Hey guys.
So, have you ever wondered what happens if somebody gets married but they've only been
married for a short duration, sometimes even less than a month, and then they have to file
a green card?
What happens?
How do you find such a case?
Well, watch this video, and I'll tell you more.
My name is Jacob Sapochnick and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California.
In this video, we're going to talk about short-duration marriages and green cards.
What happens when the marriage is so short and you want to file for the green card so
fast?
How to do this?
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So, let's talk about short-duration marriages and green cards.
So, recently I had a lot of corporate clients who came to the office and they just met so…
to give us an example of a recent case where the couple met in October.
It was an amazing meeting, they met on a trip and they decided that they wanted to be together.
So the spouse, the husband, who was a US citizen, moved to San Diego where the foreign national
lived.
And so, they met in October.
They moved in together in late November, and then they decided to get married just before
Christmas.
So, it's a very short meeting, moving, and deciding to get married.
It's all passion, and love, and everything there.
But what they realized is that when they came to see me, as they're telling me the story,
they realize that it may be a problem if the USCIS, the government is going to look at
it because it doesn't look really normal as to what they see, for somebody to meet on
in October and then move in November, and then they get married in December.
It's really fast.
And so, what I told them is that first of all, I was convinced that it was a real marriage,
they met both their parents, they had a beautiful wedding with 250 people.
And the story is just an amazing story.
But I know that they will face challenges because when they're going to end up in an
interview, they're going to ask them those questions.
Why so fast?
Why did you do that?
The other issue is that the foreign national arrived in the US literally a couple of months
before, actually a month before meeting the US citizen.
So, she was literally here for 90 days, about 90 days when they actually moved in together.
So even there, her entry was somehow recent.
So we have to kind of overcome some of these things.
So, first of all, when we're dealing with a marriage of short duration, you really have
to look at what are the strengths versus the weaknesses that we have to deal with.
So for example, in their case, the marriage itself took place after the 90 days.
Clearly, they didn't know each other when she entered, so there was no intent to marry
that US citizen.
So, that's one thing that we can really clearly establish.
The second thing is that while they were not living together for a long time, they had
a very, very, somehow big wedding.
They had a lot of people that came to their wedding, they had 2050 people that showed
up.
And that's something, that's the kind of wedding that I sometimes don't see with couples that
are dating for a few years, just because it's not so common in the US to have large weddings.
But in their case, they had a wedding with a couple of hundred people.
And so we use that as a very strong leverage to show the USCIS that, “Listen, yes, they
had this interesting, maybe strange story in your eyes but they have this huge wedding,
both families were there, everybody was there.
They were also able to commingle their assets fairly quickly.
So, as soon as they moved in together, they already had a joint bank account.
They're paying the rent from that same account.
They had life insurance and health insurance that they established because the US citizen
had a pretty good job.
So, you immediately added her to his benefits.
And they were able to do one big purchase, they were able to buy 6000 worth of goods
to bring into the bedroom.
So, the point is that yes, they didn't have too many pictures together.
Yes, they didn't have too many trips.
Yes, they didn't have too many bills.
But what they did have was quite substantial.
And so, when we ended up at the interview, and I had prepared them and I said, and anybody
who's watching right now, when you're in the short duration marriage, we're actually going
to be preparing a free course to show you exactly how that filing should take place,
not only in the preparation process that we’re talking about right now but also what kind
of documents and how to prepare the petition so you have a bigger chance to get approved.
So, in this case, what happened at the interview, is that the officer was questioning the fact
“Why did you move in so fast?
Why did you get married so fast?
Was it because your visa was going to expire?
Was it because you want to help her stay in the country?”
And of course, I prepared them they're going to ask more questions and they have clear
answers.
“No, it was because we generally wanted to be together.
It was because we were in love and we didn’t see any reason to wait.
We just wanted to be together.
As soon as we met, we…” they drove to meet the parents.
And so the point is, yes, there was an investigation in the interview where they were questioning
them.
They didn't separate them.
But they're asking questions about brothers/sisters, some personal questions as much as they can
know in those three months of being together.
At the end of the day, the case was approved.
But what I think the biggest factors in their case was that they had some evidence than
most other people wouldn't have.
So, in this case, it was the big wedding.
But even if you don't have a big wedding, you may have something else.
Like maybe you do one big purchase together, if you are, in fact, trying to show that it's
a committed relationship.
But the key is to show that you have something that maybe others won't have, even though
that marriage is of short duration.
At the end of the day, all that the USCIS cares about is that it's a bona fide marriage.
There's no definition of what a bona fide marriage is but they do have certain things
that they have to follow.
And they also use a reasonable person's test to see if it actually makes sense, if that
case makes sense.
Remember, even if you get approved at that first interview, after that first wedding,
the green card is only issued for two years because it's a short duration marriage, it's
less than two years.
And in two years, they have to prove again, that it's a bona fide marriage, that it was
a bona fide marriage for them to be able to get the 10-year green card by removing the
condition.
So if in fact, they're not going to be able to establish that in the next two years, and
this particular couple, obviously will, but the idea is that as long as you convince the
government that it is a bona fide marriage in the beginning, then you will have two more
years to build that case before you actually get your permanent green card.
So, these are just some tips for short duration marriage.
Try to be really concise, try to have effective evidence that will make sense, and also, be
honest and truthful with the officers.
If they ask you about things, you just say, “Listen, this is all we have right now.
It was a short duration marriage, we just met, but we love each other.
And here's what we have.”
And at the end of the day, if the story lines up, you will be able to get the conditional
green card.
So, if you have any questions about this, short duration marriage, post those questions
below.
In the comments, let me know what you think.
And make sure that if you know somebody who may need that information, take that link
and share that or tweet that and spread the word.
So, thanks for watching.
I'll see you in our next video.