I have an existing common-law marriage registration in Korea — can I pursue a green card in the U.S. separately by marrying someone else first?
Before coming to the U.S., I lived with a partner in Korea, then came to the U.S. alone. I later wanted to marry someone else here and pursue a marriage-based green card, but I found out I’m registered as being in a common-law marriage back in Korea. I’m trying to track that person down to resolve it, but I can’t reach them at all. I’d like to know if I can go ahead and register my marriage in the U.S. first in this situation.
No, you cannot. Even a marriage registration based on a common-law relationship is legally valid if the registration process was proper and there were legitimate grounds for recognizing the common-law marriage. With this marriage registration still on record in Korea, proving on paper that you’re unmarried would be difficult, so even if you register a marriage in the U.S., your immigration case could face serious difficulty. Ultimately, this could amount to bigamy, which carries criminal exposure and could seriously jeopardize your immigration case — please resolve the Korea situation first.