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Comment by jesseendahl

2 days ago

No, it is not. And if you fall in love and want to get married to someone on a student visa, your fiancée should not need to leave the country for a year or two to wait for paperwork to process. Which is one of the real world impacts of this change.

Why wouldn’t your spouse just stay on the student visa? From what I gather it’s purely the processing that is overseas.

Stay on whatever visa you’re on -> apply for consular processing -> travel for interview -> enter on green card

  • The green card process can take 9 to 20 months and applying for a green card demonstrates an intent to immigrate so it's highly likely attempts to return on other temporary visas like a student visa will be denied.

    So they likely have to wait out the green card process abroad unless they secure a dual-intent visa like an H-1B.

    There's also 75 countries that the US has shut down consular processing for so those people may be locked out getting a green card entirely.

    • Right. But logically it makes sense - unless you have a valid visa you’re not allowed to stay.

      You could go the fiancé visa route and stay in status while waiting for the green card.

      I think what this policy is trying to avoid is the blanket “you can stay while processing even if you’re not in the country legally”