URGENT! Is there a difference between a marriage visa and american citizenship?this last one and a green card?
448852
Yes there is a huge difference.  I'm married to a French citizenship and I'm an American citizen.  A Marriage visa is only a visa for a person to come and visit for a period of time, longer than 6 months.  Enough time only to allow the person to get their marriage license.  Then, you have to start your paper process with his green card through the closest INS.  Start the petition process as soon as possible.  Even if you are married, they can still send him away back to his country if he didn't get his green card yet.  If he's in the process of getting a green card, tell him not to travel anywhere.  If he's going to stay longer than 6 months without the marriage visa, then the consequences can be that he gets deported back to his country and banned from the US for 10 years.  I'm listing a website source made by an immigrant lawyer that may help you understand the process a bit.  Don't do anything foolish...my advice!  This is a big issue.
792884
Was your green card a conditional green card (with a 2 year expiration date)? If so, you will have to start all over again and have your new spouse apply for you. If so, I highly suggest that you hire an immigration attorney (NOT AN "IMMIGRATION CONSULTANT"!), as you will have a very difficult time explaining why your first marriage didn't last long enough for you to get your green card.\n\nIf it was a permanent green card (with a 10 year expiration date), you have not lost your residence status. You simply file a Form I-90, which has a $260 filing fee.\n\nYou can download the form at the URL listed below. You mail it to:\n\nU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services\nP.O. Box 54870\nLos Angeles, CA 90054-0870\n\nThey will send you a letter telling you to go to have your "biometrics" (fingerprints) taken at an Application Support Center. Sometime after that happens, you will receive your new card in the mail. Make sure you take your old card with you when you go to the ACS for the fingerprints. \n\nhttp://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=b3f7ab0a43b5d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=db029c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD
688059
It depends on a lot of factors.\n\nThere is a very strict procedure in obtaining citizenship through marriage.  First off a couple must file the appropriate paperwork with the INS prior to the marriage.  Once authorized there is usually a 90 day window to get married.  It can then take up to five years to be issued with a green card.  These last ten years.\n\nOnce the alien has a green card he/she can apply for citizenship.  It is easier to obtain citizenship the longer you remain the United States.\n\nIt is a complicated system and the best advice I can give is to seek out an immigration attorney and have a consultation.  There are so many loopholes and pitfalls in the system and a maze of paper work, forms, conflicting advice and fees.\n\nThe days are long gone when marrying an American made you a citizen.
108978
Get a lawyer and go here:  http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/citizenship_application.html
3004
No there is no problem applying for citizenship regardless of who you marry.  However the rules for citizenship apply. Such as 5 year wait (3 for those who married citizens), 2 1/2 years physical presence in the US since your GC. Legal presence for all 5 (3) years. No felonies etc.
190082
There are two ways, if you have a driver’s license that’s good enough in some states. Second, if the person you are marrying is a U.S. citizen of the country you want to be in, return to your home country get married and then have the US citizen file the paperwork with Immigration and the State Department, you will be allowed to stay in the United States until you get a green card. You will need documentation, so have the US citizen contact the State Department/ Immigration first to find out what you will need.
889839
The rule is that you can apply for citizenship three months prior to the fifth anniversary of the date you get permanent residence - the date on the Green Card.  However, if the purpose of the application was to get married to a US citizen, then it is three years, not five.  On the assumption that he came to the US legally and he obtained his Green Card in the normal course of events, his five year anniversary will take precedence.  The marriage will have no effect on his ability to take citizenship.  \n\nIf, however, he was here illegally and he is becoming legal to get married, I really am not sure of the rules.  Frankly, if that is the case, I would strongly recommend an immigration attorney.
386750
This is for marriage with a US citizen only.\n\nIf the marriage occurs abroad, the petition for green card must be filed through a U.S. Consulate with jurisdiction over the applicants place of residence. The process typically takes 6 months or longer. \n\nHowever, the applicant may work and live in the U.S. from the date of filing. Thus the processing period (typicall longer 12 - 18 months) is not as inconvenient as it would seem since she or he can reside with the fiance.  As a result, many newly weds prefer to undertake the entire green card application process in the U.S.
852670
Under Immigration law the US Citizen files the petition for the alien spouse.  The US Citizen can withdraw the petition at anytime prior to the government granting the permanent green card.  A two year card is a conditional (or temporary) green card.\n\nBy him telling the immigration that your marriage was "not in good faith" he has done two things:\n\nHe has withdrawn his petition for you and:\n\nHe has put it on record that you knowingly committed fraud.\n\nWhile the government may not go after you criminally (there is a chance, but a slim one), you do not have status in the US and will be required to return to your home.\n\nIf your new boyfriend marries you, then you will be fighting an uphill battle in proving to the government that this second marriage was NOT in good faith.\n\nAn important factor will be the divorce record.  You "left him" (abandoned your first husband) and you presumably engaged in immoral conduct by having a boyfriend while still legally married.\n\nIn the government's eyes you are NOT a good person.\n\nYou could fight it )request a hearing before an immigration judge), but what PROOF do you have to counter the image the government now has of you?\n\nIf you lose, then you become a "previously deported alien."  Then there is I think a 5 year bar to re-entry.\n\nThe other choice is to go home on your own and after a "respectable" period of time (i.e. AFTER your divorce) you become engaged to #2, marry and then come back on a K visa.\n\nSince your conditional green card has already expired, you are now an illegal alien (an overstay).\n\nYou won't be able to be legally employed.  Your husband can complaint to the government that you are engaged in crimes (crimes other than adultery with boyfriend such as drugs - without proof) and if he convinces an ICE agent to do so, you will be picked up.  Or they could send you a notice to appear.\n\nBy the way, in addition to being out of status (offense #1), if you did not update your address with immigration you have committed offense #2 and possibly more.\n\nThis is time sensitive.  Your decision is go home on your own and return later, or go through immigration procedings and possibly be deported as undesireable.\n\nYour choice.\n\nAnd don't further your image with the government by lying.
795125
No Not in your case. they have lottery's but when you get married to a citizen especially a GI things are a little easier. You will become a naturalized citizen. The thing that's happened is a few have done fraudulent marriage for that purpose. So in turn INS has in some cases questioned the legitimacy of the marriage. Only in some cases. so they may tell you that after 2-3 yrs we will give you citizenship they have guidelines but I hope it goes well for you!!
460662
Marriage got nothing to do with being legal or illegal. Any form of id is good enough for getting married. You can use your passport from your native country as a form of id. \n\nGetting a Green Card based on marriage is a different issue and being legal or illegal matters.\n\n"If you marry a US citizen you are eligible to file for Status change to get a Green Card provided you entered the US legally( through US customs/port)and you don't have any serious criminal records. If you have entered the country illegally you can not change your status based on marriage until congress implements new laws. Two different issues so don't confuse them"
11281
There is a question you have to answer first.  When you were provided residency on your "Green Card" it was initally a conditional residency.  Your code of adjustment would be CR(number).  If you have had this condition removed, you are a lawful permanent resident, divorced or not.  If not, your residency is dependent on your marriage.  Additionally, if you choose to file for citizenship, you are required to wait 3 years if married to a citizen, and 5 years if you are not.
644104
NO! Absolutely not! If you don't believe me you can go to www.uscis.gov or call the INS' customer service line and speak with an INS agent. I used to think the same thing. I've been in the states for 29 years. I am married with little US citizens of my own. I found out that because I've had my greencard for so long that I can not become a citizen through marriage and it doesn't even remotely help. He has to file a N-400, which is the naturalization for citizenship form. Mail it with all necessary copies, signatures, and payment of fees (which keeps increasing). Make sure that you send it CERTIFIED MAIL. Wait for the approval and then the examinations date. Study and take the test. Then wait to be sworn it and then after all is said and sworn...he'll be a citizen. Is it worth it? Yes, because there is so much US citizens take for granted!! Take care.
765765
There is an immigration process but it's tedious. You have to be able to prove you didn't marry for the purpose of the green card.\n\nThe easiest way is to get her here on a tourist visa and marry in the states. Then apply for permanent resident alien status, then citizenship.
597600
I can tell you 100% you are still an American citizen and you are also a Canadian citizen - you have dual citizenship.  You did not need a green card to go back to the USA to work.  You can freely live and work in either country and will never lose either citizenship unless you officially renounce either one to the government.  \n\nI know this is a fact.  I also was born in the USA with both of my parents being US citizens.  We moved to Canada when I was 10 years old and when I was 21 I took out Canadian citizenship.  I, too, thought that I had lost my American citizenship automatically at the time of becoming a Canadian citizen, until about 10 years later when I was travelling over the border to the USA from Canada and a US customs officer asked me my citizenship when I handed him my driver's license, my US birth certificate, and my Canadian naturalization certificate.  I told him I was Canadian.  He asked my why I said that, since I was born in the USA.  I told him that I thought I had automatically lost my US citizenship when I took my Canadian citizenship.  He told me that unless I have either renounced my American citizenship or have ever received a letter from the US government telling me that I am no longer an American citizen, then I am still American.  He told me to contact the US Embassy in Canada to enquire, but from now on he told me to claim only my US citizenship when I enter the USA.  He said the US does not recognize my Canadian citizenship and so I should only report that I am a US citizen when asked at the border in the future.  However, I need to hand both pieces of ID because they want to see what my status is in Canada, as well.  Ever since then, I hand both pieces of ID and my driver's license and when asked my citizenship, I say, US citizen, when travelling into the USA.  I never have any problem whatsoever and, in fact, I am told, "Ma'am, you can stay in the USA just as long as you want to!"  Ha!  In fact, at the time, I had my 2 children in the car with me who were both born in Canada.  The customs officer also told me to check with the US Embassy regarding them, as well, as they may also have US citizenship.  I did contact the Embassy.  They sent me forms to complete regarding my children and then they sent me a letter stating that my elder child also has US citizenship, based on the citizenship laws at the time of his birth; however, my younger child does not, based on the citizenship laws at the time of her birth.  As well, they sent me a letter stating that I was a US citizen, even though I also now had Canadian citizenship.  \n\nIt is very nice, actually, as you have the best of both worlds.  I never have a problem coming either way over the border and I travel back and forth a couple times a month.  \n\nSo, contact the US Embassy in Canada if you are in Canada now, or the US Immigration if you are presently in the US - they're in the phone book or you can look them up on the internet.  If you have children, also, check out their citizenship status.  If you do not have children yet, but plan to, as soon as they are born, whichever country they are born in, notify the other country of their birth to register it and they will have both citizenships, automatically.  I should have done this with both of my children at the time of their births but, because I didn't know this at the time, I didn't.  Now, my son just has to apply for his US passport and that is what will be his proof of his US citizenship, as he already has his Canadian birth certificate. \n\nThis is not necessarily the case with other countries in the world, but between Canada and the USA, you do not have to renounce one to have the other.  It is a wonderful thing and we are very fortunate.
83405
marriage with U S citizen
705618
It really depends on what country you are going to, sad but true, say if it is Canada you can go to canada.gc.ca  and find all the info that you need. Honesty is the best policy. I came to Canada from the USA, and I had no troubles, I'm still here and happily married and have filed for papers for landed immig status , You want to make sure that when you do proceed with anything that you answer all info properly and correct, if not that can cause you many problems, and just for your info it can be time consuming and you just need to remain positive. Just get all the information you can, off the net, public library can be helpful, your own offices for passports and visa's and such, You need to find out if there are any stipulations for the country you are going to, such as how much money you need to have per day and so on. I hope this makes since, Good luck to you ...