help! from canadians?..will marrying an american get you out of needing J1/H1b?

[Cotterpin_Doozer]

Hi Everyone,


My finance and I want to stay together for residency. He is American and I am Canadian and we are trying to plan for when is a good time to get married (debateable because of medschool of course). We are living together, have just started 3rd year of clinical rotations and are worried about our future together,...We dont want to deal with the annoyance of being split up when I have to return to Canada after residency is done for 2 years (J1) and the H1b cuts down alot of choices for hospitals...in general we are also concerned that the residency match will split us up. We don't want to use the couples match because we were told because I am Canadian, I may ruin his chances for a spot.

Do you need a green card/full citizenship to apply for a residency without needing the J1/H1b?
Can you apply for a residency with just a spouse/fiance visa (K-3)?
How long does it take to get permanent citizenship after marriage? (how soon should we plan to get married?)
Can you get a residency with just a work permit (awaiting a green card)?

Thanks in advance for any help you can shed on this issue.

[rokshana]

Hi Everyone,


My finance and I want to stay together for residency. He is American and I am Canadian and we are trying to plan for when is a good time to get married (debateable because of medschool of course). We are living together, have just started 3rd year of clinical rotations and are worried about our future together,...We dont want to deal with the annoyance of being split up when I have to return to Canada after residency is done for 2 years (J1) and the H1b cuts down alot of choices for hospitals...in general we are also concerned that the residency match will split us up. We don't want to use the couples match because we were told because I am Canadian, I may ruin his chances for a spot.

Do you need a green card/full citizenship to apply for a residency without needing the J1/H1b?
Can you apply for a residency with just a spouse/fiance visa (K-3)?
How long does it take to get permanent citizenship after marriage? (how soon should we plan to get married?)
Can you get a residency with just a work permit (awaiting a green card)?

Thanks in advance for any help you can shed on this issue.


get married and couples match...the canadian /US couples that i know did just that. I mean they were planning on getting married anyways, so they did the legal thing (JOP)early enough to let it help them and then did the big formal ceremony later when they had the time for it (after match).

yes, the fiancee visais sufficent for going through the match as a couple w/o hurting the US citizens chances (though you can just have him match and not you in your ROL to prevent that from happening)

timeline? the couples i know married around aug/sept of 4th year and had the GC by feb (is that fast or slow, i dunno). IMHO, the sooner you start the process the better.

[Allthaticanbe]

My sister is married to an American and she's Canadian. When she applied there was a ton of paperwork so I suggest that you contact a lawyer.