Immigration Corner | Will getting married cause a problem?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

I am a Jamaican citizen and I am (named) on a filing that started from 2015. I am an adult. I have been waiting for an interview since 2021. I just want to know if it would cause a problem, as I got married in 2022. Please assist me with this matter or refer me to the relevant person.

Thank you in advance.

AH

Dear AH,

Getting married while a petition to migrate to the United States is pending can sometimes become an issue – it depends on who is doing the filing.

If your petition was filed by a green card holder parent and you the beneficiary gets married while the petition is pending, that petition becomes void. A green card holder cannot file for a married son/daughter. The beneficiary would have to wait for their parent to become a US citizen and file a new petition. That petition would be classified in the F3 preference category – the married son/daughter of a US citizen.

If the petitioner is a US citizen and files for their unmarried son/daughter and the son/daughter gets married, this will delay the process. The petition will move from the F1 preference category, with a current waiting period of approximately eight years, to the F3 preference category (married son/daughter of an American citizen) that has a current waiting period of approximately 14 years.

The National Visa Centre must be notified of the marriage, and the beneficiary is not to proceed as if unmarried, if they are in fact married. Doing so is tantamount to immigration fraud; that will be a permanent bar to migrating without a waiver. If a person proceeds in the wrong category and ‘slips through the system’, they can lose their green card and face deportation from the United States. Likewise, their unrevealed spouse acquired during the filing will not be able to migrate.

If the petitioner is your sibling or adult American citizen son/daughter, getting married during the process will not affect the filing.

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