Marrying a US Citizen on F-1 Visa

[AmyCran 0]

My boyfriend and I have been together for about two years and we are planning to get married in the US in August. He has been on an F-1 student visa (from Canada) for 3 years and I am a US citizen. I haven't been able to find the answers to these questions:

1. After we are married, does he have to apply for permenant residency? Can he stay on his F-1 visa until he graduates?

2. Is he allowed to leave the country and re-enter on his F-1 visa after we get married?

3. If he leaves the country for the summer to work, re-enters on his F-1 visa and then we get married 1-2 weeks later would it be considered fraud because he re-entered the country with the intention of getting married? Could this be a potential problem if he did apply for permenant residency?

Thanks so much for your help!

Edited March 18, 2016 by AmyCran

[newacct 688]

1. No. Yes.

2. Yes, but note that each time he enters he has to show that he is not planning to immigrate during this trip. And being married to a US citizen who lives in the US can make that hard. But the immigration officer may not know he's married and who he's married to; and being a Canadian crossing the border he may not get many questions anyway.

3. Intention to get married is different from intention to stay and immigrate; intention to get married by itself is okay. However, it sounds like from your questions that he already has intentions of immigrating.

[AmyCran 0]

Thanks so much for your help. He is definitely considering immigrating, but we have not decided yet. We may decide to live in Canada or over seas for a couple of years.