Leaving Country After Marriage but Before AOS

[Erin and Muraari 0]

Hello All

This I think is probably my last big question before the marriage and then starting my AOS. I am currently in the US on an H1B (Canadian Citizen) and my fiancee is a dual Canadian and US citizen. We plan to get married in Seattle at the end of June. After we get married she has to go back to Canada for a few weeks to finish up school and all. Would it be a problem for me to go and visit her? This would be before we initiate AOS or anything related to the green card.

I know in principle my H1b allows for me to travel since it is dual intent (please correct me if I am wrong) even after marriage to an USC. However, I am worried about customs agents somewhat ignorat of the law who might casue trouble when I try to get back in. For instance when I was crossing the border once on my H1B with my fiancee (well girlfriend then), the border agent said "good thing you arent engaged yet, as otherwsie we cant let you in unless you are on a fiance visa" which I thought was plainly wrong. But anyway, bottom line the fact that he didnt know the rules for the H1B could have casued us lot of issues.

So anyway does anyone have advice on this? Would USCIS or CBP know I was married if I have not filed any paperwork whatsoever for AOS? Especially if I am traveling alone without my USC wife when flying into the US from Canada? Am I being overly paranoid?

Thanks in advance to all the very helpful people out here on VJ.....

[Reba 2]

is there any fineprint on the H1B that says if you get married and plan to adjust status your H1B becomes void?

I'm not all that familiar with the H1B myself, so I dunno.

[Dr_LHA 3]

H-1B is dual intent so you have nothing to worry about. You can continue to travel on it as long as it is valid.

Last time I entered the USA on my H-1B I was with my wife in line, the CBP officer looked at my H-1B and the following conversation occurred:

CBP: "This is your wife"?

ME: "Yes"

CBP: "She's a US citizen?"

ME: "Yes"

CBP: "Are you planning on filing for a green card then?"

Me: "Yes, actually I'm planning on submitting AOS in the next few weeks."

CBP: "OK, good luck with that." <STAMP>

So as you can see I displayed clear immigration intent to the border patrol person, but it wasn't an issue because H-1B specifically allows it.

I also travelled on my H-1B after filing AOS with no issues.

Reba, there is no such "fine print" luckily!

I guess there is a chance you get an ignorant CBP officier, but what will happen then is you'll get sent into a room where a smart CBP officer will look at your H-1B and overrule him. This happened to me once years ago. Either way you're getting back into the USA because you're legally entitled to.

Edited May 9, 2007 by Dr_LHA

[Erin and Muraari 0]

Dr LHA

As always, thank you very much for the great and speedy reply. The part about the senior person overriding the ignorant CBP officer sounds particularly promising. Thanks

Muraari

H-1B is dual intent so you have nothing to worry about. You can continue to travel on it as long as it is valid.

Last time I entered the USA on my H-1B I was with my wife in line, the CBP officer looked at my H-1B and the following conversation occurred:

CBP: "This is your wife"?

ME: "Yes"

CBP: "She's a US citizen?"

ME: "Yes"

CBP: "Are you planning on filing for a green card then?"

Me: "Yes, actually I'm planning on submitting AOS in the next few weeks."

CBP: "OK, good luck with that." <STAMP>

So as you can see I displayed clear immigration intent to the border patrol person, but it wasn't an issue because H-1B specifically allows it.

I also travelled on my H-1B after filing AOS with no issues.

Reba, there is no such "fine print" luckily!

I guess there is a chance you get an ignorant CBP officier, but what will happen then is you'll get sent into a room where a smart CBP officer will look at your H-1B and overrule him. This happened to me once years ago. Either way you're getting back into the USA because you're legally entitled to.