Immigration Corner | What are my available options?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

Hope you are doing well. I have a few questions I would like to ask, and, hopefully, you can assist me.

I have a girlfriend who recently migrated to the United States (US). We did not get married when she was living in Jamaica because she was on filing, and I am sure that if we had got married, it would have affected her chances of migrating when the filing came through.

Now that she has finally migrated to the US and I currently have a valid B1/B2 visa, I would like to know if it is possible for me to visit her and maybe get married over there. I don’t want to run into any trouble with the US authorities, so I would like to know what the available options are.

I look forward to hearing from you.

– D.F.

Dear D.F.,

If a person is petitioned for a green card by their parent when they are single and they marry during the filing process, the marriage does have an impact on the pending petition. If the parent files as a permanent resident (green card holder), and the unmarried son or daughter marries before migrating, the petition is voided. A green card parent cannot file for a married son or daughter.

If the parent is a US citizen, and their unmarried son or daughter marries while the petition is pending, the beneficiary’s category changes to married son or daughter. That change adds several years to the wait time for a visa to become available. For example, it currently takes six years longer for a visa to be available for the married son or daughter of a US citizen than it does for the unmarried son/daughter of a US citizen. The benefit of marrying if the petitioning parent is a US citizen is that both husband and wife get to migrate together and there is no family separation.

In your situation, you can certainly marry your girlfriend, who is now in America, and the marriage can take place in Jamaica or in the US. Your permanent resident wife can petition for you for a green card, but you cannot remain in the United States during the pendency of the petition. You can visit her while the application is pending, but you will need to consular process and attend your residency interview at the US Embassy in Kingston. Please do not stay in the US for extended periods because you will run the risk of being denied entry on a subsequent visit. Your filing should take 12-15 months to an interview. There is a backlog because of the pandemic.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, esq, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States and family, criminal, and international law in Florida. She is a mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com