Immigration Site

Me and my girlfriend want to get married. I am a foreign national and currently on F-1 visa here in the US.

The issue is that my girlfriend became US Citizen thru marriage (3 year process) and shortly after that she got divorced. Their marriage was bona fide but did not work out towards the end so they ended it.

How long should we wait to get married and is USCIS going to be suspicious about it because she became citizen thru marriage? I would like to get a conditional green card so I can work. We live together and our marriage will be bona fide but might just raise a red flag because looks like she is jumping fast from one marriage into another.

Did she obtain her green card by marrying that US citizen? If yes, she has to wait 5 years after her green card was approved before she can file for a new spouse. And even then, there may be suspicion if there are indicators that you might have known her before she got her GC (e.g. you originally come from the same country and city).

The other aspect is that if she was already separated* or filed for divorced during her citizenship process, that would have made her ineligible for citizenship via the 3 year rule. If she attempts to sponsor another spouse, she will have to provide the divorce decree, and if it shows that she was already separated or already filed for divorce before her citizenship was granted, they could revoke her citizenship. Or more likely, since revoking citizenship is difficult and expensive, they would settle for the easier task of denying the green card petition that she filed for you.


*other than temporary separation due to life/work circumstances unrelated to marital issues, such as military deployment or higher education

How much longer is your I-20 valid for?

Me and my girlfriend want to get married. I am a foreign national and currently on F-1 visa here in the US.

Jacko: she got her greencard and us citizenship thru marriage but did not file for divorce until she got the citizenship. We are from different countries and did not know each other before her marriage. Again, it is not a fraud attempt, both marriages are for real but knowing the complexity of the immigration it might very well look like an fraud attempt. I dont want to get in trouble.

Ghori: I will be graduating in May 2011 and probably filing for an OPT thereafter.

Is there a still legit way to obtain a greencard thru our marriage? Would it be a good idea to get married now and apply after 2 years of marriage?

Thanks a lot