Immigration Site

Hi, just found this forum and have an urgent situation with my wife who is here on her B2. We are getting ready to file the I-130 petition, but she only has less than 2 weeks remaining on her B2 stay this time(multiple entry 10 year visa) and she wants to stay here until April. We are wondering if it is ok to file an I-539 to extend and then file the I-130 after that. Does anyone know if filing the I-539 electronically gets you a receipt right away so that you dont have to worry about going out of status?

Filing both the B2 extension and I-130 would be useless.

Theyre not going to approve the extension if you file the I-130. Extensions take months to be approved, by which time they would become aware of the I-130 and reject the extension. And they reject most B2 extension requests anyway, even if there is no I-130 involved.

If you are you a US citizen, you can just file I-485 with the I-130, which would make the B2 extension unnecessary.

Filing both the B2 extension and I-130 would be useless.

Theyre not going to approve the extension if you file the I-130. Extensions take months to be approved, by which time they would become aware of the I-130 and reject the extension. And they reject most B2 extension requests anyway, even if there is no I-130 involved.

If you are you a US citizen, you can just file I-485 with the I-130, which would make the B2 extension unnecessary. I am a US citizen. She is Brazilian.

In our case I dont think it is quite that simple. I am hesitant to AOS here. Immigration gave my wife a hard time at POE this time because she has been here so much the last 2 years(never out of status). They gave her the you live here treatment. Providing strong ties to her home country did not help. The IO was a particularly difficult person. Also, I have had 2 attorneys advise me that AOS is risky in our situation. She has to go back to her country in 2 months anyways, so we would have to also risk getting advance parole in that time. If we didnt it would not be good for her if she got stuck here and could not go back. So we were just going to use the extension to buy some extra time, we know they probably will not approve it. I was just wondering if it safe to do so and not risk our I-130 petition, especially if they deny the extension before she leaves and then she has some days out of status. Even the lawyers do not seem to have a strong opinion on that question. They are like uh, well, you could try it.

And also we are wondering if we file it online tomorrow(the I-539), how long until we get the receipt so we dont risk her going out of status before they actually acknowledge receiving it?

You can file I-130 and I-485 immediately, any overstay incurred after a filed I-485 is protected, there is no need to file a I-539.