Need advice. F1 getting married this week. OPT questions

[DianaSym 0]

I got my current student visa back in January 2016 and I just graduated in December 2016 as I had previously been in university a while before so I only had a little to finish. I applied for OPT and got it and it was scheduled to start at the mid February make, however no one informed me that I only had 90 days to obtain a job. So I wasn't aware of that and the time passed and I havent found anything. My fiance and I were already planning on getting married before finding all of this out as we've been dating for 3 and a half years, but now Im a bit confused on what to do. I already got my social security card and everything like that back when the OPT was scheduled to start. So my question is now, will there be any complications since its been about 6 months since the OPT started and now were about to apply of adjustment of status. Should I apply for an EAD card since technically I already have the card that was given to me for OPT? Will that cause any problems with them noticing the overlap of two card? And Do I need a new social security number or anything like that? 

 

Also, we will be getting married this week in California but are planning on moving to Iowa shortly after and sending in the adjustment of status papers from there to the local offices around that area as needed. Would that be a for-seeable problem? I appreciate anyone that can help as Im at a loss with so much paperwork and questions. 

[xillini 71]

Okay, you are out of status at this point, but if your spouse is USC, it won't be a big issue.

I would recommend you need to apply for new EAD as your OPT EAD is not expired. When you become Out of Status, your EAD also becomes non-valid, plus OPT is priviliges for those seeking for non-immigrant status, not for someone like you with intention seeking for immigrant status. 

 

And about your relocation,,, you can update the address in USCIS, but often the updates are not informed to mailing service department with high risks of sending the receipts or notices USPS letters to your old location. Yes, it may work well, but yes, it may not work well.... and in case that receipt or notices are sent to old address, you are either gonna have to spend long hours to find out where they are and ask USCIS to resend, or you even completely lost it. In the worst case scenarios, USCIS issued RFE with deadline, which was sent to old address, and you dont even have ideas, so passed RFE deadline followed by denials of your AOS, which happens more than what it sounds like. 

 

So I would recommend that sending all applications after you move to IA so you dont have to take the risks that you dont necessarily have to have. Plus, sending applications a week early doesn't make huge differences (like your AOS gets approved next month as compared to sending a week later means your AOS gets approved 9 months). 

 

Hope this helps