What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
First off, sorry if this is in the wrong place I wasn't sure if it belonged under marriage or immigration, either seem to apply.
The short version:
My boyfriend is a Chinese citizen who has lived in the US for the past 7 years. He works here legally already and is in the process of getting a green card through work. However, we want to get married and we don't want to wait for the green card process to finish. I don't really want surprises as I'm planning the wedding, and as a precaution would rather not get all my info through him, so my questions are:
- What special paperwork, extra hoops, etc will we need to jump through on the way to the altar?
- What needs done afterwards? and how soon?
- Are there any others things that are legally different for a normal citizen to citizen marriage?
- Also, I know this board is restricted to US law, but does anyone know if China recognizes American marriages and what paperwork would be involved (with regards to proving the marriage) to me getting a visa to visit his family with him once he has his green card?
The details:
My BF and I are ring shopping, we're not yet officially engaged, but we're planning on getting engaged later this month. The wedding would be roughly a year out. I'm not sure if this is too early (laws could change in the intervening year), but I'd like to check this stuff out independently of him before I agree to marry him. I believe God specifically brought him in to my life and I don't doubt for a second that we belong together, but I do feel it is smart for me to have some understanding of things independent of him.
He has been in the US for ~7 years now. Three as a doctoral student and four as an engineer for a major multi-national corporation. I don't know the actual details of his visa. He began the process of applying for a green card through work shortly after we started dating. (Following one last visit home before that option was barred to him for the near future.) Now we want to get married. We had planned to wait until he got his green card, but that's not likely to be for another couple of years at least and frankly we're not that patient. Also neither one of us wants kids too early in the marriage and as we're already in our late 20s that extra 2 years starts putting some biological pressure on us.
He has said that once we're married he will submit a green card application as my spouse as the process is quicker that way. He made a point of discussing this with me now before he proposes to make sure I and my family will not have issues down the line and feel he married me simply for the green card.
Once again, the questions are:
- What special paperwork, extra hoops, etc will we need to jump through on the way to the altar?
- What needs done afterwards? and how soon?
- Are there any others things that are legally different for a normal citizen to citizen marriage?
- Also, I know this board is restricted to US law, but does anyone know if China recognizes American marriages and what paperwork would be involved (with regards to proving the marriage) to me getting a visa to visit his family with him once he has his green card?
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Linear Mode
