F1 Out of Status Married to US Citizen

[munket 0]

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm not wasting anyone's time by posting a stupid question that can be easily Google'd but I just wanted some input from some experienced people on this forum so that I do not make a silly mistake.

I was an F1 student and I finished my program (graduated but unemployed) about a month and a half ago (Jun 14th). I am still under my grace period but it will quickly come to an end (about 2 weeks left).

My girlfriend (also a recent graduate and now employed) and I got married in April but we have not filed anything for adjustment of status or anything yet. At the time of our marriage it was still unsure if I wanted to return to Korea and tend to some business there first and come back to the USA in the future or if I wanted to stay in the USA. After a lot of thinking and discussion with both our families, we decided to go ahead and file for adjustment of status.

My question is, is it important to file for adjustment before my grace period is over or is there not a significant difference if I go out of status? My girlfriend and I currently sublet together with other college students but we will be moving into our own apartment at the end of August. We were thinking it would be better to file to adjust my status after we officially move in together. Are we wrong to think that?

Also, after some Googling it seems that filing for adjustment of status is fairly straight forward. It seems that as long we answer everything honestly the process is as easy as following a list of steps. Are we being overly naive? Is there something that we should be cautious of?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this lengthy post.

[Ian H. 207]

If you are thinking about doing the AOS, you HAVE to do it before your 90 day grace period is over. Once the 90 day period is over you have violated your visa. Did you file for OPT yet? Was it approved? There was a similar post about this the other day. Technically, you don't accrue unlawful status until USCIS discovers you are out of status, but if they find out that you were out of status when you filed the AOS, it could be denied. If you realize that you can't file the AOS in time or get a job if you have OPT in time, then you should leave and do the process from abroad so as not to risk being out of status.

[Ian H. 207]

Disregard my last post about being out of status. As long as your I-94 hasn't expired you can still file for AOS. Just make sure you file it before your I-94 expires. Sorry about the confusion, you are married to a USC, the OP from the other day was married to an LPR, so he wasn't exempt. There is however no guarantee that your AOS can be approved if you were technically "out of status." From what I've heard it usually wouldn't affect you if you are married to a USC, but the possibility is still there. You would still be able to apply for a visa abroad, if that were to happen.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Ian H.

[munket 0]

Thank you for your input. However, I found a lot of contrary information on the internet. The reason why we are even considering applying for adjustment of status AFTER my grace period is over is because we read that overstay is forgiven for immediate relatives who entered the US legally (I can easily prove this) and we think that it would be less "suspicious" if we have our own place instead of just sharing a room in an apartment with other college students. Also, we got married about three months ago, which is well before my Visa expires although I'm not sure if that matters.

I haven't consulted a lawyer yet but I was able to find a lot of information on this website:

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-illegal-immigrant-get-green-card-based-marriage-us-citizen.html

Can anyone else shed some light on this?

[Ian H. 207]

Yes thats why I said to disregard the part about being out of status, I was thinking about another post. Like I said it can be forgiven, but the possibility of denial exists. That I know, they usually approve, I just wanted to let you know of the possibility.

[vitoralves 4]

You can apply for AOS even though your visa has expired.

Ian H. , stop spreading misinformation in the forum

[Ian H. 207]

I didn't say that he couldn't apply for AOS. I said he should do so before his I-94 expires. So don't put words that I did not say.

You can apply for AOS even though your visa has expired.

Ian H. , stop spreading misinformation in the forum

[wavj 26]

My USC husband and I put our package together without any lawyer's help. We initially consulted two of them and both told us we were a straight forward case and we could file on our own or hire them. As you can see in my signature my timeline my interview is coming up, we did not have RFE so far. I have been F1 out of status for over 7 years, my Mexican passport is expired, my DL is due to be renewed on November and does not show my current address where my husband and I live. I did my own birth certificate translation and we took our time to read, learn, ask questions before we send the AOS package. It took us around 3 solid months to work on it but it was worth it IMO, like I said, we did not get any RFE while waiting for interview letter. The possibility to get a RFE during the interview is still there, but we are preparing ourselves to bring all the original documents, photo albums and a set of copies of our original AOS package. We were expecting our process to take 5-6 months if not more, so 89 days from applying to interview day looks pretty good to me.

My advise is to take your time to learn the process. I asked questions in this forum, a lot more questions on justanswers.com and few other at avvo.com.

If I get my EAD card before the interview then I can go ahead and renew my DL and update address and name ( married), but if not my DL is still valid and that is good enough for the interview.

Edited August 1, 2014 by wavj

[FlyingFish 3]

My USC husband and I put our package together without any lawyer's help. We initially consulted two of them and both told us we were a straight forward case and we could file on our own or hire them. As you can see in my signature my timeline my interview is coming up, we did not have RFE so far. I have been F1 out of status for over 7 years, my Mexican passport is expired, my DL is due to be renewed on November and does not show my current address where my husband and I live. I did my own birth certificate translation and we took our time to read, learn, ask questions before we send the AOS package. It took us around 3 solid months to work on it but it was worth it IMO, like I said, we did not get any RFE while waiting for interview letter. The possibility to get a RFE during the interview is still there, but we are preparing ourselves to bring all the original documents, photo albums and a set of copies of our original AOS package. We were expecting our process to take 5-6 months if not more, so 89 days from applying to interview day looks pretty good to me.

My advise is to take your time to learn the process. I asked questions in this forum, a lot more questions on justanswers.com and few other at avvo.com.

If I get my EAD card before the interview then I can go ahead and renew my DL and update address and name ( married), but if not my DL is still valid and that is good enough for the interview.

I have been F1 out of status for 7 years also. my DL expired at the end of my OPT and i've gotten pulled over twice but luckily never arrested. Lucky for me I was able to renew my passport at the embassy for my country because I needed it to get my marriage license.

[wavj 26]

I have been F1 out of status for 7 years also. my DL expired at the end of my OPT and i've gotten pulled over twice but luckily never arrested. Lucky for me I was able to renew my passport at the embassy for my country because I needed it to get my marriage license.

The embassy from my country won't issue me a passport renewal because in my marriage certificate only shows one last name instead of two ( father's and mother's last names as customary). When we got married here in USA they requested a valid ID which only has one last name and the people in the embassy were so rude telling me out loud in front of dozens of applicants that " here is Mexico and we do not acknowledge your USA marriage certificate as it is unless it has your two last names as it shows in your birth certificate."

[FlyingFish 3]

The embassy from my country won't issue me a passport renewal because in my marriage certificate only shows one last name instead of two ( father's and mother's last names as customary). When we got married here in USA they requested a valid ID which only has one last name and the people in the embassy were so rude telling me out loud in front of dozens of applicants that " here is Mexico and we do not acknowledge your USA marriage certificate as it is unless it has your two last names as it shows in your birth certificate."

Wow that is so rude. So you won't be able to renew it all? You will have to wait until you file for citizenship to get a US passport in order to travel internationally?

[wavj 26]

Wow that is so rude. So you won't be able to renew it all? You will have to wait until you file for citizenship to get a US passport in order to travel internationally?

I really don't know what I should do in this case, fortunately there are other Mexican consulates I can go to like Austin or even to New Orleans where they are not such rude people and let you explain the situation. Right now I am not concerned about travel internationally, my main focus is to adjust my status to get back to College and get a job, the rest will come in time.

[munket 0]

My USC husband and I put our package together without any lawyer's help. We initially consulted two of them and both told us we were a straight forward case and we could file on our own or hire them. As you can see in my signature my timeline my interview is coming up, we did not have RFE so far. I have been F1 out of status for over 7 years, my Mexican passport is expired, my DL is due to be renewed on November and does not show my current address where my husband and I live. I did my own birth certificate translation and we took our time to read, learn, ask questions before we send the AOS package. It took us around 3 solid months to work on it but it was worth it IMO, like I said, we did not get any RFE while waiting for interview letter. The possibility to get a RFE during the interview is still there, but we are preparing ourselves to bring all the original documents, photo albums and a set of copies of our original AOS package. We were expecting our process to take 5-6 months if not more, so 89 days from applying to interview day looks pretty good to me.

My advise is to take your time to learn the process. I asked questions in this forum, a lot more questions on justanswers.com and few other at avvo.com.

If I get my EAD card before the interview then I can go ahead and renew my DL and update address and name ( married), but if not my DL is still valid and that is good enough for the interview.

Thank you, wavj. We will definitely take our time to make sure we don't miss anything. Thank you for your input.

[wavj 26]

Thank you, wavj. We will definitely take our time to make sure we don't miss anything. Thank you for your input.

You are welcome. I had a lot of help from several VJ members and I am more than happy to help others in return with the little experience I have.

Here are some pics of our package I took the morning I sent it.

As you can see I-130 on top is the thickest package because it has a lot of copies of bona fide marriage evidence and also several pictures of our wedding, family/friends gathering, birthdays, etc. I read sending pictures is not mandatory or necessary but it won't hurt if you do, so we decided to send some. The whole package weighted 3lbs

Edited August 2, 2014 by wavj