AOS and bonafide marriage proof from before marriage intent + crazy story as a bonus

[_Diver 2]

I’m curious how the evidence of a relationship before intent to marry materialized is looked upon by USCIS as part of I-130 application.

 

Here is our short, but intense timeline.

 

My as of recent wife is an Australian citizen. She “paused” her Australian life earlier this year and decided to travel the world for half a year. I met her on 5/7 this year in Boston, MA and we became instant friends. I decided to join her in her travel and since then we went to

 

May – NYC

June/July – Turkey

August – Iceland

September – Turkey

September – Germany

 

In between trips she visited other cities in US on her own, stayed with her mom in Turkey, travelled on her own to Belgium and Germany and also stayed with me in Massachusetts. While I loved her company and travelling together was a lot of fun, we never thought about it evolving into anything more serious and she fully intended to leave back for Australia (she has a return ticket for 10/14 purchased on 7/20).

 

She came back to US last time on 9/21 and got a good amount of scrutiny at the border due to her frequent back and forth travels and staying in US for weeks at the time, but they let her in anyway. She mentioned me and my address as we never tried to hide anything since we were just travelling friends, albeit with benefits.

 

The plan was for her to stay with me for 3 weeks and go back to Australia. But having spent 4 months together and learning a lot about each other we realize that we can’t be apart anymore. The proverbial “life happens” event.

 

Here is the crazier portion of the timeline

 

Shortly after 9/21 we decided to stay together and get married

 

9/26 – she sent her resignation letter to Australian department of defense which was huge deal for her since it was an amazing job and she jumped thru hoops to put it on hold so she can come back to it later. She still holds another Australian job, but it’s fully remote at the moment.

 

9/29 – we found out she was pregnant

 

10/12 (yesterday) – we got married

 

10/14 (tomorrow) – her original non-refundable return ticket to Australia will expire

 

Earlier in October I started researching option moving forward and currently I’m looking at I130 process and bonafide marriage evidence specifically.  

 

Here is what we have when it comes to documents:

 

Marriage certificate

Proof of health coverage for her (pending)

Money transfers from her Australian bank to mine to comingle $$

She is an authorized user on some of my CC now

I will add her as beneficiary for my financial accounts

Documentation about being pregnant

Recent pictures after her latest return (nothing significant, there was no wedding for now, just town hall official ceremony)

 

Here is what we have from our friends days – tons of pictures from all the places we went, boarding passes, passport stamps, pictures with her friends and family in Turkey, pictures from the wedding of her friend in Germany. While all of this shows that we spent a lot of time together, I’m afraid it somewhat implicates us since it was all before we really decided to stay together and get married. So I don’t know if all that is helpful or harmful.

 

I’m not sure what the best course of action is right now - file I-130 now or wait longer and accumulate more evidence. It would be nice to get EAD and AP sooner rather than later.

[mam521 2,065]

Add her as a beneficiary on your 401K and life insurance and file now.  You have lots of evidence.  File for advanced parole and work authorization at the same time as the adjustment of status.  This will ultimately save you money and hopefully she'll be able to work within the next 10 or so months.  No guarantees.  Processing times a LONG.  

 

Her remote job -  she must discontinue working.  She does not have work authorization in the USA, even if it's for work in Aus.  She cannot work until she has authorization.  

[_Diver 2]

thank you for your response! do i use all the pre-marital intent evidence at all?

 

as for her remote job, what are the consequences of her continuing to work? i do plan on filing taxes jointly for the purpose of getting ITIN sooner, but i have an option of filing  it MFS this year due to her not passing resident alien tests. besides IRS, how does anyone know that she has a remote job somewhere else?

[ghostinthemachine 75]

They will want to see a progression of your relationship. Definitely include pictures and stuff like boarding passes and hotel bookings from your trips together. My husband and I travelled a lot together very early on in our relationship and we wrote up a one pager timeline of our time spent together during that period which corresponded to the travel docs/evidence in exact order

 

 

[Timona 4,207]

You're good.

 

Here's the link.

 

 

[Boiler 45,580]

If you assume they know everything you do not want them to and nothing you do, you will not go far wrong

[nastra30 2,287]

1 hour ago, _Diver said:

or wait longer and accumulate more evidence

No, don't wait at all. File away.

[SalishSea 17,856]

3 hours ago, _Diver said:

thank you for your response! do i use all the pre-marital intent evidence at all?

 

as for her remote job, what are the consequences of her continuing to work? i do plan on filing taxes jointly for the purpose of getting ITIN sooner, but i have an option of filing  it MFS this year due to her not passing resident alien tests. besides IRS, how does anyone know that she has a remote job somewhere else?

What do you mean what are the consequences?  She came on either a B-2 or VWP, and for both of these, working while in the US is PROHIBITED.  

 

Marriage itself confers NO immigration benefit.  She is not authorized to work until she has an EAD or Green Card.  This is one of the drawbacks to opting to do this the 'easy' way (i.e. jumping the queue) by having her adjust status rather than return to Australia to wait for a visa interview.  Them's the breaks.

 

 

Also be advised she will not have AP (to be readmitted if she leaves the US) for 9-10 months.

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Jorgedig

[AOSFairfax 111]

4 hours ago, _Diver said:

thank you for your response! do i use all the pre-marital intent evidence at all?

 

as for her remote job, what are the consequences of her continuing to work? i do plan on filing taxes jointly for the purpose of getting ITIN sooner, but i have an option of filing  it MFS this year due to her not passing resident alien tests. besides IRS, how does anyone know that she has a remote job somewhere else?

It is illegal for her to work her remote job.Taxes have nothing to do with it. Why would you risk jeopardizing her immigration journey? She cannot work or exit the country until she receives her EAD / AP, which will likely take the better part of a year. So file asap.

[African Zealot 1,455]

Unauthorized work by immediate relatives is forgiven. Why are people making a big deal of her remote work for a company in another country?
 

I know the TOS says not to promote illegal activity, by correctly pointing out that her remote work will have no effect on her immigration journey am I promoting illegal activity? I have not said she should continue.

[*Snowdrop* 604]

Remote work for foreign employers is one area where immigration rules have not caught up with the reality of life yet. 

 

The no working without authorization rule is designed to prevent non-residents taking job opportunities away from residents (and also it's easier to make sure you have taxed residents than non-residents so the government won't lose any money)

 

Digital nomads are on the increase - lots of people check in on work while on vacation as well as those who permanently travel. 

 

My personal opinion is that it's silly to consider a non-resident without work authorization taking a local restaurant job the same as someone getting paid from overseas for doing something online for a company not based in the USA. 

 

As far as I know the definition of 'working in the USA' has never been tested in court to definitely include remote overseas work yet - it would make it a lot easier if it had been. 

 

So the decision is yours, and as a PP has said unauthorized work would be forgiven in your situation.