My current status is AOS (Advance Parole) based on an employment-based EB3 green card filing with a PD of April 2007. I am an Indian citizen. My H-1B expired in 2007 and since then I have been working in the US on my EAD. My parents have found a prospective bride in India, so I am looking to get married soon and have her accompany me to the US after marriage. She does not have a US Visa. I have not found any information from any venue of getting married to an Indian girl from India in my current immigration status, except for hearing about Form I-824. Could you speak towards or confirm if indeed this is the process/procedure and its success rate or any caveat : filing Form I-824 to have my future wife added as a dependent to my pending AOS application, while she is still in India? And then subsequently filing my next I- 765 application and adding her as a dependent/spouse on the application. Once the EAD cards arrive then traveling to India and she could travel back to the US on her new EAD card?
Watch Video: Getting married when AOS I-485 is pending (following to join and other options)
Video Transcript: As per the law if you have an employment based case pending and you are married on the date your green card is approved, she is entitled to come through you through the same priority date and through a much shorter process called following to join.
What is following to join?
Lets say you are here and your spouse is in India you will file form I-824 and request the government to send her papers to the consulate and that can take time. But this is processing time. It can take 6-10 months. But eventually she gets processed through an interview in the consulate following to join.
In the above situation H-1/H-4 is the only option because unless she is in USA in legal status she can't file adjustment of status. When you are outside you can do only following to join.
Get your H-1 stamping done and also her H-4 done. Both of you travel to USA on H-1 and H-4. If your priority date is current when you land you can file for her I-485 otherwise she can stay on H-4 and you can stay on H-1.
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.
Note: This is a verbatim transcript of the referenced audio/video media delivered as oral communication, and, therefore, may not conform to written grammatical or syntactical form.