Residence Permit

[dpd 21]

Hi,

We are planning to do a church wedding in December 2015 in the Philippines but will only go to the USA in September on a K1 visa.

Question: Am I allowed to leave the USA even if my Residence Permit is still on process? If yes, for how long? What documents should I prepare? Agencies to contact in the USA? How long normally is the Residence Permit being released?

Thanks all for all the help.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

If with residency permit you mean greencard then yes, you can travel before that (it can take 8 months or more toget the physical greencard).

You will need to get legally married and file AOS; at the same time, you can file for EAD (work permit) and AP (travel permit), to allow you to work and travel while waiting for the greencard. It should take about 2 months to process those documents, so get it done asap after you arrive.

[N&S 32]

As always - I would refrain from booking anything that cannot be cancelled / moved. You haven't filled in your timeline so I can't tell where in the process for your K1 you are. From your location I assume you are at CSC which currently is working really fast, but could slow down again before you get your visa in hand, if you haven't got it yet. But even if you get your visa in time for September, it might take longer than 2 months for AP - mine took over 90 days for example. There might be a wait to get married (some states require some time after applying for the marriage license), then you need to wait for the marriage certificate to be ready so depending on when in September you will be able to file for AOS + EAD + AP and when you want to be in the Philippines, the timeline might be tight.

Good luck!