Hey friends. If you're interested in hearing about options to become legal and get a green card in
America, after you have overstayed your visa, watch this video, everything that is being shared
in this video and upcoming videos are all legal. For those of you who are new to me, welcome to my
channel. I'm Latoya, McBean Pompey and immigration lawyer in New York. We're helping clients all over
the United States and many different countries contact us at McBean law to see how we may be able
to help you with your immigration matter. This topic came out of a ticked hug video that I did
just recently about several different options for folks who have overstayed their visa. I received
a lot of questions from folks are on Instagram, actually, because it was also posted on Instagram.
A lot of questions asking me about how to each option work.
And I do a video that breaks down each option. And so that's what I'm attempting to do. Now,
if you enter it into the United States with a visa in your name, um, and you were inspected
and admitted into the United States by customs, this video is directed towards you. The other
disclaimer is this. If you are working with an attorney, the information that I'm going
to share with you in this video should not be used to replace information that your own
attorney had shared with you or any attorney, client communications you guys have had.
So now let's get into it. So the first option is us citizen spouse, and you might be thinking,
oh, okay. I knew that this one is easy. If I marry a us citizen, I'm golden, I can get my green card
easily. Um, and that's that? Okay. Make bean, tell me something that I don't know.
Well, what I do want to share with you are the pros and cons to this strategy because
the strategy doesn't always work for everyone who is married to a us citizen. It just does not. And
I know this because at McBean law, we meet with a lot of people each week who, um, are
in a genuine marriage to a us citizen, but their case was denied. Nevertheless, let's
go through some of the pros and some of the cons with this strategy under our law marriage, to a us
citizen. The first good thing about this process, number one is that it's faster. It just is right.
If it's a good filing. Um, and it depends on your jurisdiction. We've had cases where we
were able to help our couples, uh, adjust, um, do adjustment of status in about five months
from start until finish finished BNB approval. Uh, we've seen, seen it happen that way in other
jurisdictions like here in New York, um, it usually takes about a year and a half.
Okay. So it really depends on the jurisdiction, but generally speaking, it tends to be faster
process. Uh, number two, you can file, you can do adjustment of status, which is an option that
allows you to get your green card right here in America when you're here physically in America.
And, um, and, and it's a huge benefit actually, to be able to do that rather than having to go to
a us embassy for an interview, the third, uh, benefit or pro I should say to doing, um, the
marriage process is that you're, if you've cut you because you've overstayed, obviously you, you
have unlawful presence on your record. And so the government would essentially look the other way
and automatically forgive you for the unlawful presence that you have on your record.
You could have, um, a year and a half of unlawful present, or 10 years of unlawful presence. It
really doesn't matter once you're married to a us citizen, because you're automatically exempt
from that issue or that rule. So that's good. And then the other good thing is if you, um,
there's an exemption for unauthorized employment, okay? The government again,
would look the other way, uh, for those who are married to a us citizen, what else is good about
this process? Well, you would get a employment authorization document, otherwise known. That's
my dog. Otherwise known as the EAD. You get that while your application is pending. Um,
you could also get advanced parole, which is a travel document that allows you to leave the
United States while your application is pending. And you can come back in if CBP doesn't find any
other reason to deny you entry, generally speaking, you can come right back in.
And the other good thing about being able to, um, adjust your status through a U S citizen spouse
is that you could file a waiver for an other violations, other immigration violations that
are serious, right? If it's a crime that's waivable or an immigration violation like
fraud or misrepresentation, that's on your record. Um, and it's waivable,
then you could file the [inaudible] waiver along with your adjustment of status application. Now,
what are some of the cons? What are some of the things that are not so good? Because, uh,
there are things that are not good about this one. The first is that it's an expensive process. Guys.
It's an expensive process to go through adjustment of status. The filing fees are $1,760, right? And
so that's a lot of money. Number two, you have to prove bonafide marriage, which requires a
lot of evidence. It's, it's a lot, right? It, you can be in a bonafide marriage with a
us citizen and still not get your green card because you fail to provide the government
with the types of evidence that they really need to prove that it's bonafide.
Thirdly, most cases are interviewed. You'd have to go through an interview, although, you know,
during COVID, uh, while the pandemic, which we're still in, but during this time, yeah, there are
some interviews that are waived, but most marriage cases are interviewed at a USC field office.
Another con is this, and this is very real guys. If you begin to have problems in the relationship,
it can, things can get very shaky very quickly. And we, we help people in that situation all the
time. You know, maybe a spouse is reluctant to go on an interview with you or reluctant to give you
evidence that you need for your case. Or maybe the spouse is threatening. You
threatening to call immigration on you and just using the whole immigration process as leverage or
to control the relationship. So when those types of things happen, it could really lead to a lot
of stress and uncertainty. You got to keep that part in mind as well, um, that the relationship
problems can complicate the filing process. The other thing that is a little tricky is that if you
do have a violation on your record, that you need an ice, 6 0 1 waiver for, and your spouse, your
us citizen spouse doesn't have the hardships that are needed for this waiver. Then the waiver will
be denied. And if the waiver is denied and your green card application would likewise be denied,
it's tricky. Um, because the hardships have to be very real and you have to prepare a very,
very strong waiver in order for this to work. Otherwise you can be stuck. Um, although you can
prepare another waiver. Yes, but the hardships must really be there. The other thing that makes
it a little challenging with the marriage case is if you've been married less than two years
at the time of the approval, you'll just get the two year green card, right? And then at the end
of that two year period, you will have to go in together again, jointly to apply for the 10 year
green card. And that could be very tricky if the relationship is also on Rocky ground, or if you
guys have divorced, although there are ways to do it. And we help people all the time with the ice,
7 51 process, there is a way for you to get your 10 year green card, despite the troubles that you,
you may be facing in the marriage, or despite the fact that you're now divorced.
The last thing on my list is that if you don't do this properly, meaning if the filing is not done
properly, the interview doesn't go well, uh, you get a Stokes interview, you get a notice of intent
to deny there's a home visit. The fraud unit gets involved. I think all of those things happen,
guys. And then it ultimately leads to a denial. Well, you're at risk of being placed in removal
proceedings. And it's up to the field office to determine whether or not to put you in removal.
I've seen some cases come to us in which the case was denied years ago, yet the person was never
placed in removal. I've seen cases where, uh, the individual was denied a couple of months ago and
that field office issued a notice for them to go into immigration court. So it really depends
on the field office, be in, placed in removal is not the worst thing in the world because you can
win in, in court as well through the judge. The deeper part of this is that if the government
determines that you don't have enough evidence to prove bonafide marriage, um, and they
are suspecting that fraud is at play in the relationship, even if fraud is not at play. But
if there is a strong record from their standpoint that the marriage is not right, fraud may be at
work or there's not enough evidence, they could bar you from pursuing the green card again,
under a section under our law. So it gets very, very, um, difficult at that point.
Now, wherever you are on this spectrum with your us citizen spouse and the filing process,
we can help you at McBean law because we, we see all sorts of issues that crop up with the marriage
cases, reach out to us if you're having any issues with the filing, or if you want to do it right,
you were just married. You were married recently,
and you'd like to have a solid case prepared contact us so that we can get it done right
in the beginning for you so that you could avoid all of those missteps down the road, or if you've
already experienced those missteps, reach out to us so that we could see how we might be able to
help you get back on track and ultimately get that green card. I will say that some
cases, um, uh, are not curable, so to speak, some cases have gotten so bad that it's not possible to
cure it with U S CIS. The only cure could possibly happen for some cases in immigration
court proceedings. If you'd like to go deeper, meet with us so that we could
talk about your individual case and what we can do to assist you, give this video a thumbs up,
share it with other people, and I will see you in the next one. Thanks for watching. Bye-bye.