how to commit fraudulent or illegal immigration activities in any way, shape, manner or method.

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