Marriage in the U.S...

[Stacy0414 0]

My fiance is a S. African citizen, and I am from Texas. The original plan was to get married in Antigua this January...but some things have come up, and our funds need to be used elsewhere. Could he fly to Texas on a travel visa, and we get married here?

thanks!

[sachinky 465]

Entering on a tourist visa with intent to get married is considered to be visa fraud. You can apply for a K-1 visa for your fiance.

[canadian_wife 1,823]

Sorry sachinky but I have to correct you. If your fiance desires to travel to the US on a tourist visa and STAY, then yes that is illegal. Your fiance may travel to the US and get married and depart. You may file the I-130 while he is still in the US but he must be sure to leave

Good luck.

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

The previous answer is incorrect. He can come here on a tourist visa and get married, nothing illegal about that. But he MUST leave the USA by the time his visa is up, he cannot just stay and live with you.

[sachinky 465]

Oops. Sorry, that is what I meant. My apologies for not being clear enough. One cannot adjust status based off a tourist visa is what I meant. So yes, you can marry, have the ceremony, whathaveyou, but then he must leave. He cannot stay. You may then file a I-130 or if that doesn't work for you, you may go through the K-1 route.

Good luck with everything.

Edited November 1, 2009 by sachinky

[KEL&STEPH 0]

Hi Stacy,

My husband is S.African and we were married in Denver while we was visiting with a tourist visa in 07- no problems.

He did leave after his time was up on the visa, and we finished applying for the paperwork for his green card from abroad together (we lived in England at the time). Be warned though, the process takes forever.. really. We started the process a year ago via an American lawyer this side, (actually a year and a half ago- our direct consular processing was denied, so we had to start over last November), and he is still not here today. We have been apart now 6 months, the process being frustrating and drawn out (If its not the US gov't dragging their feet, its the SA gov't). Good luck, and I hope you and your hubby wont have to be apart too long.

Any advice/support, Im happy to help!

Kelley

[matt01 0]

My fiance is a S. African citizen, and I am from Texas. The original plan was to get married in Antigua this January...but some things have come up, and our funds need to be used elsewhere. Could he fly to Texas on a travel visa, and we get married here?

thanks!

go for it, I did it last month. I have returned home and my wife is preparing our I-30 petition (CR-1)

Just dont mention in the interview you came with intention to marry. In FL state it takes 3 days after a applying for a licence to marry. Cost like 90bucks or something.

[SunDrop 59]

One cannot adjust status based off a tourist visa is what I meant.

This isn't technically correct either. Maybe simple to lay it out like this:

You can travel to the US on a visitor's visa and get married, perfectly legally.

If you travel on a visitor's visa WITH THE INTENT to get married and STAY, then that constitutes immigration fraud as you declared you were entering as a tourist. The risk is that you apply to adjust your status and are found to have insufficient evidence that you ever intended to leave the country when you entered it. The possible penalty is deportation and a lifetime ban!

If you travel on a visitor's visa with the intent to get married and LEAVE, you are strongly advised to bring a lot of evidence to your ties back home. When asked at the POE what the purpose of your visit is and you reply 'visiting my fiance' and it stops there, that's fine. If they ask you if you plan on getting married and you say 'no', that's fraud. And I have been asked this before, btw. Thankfully, I was still legally married so I replied, 'even if we wanted to, I can't since I'm still legally married!'

Evidence could include: rent payments for the current month, a letter from an employer stating that vacation time has been granted from x to y dates and the employee has not submitted notice to quit. I'm sure there's more, but someone else will add to it hopefully!

In short, you have to make the decision of whether you are going to risk entering on a visitor's visa knowing you are going to get married and try to adjust your status or doing it the way most people choose to, which is the legal way. This is not a safe quick fix, or we'd all be doing it!

The benefit of getting married and the beneficiary returning home while you file for a CR1 visa for them is that if that visa is approved, a GC is issued instead of an 'single entry visa' (which K1 and K3 are). This means they would be immediately entitled to work and it is also cheaper than going through the K1/ AOS route. Takes about the same amount of time, but if the beneficiary has entered on a 3 or 6 month visitor's visa, and stays the length of it then you're together during most of the sitting around waiting processing time. They'd need to be back in S.A. for the medical, interview, etc. though...

[SunDrop 59]

One cannot adjust status based off a tourist visa is what I meant.

This isn't technically correct either. Maybe simple to lay it out like this:

You can travel to the US on a visitor's visa and get married, perfectly legally. If you adjust your status once married, the issue is proving that you did not intend to get married. The difficulty is satisfying the evidence requirement.

Sorry, tried to edit this in and change my caps to bold, but the edit didn't take!

[sc s 0]

Hi Stacy,

My husband is S.African and we were married in Denver while we was visiting with a tourist visa in 07- no problems.

He did leave after his time was up on the visa, and we finished applying for the paperwork for his green card from abroad together (we lived in England at the time). Be warned though, the process takes forever.. really. We started the process a year ago via an American lawyer this side, (actually a year and a half ago- our direct consular processing was denied, so we had to start over last November), and he is still not here today. We have been apart now 6 months, the process being frustrating and drawn out (If its not the US gov't dragging their feet, its the SA gov't). Good luck, and I hope you and your hubby wont have to be apart too long.

Any advice/support, Im happy to help!

Kelley

Hi

I am South African, came with tourist visa in 06, got married and left after honeymoon, no problems.

Hubby visited me and I visited US in 07, no problems.

I moved to US in 08, filed for AOS, almost there, interview in November.

Cosmos