Questions about an Attorney

[divakotka]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and am hoping that someone could give me their opinion on what I learned today from an immigration lawyer.

I am currently in the US on a F-1 student visa. My husband and I got legally married here in the US just three weeks ago. My student visa will expire at the end of May when I graduate with an Masters. I have tickets to go home to Luxembourg at the end of May to finish planning our big wedding ceremony which will be in Lux. in August.

My plan was to apply for a green card now, and meanwhile go home for the summer and come back with my husband after the big wedding in August and ideally get a job in the US.

Well the attorney today told me that that is impossible, that I need to get a travel document first which could easily take until July. He said the best thing to do is to postpone the ceremony until next Spring and to stay in the US with my husband until I have the travel document and/or the green card (the conditional status card).

Is he after my money? Because I read that I could come back anytime to the US on a Visa Waiver Program (Luxembourg is one of the countries on that list) and that during those 90 days I can apply for a green card. The attorney, on the other hand, said that I cannot just come back to the US to say that I was "visiting a friend," they would inquire and find out that I am coming to be with my husband and to apply for a green card, and would then put me on the next plane back home.

My new plan would be to come back in August on the Visa Waiver Program (or just a B-2) and then apply for a green card).

He would be charging me $2400 (on top of the cost for the green card, so over $3300).

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for ANY kind of feedback!

PS: we are in TX, how long does the whole process take on average?

[yandresyuk]

1. Your attorney is only after your money in that he will charge you that much, most attorneys take less
2. He is right about the travel document, once you apply for a GC you need travel document to go in/out of the country. Although true that citizens of certain nations can enter the US on a Visa Waiver Program, when they have no intent to immigrate, that case does not apply to you, because you will clearly have intent to immigrate and therefore would be lying when entering (a fraud) and if cought (upon entry or in the future) you will be permanently banned from getting a GC
3. You might be just lucky enough to get the travel document before may, although true that it usually takes about 90 days, you just never know with those things. My suggestion would be - file all the docs asap (like this week), then start planning the wedding from here and when travel document comes go and continue planning there

[TrueBrit]

I think the attorney has given you good advice, but you could save yourself the money. You'd need to file the following forms concurrently:

I-130 Family Based Petition
I-485 Adjustment of status
I-131 Advanced parole to travel
I-765 Employment Authorization (if you want to be able to work)

Another important factor is where you physically are when they start issuing the appointment letters. We have a priority date of February 19th and our initial interview appointment is on May 2nd. So from the date they USCIS receives the forms you submit to the date they want to interview you and your spouse is currently around 10-12 weeks start to finish. It wouldn't be very helpful if you submitted the forms, got the I-131 advanced parole and then were out of the country and not able to attend the biometric appointment (about 4 weeks from the filing priority date) and the I-130 interview.

I have some logistic issues of being abroad the week immediately preceding the I-130 interview date in order to get my H1-B visa issued (it expires one week before the I-130 interview date and I'd already booked the H1-B visa appointment before the I-130 interview letter arrived!). I was told by the local USCIS office that the I-130 interview is very difficult to reschedule so we'd better attend (assuming the local embassy gets my passport back to me in time so I can get back to the US!).

The point about coming in on a Visa Waiver and then filing the documents is also valid since the visa waiver asks you to confirm that you're not planning to change the temporary non-immigrant status that you're coming in with. That being said, there are one or two recent posters on this site who have entered on a nonimmigrant visa, got married and then received their green card - I think HeyJay_45 was such a case but I think he came in on a 90 day B1/B2 visitor visa.

As I understand it, once you submit the I-130 petition, I-485 adjustment of status etc. you can remain in the US beyond your current F visa dates while the case is pending. Your best bet would probably be to change your plans to return to Luxembourg, submit the petitions before your current L visa expires, wait about 90-120 days while it is all complete and then travel to Luxembourg and plan the main event. An alternative would be to return to Luxembourg as you plan to and submit to the local embassy to process your application before you return to the US, although this may take substantially longer than the 90-120 days of doing it while you're still in the US.