Legal Question in Immigration Law in Maryland

Re: immigrant marriage

USCIS leaves the burden of proving the marriage is for "bone fide" reasons on the applicant. That is, marriages are essentially treated as invalid unless and until the applicants prove otherwise. This is done by supplying a significant amount of documentary evidence showing you do the sorts of things USCIS believes married people normally do. This is usually in the form of documents showing commingling of financial assets, debt, and other evidence of joint lives. At your young age, some of these sorts of evidence may not be available. For example, you may not have a joint mortgage on a home you own yet. You may, however, get a joint lease together, and this is just as good. It's easy to get joint bank accounts together, which usually come with joint debit cards. Getting joint credit cards is helpful, although a little harder to get than in those free wheeling easy credit days that seem to have come to and end recently.

Income can be an issue because most marriage-based green card cases require a sponsor -- someone who promises to support the intending immigrant in the even they cannot do so themselves. The qualify as a sponsor, one must have current earnings of at least 125% of the federal poverty line for the relevant household size. If it's just the two of you, the household size is 2 and the required income is roughly $18,000. If you do not earn this amount of income, you can get a second sponsor. Basically, a co-signer.