Emergency AP

[Jesse and Hema 2]

When my fiancée arrives in the US via a K-1 (hoping within a few months), I am trying to decide whether I want to:

1) basically take her straight from the airport to the courthouse the next day to get hitched and file AOS right away.

2) Use the 3-month window to plan a bit a church ceremony together, and get married a couple months after her arrival.

Anyway, from the sounds of it, we couldn't get emergency AP (if there was an emergency of some sort) until she's filed for AP with her AoS. If this is the case, option 1 looks enticing, because her inability to travel home under any circumstances makes me nervous (granted, a lot of stuff regarding immigration policy makes me nervous). Am I mistaken, though? ie - Is it possible to get an emergency AP when AP hasn't been filed for yet?

Thanks!

--Jesse G.

[*julez* 124]

You can apply for emergency AP if you haven't applied for AOS - AP & EAD are now bundled with AOS. But you have to be married to apply for AP.

[Dan J 277]

You can apply for emergency AP if you haven't applied for AOS - AP & EAD are now bundled with AOS. But you have to be married to apply for AP.

Well AP can be filed for with no fee only after AOS is filed.

You can get married right away, and then plan a church ceremony for family and friends later. With that you wont be restricted to the 90 day limit and you should have the time to plan the ceremony you want. If you are in Minnesota as your profile seems to indicate, marriage licenses have a 5 day waiting period before they can be used.

[Jesse and Hema 2]

You can apply for emergency AP if you haven't applied for AOS - AP & EAD are now bundled with AOS. But you have to be married to apply for AP.

Well AP can be filed for with no fee only after AOS is filed.

You can get married right away, and then plan a church ceremony for family and friends later. With that you wont be restricted to the 90 day limit and you should have the time to plan the ceremony you want. If you are in Minnesota as your profile seems to indicate, marriage licenses have a 5 day waiting period before they can be used.

Thanks for the replies! Julezabelle, your suggestion is also a great idea which we are also considering. The "next day" statement was a bit of an exaggeration, but thanks for pointing out the waiting period. The more information I know, the better. I think there's also some hoops to jump through with the social security folks to get a SSN, but I can look into that later. For now, we need to wonder when the NVC is going to get it in gear and process my petition.