回複：急問：保持合法身份的時間，多謝多謝！

if your priority is to quit and stay legally, then marriage to a citizen is correct. for GC through this category, you can be "black" and no problem.

if your priority is to keep your doctoral career, you should now think of finding a new job to switch to and keep your non-immigrant status independently before you finally got married to a USC. H1 sponsorship from a university is it for you to work before August (given the fact that hu*****and side so insist on the date and assuming you file marriaged-based GC in May and EAD takes 3 months to get approval). So you don't need to totally depend on an ealier marriage date.