Marriage Based Green Card/F1 OPT Pending (merged)

[AnnieT 0]

Hi all,

 

New here and looking for some advice. My husband and I will soon be filing for his marriage-based green card. He is a graduating PhD student on an F1 visa, with OPT pending (we’re hopefully expecting OPT approval in the next month or so).

 

The international student advisor at his university said we should wait to file our marriage-based green card application until his OPT is approved. Our lawyer however said that it doesn’t matter and that we can file for the green card whenever. 
 

Any advice? The university advisor was concerned that filing the green card app now could jeopardize his pending OPT, and this is obviously our concern too. He is beginning employment on July 1, so imperative that his work authorization isn’t compromised.

 

Is it safer to just wait for the OPT to be approved before we file?

 

Thank you!

[Rocio0010 5,579]

Your attorney is right. You can have both applications at the same time. It doesn’t create conflict.

[AnnieT 0]

26 minutes ago, Rocio0010 said:

Your attorney is right. You can have both applications at the same time. It doesn’t create conflict.

Great - thank you for confirming.

[AnnieT 0]

Hi All,

 

My husband (French) is currently on an expired F-1 with valid OPT through the end of June 2023. Through our lawyer, we filed for his marriage-based green card this past July 2022. Everything was received by USCIS on July 8 and the case has been pending since then (the only thing he has done is biometrics).

 

We just received a request for evidence on form I-485 today and while we are following up ASAP, we are worried this request is going to delay his work authorization and that we won’t receive it before his F-1 based OPT expires this June 2023.

 

We’re trying to subsequently make a contingency plan. My question is this: can he apply for his STEM OPT extension while his green card paperwork is pending, so his ability to work can continue? 
 

Thanks all!

[Boiler 45,467]

Yes he can and should, apply for everything you can.

[AnnieT 0]

Thanks so much for responding. Someone had told us there was the possibility that applying for the OPT STEM Extension on his active OPT EAD could somehow void his marriage-based green card EAD application, so we wanted to be sure. 

[Boiler 45,467]

4 minutes ago, AnnieT said:

Thanks so much for responding. Someone had told us there was the possibility that applying for the OPT STEM Extension on his active OPT EAD could somehow void his marriage-based green card EAD application, so we wanted to be sure. 

That makes no sense but there is some funny stuff going around.

[Ryan H 3,812]

~~~Duplicate threads merged~~~