Tuesday, October 16, 2012
After the wedding bells...
This is Part 2 of a series on How to get your husband or wife a green card. Check out the whole series here.
Now that you have married the love of your life, you need to start the process to make that person legal. You are going to need certified copies of your marriage license.
Tip #3 - Get lots of certified copies of your marriage license. You will feel like everyone needs it in immigration, on top of all the normal people you will need to contact regarding getting married.
The website that will be your new best friend is www.uscis.gov. Write it down, bookmark it, heck forget that you will be on it so much that as soon as you type www. it will automatically populate in your search bar. This is where you will receive the copies of the forms that need to be filled out.
So this is how this is going to work. You, as a U.S citizen, can petition for your spouse to become a permanent resident of the United States. This doesn't allow them to become a citizen right away. If your spouse has any secrets/crimes that he has commited/other marriages, this would probably be a good time to come clean about them. Most people will be given permanent residency when applying though a family member if they are an upstanding person. Even overstaying a visa will probably not deny your residency application. Do keep in mind that your spouse should have no plans to travel outside of the U.S. There is a whole process that I will talk about later to get permission to travel.
The first form that you will fill out is the i-130. You can get this form here. The information in this form is your own. Brings me to my next tip.
Tip #4 - Change your name with all the important agencies prior to filling out the paperwork. Your marriage looks much more legit if you have assumed your husband's name. I used this blog post to get my name changed. Without it I may still be using my maiden name.
With this form you will need to provide a copy of your birth certificate and a copy of a non- expired passport. There are other options if you were not born in the United States, or do not have these. You will need a copy of a marriage certificate with this as well. If you were ever previously married, you must provide paperwork on that, too. Both you and your spouse will need to have passport style pictures done and include them with this paperwork. These need to be taken within 30 days prior to filing the petition. Form G-325A, found here, will need to be filled out for you and your spouse. As if all of these additions are not enough, you are going to have to provided some documentation to provide evidence that bona fides your marriage. This could be a lease or a joint bank account, or a couple of other items that have both of your names on them.
Tip #5 - Add your spouses name to all of your documents as soon as your married. When we showed our life insurance policy, it was like Dufda's ticket into the U.S.
If you did not listen and are still in between names, you will need to provide information supporting both of your names with this form as well.
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I remember how hard it was to change my name!!! Glad I only plan to do it once ;) I love following you along in your journey and just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Liebester Award. http://www.cherryblossomlove.com/2012/10/liebster-award.html
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