Legal Question in Immigration Law in Georgia

Re: F1 Student getting married

You will want to prepare to file the immigrant visa and application for permanent resident status (the greencard) to be ready to file when you do marry. That both of you are students may be an issue when preparing the affidavit of support - you may need to use a joint sponsor. If you would like to set a time to discuss your situation further please email or call my office.

Re: F1 Student getting married

If you marry in the United States, you may file an adjustment of status application together with an I130 petition as a spouse of a US citizen.

As part of your adjustment of status application (which is the "green card" application), your fiance will need to submit an affidavit of support. A sponsor for the affidavit of support must be able to show an income that is more than 125% of the federal poverty line (this changes annually). Since there is a possibility that your fiance would not be able to meet this requirement being a student, your fiance will likely need to have a co-sponsor complete an affidavit of support as well.

If you plan on marrying outside the United States, you may have difficulty returning to the United States with a student visa. Since individuals with student visas are required to hold nonimmigrant intent (i.e., an intent to return to his or her home country at the end of the authorized period of stay), the fact that you will be married to a US citizen would contradict this intent. As a result, you may need to plan your immigration strategy more carefully if you plan on marrying abroad.

I hope this was helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have further questions.

Re: F1 Student getting married

You would file for an adjustment of status. If your spouse it not working, then you'll likely need to get a join-sponsor for your affidavit of support who does work and earn enough income to qualify.

Detailed information can be found here:

http://msclaw.com/index.php?page=What_is_a_Green_Card