Filing 485 and 130 through marriage to Citizen after overstay

[Simon2011]

Hello all, thanks in advance for helping us out!

A little background about me. I came into the US when I was 14 on a student visa in 1986, and moved over to an H-1B once I finished my graduate school in Computer Science. After being on H-1B for about six years, when I lost my job in 2002 some lawyers advised me given it was hard to find an h-1 job at that time and I had 245i status based on aging out on a derivative family based immigrant petition, I could use my Social Security card without any restrictions from high school days and legal Driver's license to work till I got my status adjusted through my parents or through marriage. Now that I am married to a Citizen and filing 130 and 485, here are my questions:


How much explaining will I have to do about my gap in status and employment in the overall application process via RFE's etc?

If asked about these two items, what should I tell them during the interview?

Please share from your experiences, particulary the documents you used to work and when you applied for adjustment of status and what was asked during the interview and what location you had your interview in.

Trying to see if we need a lawyer.

[daru786]

Hello all, thanks in advance for helping us out!

A little background about me. I came into the US when I was 14 on a student visa in 1986, and moved over to an H-1B once I finished my graduate school in Computer Science. After being on H-1B for about six years, when I lost my job in 2002 some lawyers advised me given it was hard to find an h-1 job at that time and I had 245i status based on aging out on a derivative family based immigrant petition, I could use my Social Security card without any restrictions from high school days and legal Driver's license to work till I got my status adjusted through my parents or through marriage. Now that I am married to a Citizen and filing 130 and 485, here are my questions:


How much explaining will I have to do about my gap in status and employment in the overall application process via RFE's etc?

If asked about these two items, what should I tell them during the interview?

Please share from your experiences, particulary the documents you used to work and when you applied for adjustment of status and what was asked during the interview and what location you had your interview in.

Trying to see if we need a lawyer.

Married to a USC, don't worry about your gap in status or employment. It is forgiven,
God Bless!

[lionofafrica]

Simon2011

Hello all, thanks in advance for helping us out!

A little background about me. I came into the US when I was 14 on a student visa in 1986, and moved over to an H-1B once I finished my graduate school in Computer Science. After being on H-1B for about six years, when I lost my job in 2002 some lawyers advised me given it was hard to find an h-1 job at that time and I had 245i status based on aging out on a derivative family based immigrant petition, I could use my Social Security card without any restrictions from high school days and legal Driver's license to work till I got my status adjusted through my parents or through marriage. Now that I am married to a Citizen and filing 130 and 485, here are my questions:


How much explaining will I have to do about my gap in status and employment in the overall application process via RFE's etc?

If asked about these two items, what should I tell them during the interview?

Please share from your experiences, particulary the documents you used to work and when you applied for adjustment of status and what was asked during the interview and what location you had your interview in.

Trying to see if we need a lawyer.

You can either tell them the truth or keep quiet. Your marriage to an American citizen would protect you from the fact that you have overstayed your Visa and even unathourized employment. (b) Since you are adjusting based on I-130/1-485 and not on employment based visa( EB-1/ EB-2/ EB-3) you not need to state your employment history, you can either leave those spaces blank or write NA ,but do not write no work history. I do not think that there is a question on your work history when filing those forms and if there is any do not give yourself sleepless night, because there is none. The only thing you need to worry about is the validity of your marriage and eligibility issues as it relates to document submitted, criminal history. Do not submit any document they do not ask for, and do not submit any document that you cannot provide the original or that cannot be verified.

Lionofafrica.

[Simon2011]

Filing 485 and 130 through marriage to Citizen after overstay

Thanks for all the replies!

Going to the San Francisco Office for interview any similar experiences with documents would be helpful.