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Marriage and Immigration
Marrying a U.S. citizen is often the easiest and quickest method of obtaining permanent residency in the U.S., and is even applicable to individuals who have overstayed their visas in the U.S. and currently are out-of-status. The only legal requirement is that the marriage was entered into in good faith - that is, that the marriage was not entered into for immigration purposes.
Marriage Immigration also include aliens marry to U.S. permanent residents. US immigration law treats spouse of a US Citizen or a Permanent Resident differently.
Valid Marriage
A marriage must have been valid at the time and place it was performed. The USCIS always considers the following factors in determining whether a spousal relationship can form the basis for an immigration petition:
·The marriage must have been valid at the time it was performed;
·The marriage must still be in existence; and
·The marriage must not have been entered into for the purpose of conferring permanent resident status on the alien.
Spousal Relationship
USCIS officer considers following factors as basis of a spousal relationship for an immigration petition:
·The marriage must have been valid at the time it was performed;
·The marriage must still be in existence; and
·The marriage must not have been entered into for the purpose of conferring permanent resident status on the alien.
Sham Marriage
A sham marriage is a marriage where the parties of a marriage entered into the marriage solely for circumventing immigration laws. The INS has the discretion to suspect and then accordingly to investigate a marriage that may bring immigration benefits to the aliens. If the INS has reasons to suspect that the marriage is a "sham marriage", the INS officers have the authority to investigate. Here are some examples of the things the USCIS generally wants to see:
- evidence of courtship. If the couple met each other for the first time a week before the wedding, common sense would tell you that the marriage probably is a sham. Evidence of courtship includes anything that shows they knew each other - phone calls between each other (evidenced by phone bills), emails/letters, etc.
- evidence of cohabitation, including both names on the apartment lease (or common home ownership), utility bills in both names, identical addresses on both driver's licenses, etc.
- evidence of commingled finances, including a joint checking account (with activity - obviously, a shell account with no withdrawals or deposits will not do the trick), joint credit cards, income tax returns filed jointly, etc.
- insurance - the naming of each other as beneficiaries on life insurance policies, and one spouse's health insurance policy covering both people, etc.
- evidence of the wedding, including, obviously, the marriage certificate, and also photographs (a videotape is especially good), notarized affidavits from witnesses of the wedding, even receipts showing both names on airplane tickets for the honeymoon.
Conditional Permanent Residence
If a person is the spouse of a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident and the marriage occurred less than two years before the alien spouse is admitted as a U.S. permanent resident, the permanent residence status is conditional. The alien spouse is given conditional resident status on the day he is lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa or receives adjustment of status where he stays in the U.S.
Removing Conditional Residence
If the marriage is less than two years old when the foreign-born spouse becomes a permanent resident, the green card will expire after a two-year period. Both spouses must submit a joint petition (form I-751) to remove the two-year condition within the 90-day period immediately preceding the end of the two year period.
If the marriage has terminated by reason of divorce, death of the citizen spouse or spousal abuse, the foreign-born spouse may apply for a waiver of the joint petition requirement.
Fiancée K1 Visa
A US citizen can apply for a Fiancé K1 visa to allow his or her fiancée to come to the US to marry the citizen. The US citizen submits a petition to the immigration department with proof that he/she intends to marry the beneficiary. The USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) can approve the petition and send it to the US Consul. The Consul can interview the beneficiary to be sure all is OK. The fiancée enters the US and marries the citizen within 90 days. Then the new spouse can apply to change the K1 visa to a green card while in the US.
This type of Fiancé K1 visa can be issued only before the marriage to a US Citizen and only when the fiancé is outside the US. The fiancé of a permanent resident is not eligible to receive a fiancé visa. More detail information, please refer to Non-immigration K1 Visa.
U.S. Citizen’s Spouse K3 Visa
U.S. citizens can file non-immigration K3 visa for his/her spouses who are outside the U.S. . The purpose of the K-3 visa is to promote family reunion and serves as a temporary remedy for the long delayed family based immigration petition process. It allows the alien spouse to stay in the U.S. while waiting for the result of the pending immigration petition. The alien spouse may obtain work authorization during the waiting period. More detail information, please refer to K3 Visa.
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