Feel like I am using her, but anyway:

December 24, 2007 4:46 PM

I, an immigrant on F-1 (expired, though I am still on status), am going to get married to an American next month. We decided that I should apply for work authorization and permanent residency. Some questions …

Work authorization is most important at this point (I will be graduating and looking for academia positions for Fall), so if we need to divide our focus and efforts, we would like to do so on work authorization. We are getting married next month (end of January).

a) What would a good (and concise) place to start reading up on this task?
b) Am I really late in terms of preparation?
c) How much time would it take for me to get the work authorization?
d) We would really like to skip a lawyer (both poor grad students) — advisable?

Thanks!
(setup a temporary email address for correspondence: [e-mail])

posted by anonymous to grab bag (12 comments total)

visajourney.com
posted by dcjd at 4:54 PM on December 24, 2007

I'm no expert on the process or how late you are at getting started. But seriously, lawyer. At least get some references "just in case." I know several people who have applied for permanent residency who had current visas and long-term relationships resulting in marriage -- basically perfect "on paper" immigration cases, and they've all still needed a lawyer to actually get it done.
posted by desuetude at 5:01 PM on December 24, 2007

Most US universities have some sort of "international students office" that provides services like apartment listings, job ads, and other such like for foreign students. They will have a good idea of how the specifics of the situation you are facing have been dealt with recently by other students at the school, and are probably the place to start, especially considering that you are looking at the academic job market. (As a side note, because of increased costs and much longer delays, as well as perhaps some liability concerns, I am told that fewer and fewer universities will provide support for a visa application. That's anecdotal, although from people who should know, so ask around before taking that as fact.)

Based on people I know, however, I would be surprised if not having a lawyer will, in the end, be your fastest and cheapest option. (Well, actually, I know two people very well who chose the no-lawyer route, and it worked fine for them, but their situations were very straightforward; the total time from application to citizenship was over two years; and maybe they were simply lucky. Everyone else I know who has done this in the last three or four years has ended up getting a lawyer, and regretted not having done so from the beginning.) Be warned, though, I hear a lot of horror stories of fly-by-night lawyers collecting big fees, promising a lot, and then not coming through, and leaving the fleeced people with little recourse. So get recommendations before putting any money down.

Also, don't be shy about using political connections if you have them. In two recent cases that were in the local paper, it took direct pressure from elected politicians to get the INS (or whatever they are called now) to back off and give legal status instead of deporting people. So if someone knows someone who knows someone, milk that for all it's worth.
posted by Forktine at 5:45 PM on December 24, 2007

I am not a lawyer, but here are some anecdotes in case they help. My mother, a US citizen, married a Ukrainian man and they did everything without an attorney. They read the paperwork carefully and called USCIS to ask questions whenever any arose (multi-hour hold times). This is time consuming, but everything turned out fine. If your job search is going to eat up your every free minute however, you might still be better off with a lawyer.

Three other couples we know also went through the process without an attorney, and all of them eventually got the green cards (one after some problems). But they all benefited from the things the other Russian speakers in my area had previously learned and relied on the rest of us for advice. Do you have an immigrant community you can turn to for support?

One tip: at the time of my mother's marriage (2002), it was taking the immigration authorities one year to process work authorizations. Our senator's office was able to expedite the process--we had the work authorization a month later. We had no political connections, mind you--just called up the constituent services line.
posted by whimwit at 6:26 PM on December 24, 2007

Have you checked with your programs to make sure you aren't offered a lawyer's services for consultation stuff?

My father and step mother started the process without a lawyer and quickly got one. It's my understanding that they wish they had started there.
posted by nadawi at 7:08 PM on December 24, 2007

Some years ago a friend of mine went through this process and found the Usenet newsgroup alt.visa.us.marriage-based to be very helpful. You could try their FAQs or the group archives or you could participate in the group (if you're at a university somewhere you presumably have better usenet access than Google Groups).
posted by hattifattener at 8:51 PM on December 24, 2007

From my experience,in the eyes of the Uscis, you are guilty until proven innocent.
Lawyer up just a bit and do some research. It aint so easy but it' can work with a bit of patience....
hattifattener has send you in a direction you will find invaluable info and support.
posted by citybuddha at 9:17 PM on December 24, 2007

My cousin dealt with this when he got married. They hired a lawyer (it cost in the low four digits, I believe -- $1500-$2000 -- but this guy specialized in this and worked in the SF Bay Area, could be very different somewhere else). It still took a long time for them to gather the paperwork and for the visa to get here. If you have specific questions email me and I'll ask him when I next talk to them.
posted by salvia at 11:40 AM on December 25, 2007

I hired an immigration lawyer as a backup when I applied to Canada. He did give me some great advice on where to request an interview- (closest doesn't mean fastest), but he was most useful as a backup in case things had not gone well. This is when you really need someone, when your request has been denied and you are told to leave the country in 30 days. Fortunately, I didn't need him, but the retainer was good insurance.

A specialized immigration lawyer will has insight into local processing times. Sometimes and office just shuts down, or stops processing certain forms, so you need to request that your application be transfered. This happened to a friend who applied for a work permit in San Diego. Her application just sat there for over a year along with thousands of others.

I would be very surprised if you didn't get some help from your university's legal services. You are not the first graduate to jump into the brain drain. Don't be shy about asking around.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 9:38 AM on December 26, 2007

Actually, you aren't in status. You have immigrant intent on a nonimmigrant visa, so that makes you a status violator. But hey, let's not get technical here, you need advice.

Permanent residency is what you should be applying for first. You do not need to divide your efforts when marrying a USC and applying for a greencard.

Go talk to your DSO. He or she may have a decent lawyer that the International Student Services office uses for cases like yours.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:06 AM on December 26, 2007

a) What would a good (and concise) place to start reading up on this task?

The aforementioned visajourney, and the newsgroup alt.visa.us.marriage-based.

Be aware that both of these are pretty heavily biased towards people dealing with fiancee visas and followons.

This is actually pretty good for you, because what you're doing -- filing for adjustment of status after marrying an American -- is *part* of the fiancee visa process.

b) Am I really late in terms of preparation?

No. You can't turn in your AOS (and EAD) paperwork until after you have a marriage certificate in your hand.

c) How much time would it take for me to get the work authorization?

Someone above said more than a year... IIRC, and I haven't checked recently, this is one of those things that varies STRONGLY from field office to field office.

But...

I know that filing AOS + EAD + AP goes to your local field office when it's from a K-1. Is this also true for filing AOS from a different visa status?

d) We would really like to skip a lawyer (both poor grad students) — advisable?

Assuming there's nothing nasty in your background like an old criminal conviction, including one that's been expunged, it shouldn't be a problem. It's just a bunch of forms to fill out. They're very fussy forms, but still just forms. Visajourney and a.v.u.m-b are very good guides to filling out the forms and providing associated evidence.

If you do get an attorney, only get an immigration attorney. Do not hire a local lawyer who spends most of his/her time doing probates and real estate and injury -- you want someone who deals only with immigration issues. Membership in AILA is probably a good sign. The archives of a.v.u.m-b are replete with stories of people hiring their local general-purpose lawyer who, at best, delays things and at worst screws things up because they are not expert in immigration procedures.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:27 PM on December 26, 2007

USCIS, for some reason, skipped on approving my work auth. My application for marriage based adjustment of status (which includes the work auth, obviously) was approved within 3 months of filing.

Didn't use a lawyer.

I found these forums extremely helpful.

Good luck!
posted by icarus at 7:16 AM on December 27, 2007