Visiting fiancee under VWP. Can we marry? Which visa would we pursue?

[Mister Adequate 0]

Thank you again for the addition input (most especially the very comprehensive posts by yuna628 and CatherineA!). I am disabled, meaning I don't have work obligations back in the UK, and she does meet the annual earning requirements. Barring emergency I wouldn't need to go back home for anything specific; but then again the thing with emergencies is you can't really plan for them! We've talked a little more and it's looking like I'll be heading home and doing the K-1. Given that it's quite late on my VWP stay and we'd need to get paperwork from various places in a hurry, we feel it's probably safer that way - not that we anticipate problems, but we're both cautious people by nature.

Thank you all once again, you've all been very helpful in guiding and advising us (You may well see some posts for me down the road as we file for K-1 if something is unclear! )

[EM_Vandaveer 2,364]

Seriously look into what is required to AOS before you make a decision. If you think you may have any reason to need or want to leave the US anytime in the next 6 months (building in a bit of a buffer, but justifiably so), this is likely not the best path for you. It's a lot more than one simple paper. You'll need a police report from every country you've lived in for 6 months or more, and your birth certificate, and I'm assuming you haven't traveled with those. Same for your vaccination records. You'll need them and also need a medical exam performed.. Is your fiancee able to be your financial sponsor? If not, do you have a co-sponsor? Those forms require documentation that can take a week or more to get together. So, you'd need to arrange all of this from the US.

Then, even if you get married tomorrow and get all of this documentation together in a week (which I think could be possible but not very likely), you're still looking at several months before you'll be able to leave and re-enter the US. They "owe" you a response to your work/travel permit within 90 days of the official received date. But for one, that response could be "no" (unlikely, but still possible). Two, if you've filled something out incorrectly or forgotten to submit a required piece of evidence (like vaccinations, police reports etc), you'll get an RFE (request for evidence) which, depending on the nature of the RFE either "pauses" your 90 days, or totally resets it. And three: 90 days is a lie. They'll get to you whenever they darn well please. Ours took 104 (so, two weeks longer) from their official "received date". My friends just applied for AOS and there was a three week lag between actually sending it, and their official "received date", so their 90 day clock didn't start ticking until almost a month into the process. So if *they* don't get a reply until day 104, their total time would be 4 months, one week. Sure, there are people who have gotten work/travel permits in 2 months or less. Good on them. But that's not a guarantee and not the way things seem to be going now. So add in however long it would take to get married and file (a week to get this kind of paperwork from abroad would be a miracle and either way you'd need to wait a week or so for the marriage certificate to be certified) and you could start to approach 6 months.

If you're able to just walk out of your life like that, then staying and adjusting makes sense .If not, and depending on your circumstances, (are you able to travel back and forth easily or not), I could see a case for either K1 or CR1. K1 you can submit the initial paperwork basically tomorrow. That's all stuff from the US citizen and is very simple and straightforward (the harder/ more involved stuff comes before the interview). Not sure about CR1 but at a minimum you couldn't get the ball rolling tomorrow as you'd need to get married and wait for the marriage certificate to be ready. So there's that.

No police certificates needed for in-country AOS (assuming no criminal record on the applicant's part).

[avenajolic 2]

This is the safe choice. You can marry and try to AoS now, but if you come across a CO that has some kind of grudge against adjusting from tourist visa/VWP, then you may regret doing that.

Eric-Pris whats your problem? You seem to have issues about others people's decision on doing AOS from B1/B2 or other kind of visa.

Please, dont misinform other people.