Us Citizenship

If you intend to marry or are already married in the United States, there are various marriage immigration laws that you need to take into consideration. When it comes to marriage the United States has immigration laws that apply to the different marriage situations. For example there are rules for bringing a fiancée into the United States and still other rules after marriage. It is important to talk to someone in the immigration office about the various rules and regulations so that you will know which forms need to be filled out and processed.

For those people that already have US citizenship and plan to have their fiancée come to the United States to be with them there are specific rules and regulations in regards to immigration. The first rule to note is that your fiancée will not automatically be a United States citizen. You must first fill out the fiancée visa forms or K-1 forms and have the forms processed. In order to qualify for a fiancée visa, you and your fiancée must have met in face to face during the past two years. This means that if you meet your fiancée on the Internet and have not met face to face you cannot apply for a fiancée visa. Additionally, at the time of the application both of you must be completely eligible to marry. For example, if you are in the middle of a divorce but the divorce is not finalized you will not be able to have your fiancée come to the United States on a fiancée visa until your divorce is finalized. Once your fiancée arrives in the US, the marriage between the two of you must occur within ninety days. Furthermore, should something happen that your fiancée marries someone else they will be deported from the US and their fiancée visa will become void.

During the time that your fiancée arrives in the US they can apply for a work permit. A work permit form called form I-765 must be filled out. However, they cannot apply until the 90 days for the marriage to take place temporary visa has passed. If for some reason the fiancée visa is denied you have 33 days to file a I-290B to appeal the denial. In order to work in the US, your fiancée must become a permanent resident of the US after the marriage takes place.

Once you are married, your spouse can apply for a permanent residency status in the US. Until you have been married a minimum of two years, your spouse cannot apply for permanent US citizenship. This law was created to make certain that people did not marry in order to avoid the regular US immigration laws. For those persons that have US citizenship but marry someone that is not a US citizen, they can petition for US citizenship of their spouse. If you plan on marrying someone outside of the United States in their country, you cannot petition for immigration for them but you cannot file for a fiancée visa since the wedding will not take place in the United States. In this situation you will need to wait until you have been married for two years before petitioning for them to obtain US citizenship. If you are uncertain of the rules, because they can be quite confusing, check with the local immigration office or write to the department of immigration.

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