My husband was born in China and filed his I-526 two years ago before we met. Then the application got approved but he is waiting for his priority date to be present. I am a U.S. citizen and we got married last month. Should I file a family-based immigration petition for him now? Will two pending immigration cases bring him any negative influence? Given the current backlog for China-born applicants, which path will be faster for him to get a green card?
There should be no negative influence, unless it''s determined to be a fraudulent marriage done with the intent to evade the immigration laws. Marriage to a U.S. citizen adjustment case usually takes less than one year to adjudicate.
There is no conflict in having two petitions pending. Marriage-based petition, immediate relative category, will result in an immediate green card (following the USCIS + DOS processing).
The family-based immigration will likely be faster than the EB-5 remaining process. However, at this point in time with the I-526 approved, if you plan to terminate the EB-5 petition you will have to consider your exit options and the potential costs. Advisably, consult an immigration attorney on this issue before you seek termination of the EB-5 process.
You should file a petition for your husband now. This will be a faster route for your husband to obtain permanent residence status than the EB-5 process. It is not a problem to have a pending marriage case and a pending I-526 petition at the same time.
There is absolutely no prohibition on a foreign national to be the beneficiary of more than one immigrant visa petition, be it an EB-5 immigration visa petition on Forum I-526 or an immediate relative petition on Form I-130. As a practical matter, given the current backlog under the China quota for EB-5 investors, it may be much faster for you as a U.S. citizen to file an immigrant visa petition on Form I-130 on behalf of your husband.
No problem with having both processing (ie., based on I-526 and family based) filed. It will be faster through the marriage based at this point as a spouse of a U.S. citizen.
Probably best to file the family-based petition. The approved I-526 should not impact the family-based petition.
You can file a family-based case for him now. Should be no problem. When it comes time to give him his green card, they will probably ask for him to dismiss the EB-5 case.
Two pending immigrant petitions will not affect each other. Your petition for him based upon marriage likely will be faster than waiting for an immigrant visa number under a China-born visa retrogression category.
There is no restriction on having multiple immigrant petitions, particularly since you are talking about filing a family-based immigration for your husband. As a spouse of a U.S. citizen, he will be able to get his permanent residency faster by going through this route than EB-5.
There are no adverse consequences to filing multiple immigrant visa petitions. It is actually quite common. Filing a family-based immigrant petition (I-130) based on him becoming the spouse of a US citizen, is most likely a good idea as there is no per country quota on that category. Like with EB-5, he will be accorded conditional residency status first and then 2 years later he will need to file seeking conversion of his green card status from conditional to unconditional with evidence of the continued bona fides of the marriage. Applying through the marriage will likely be much faster than waiting for his China/EB5 priority date to become current.
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