Undertaking AOS soon, a few questions.

[Tornado 0]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum, so forgive me if I am posting my questions in the wrong forum, or go about something wrong. In my attempt to find answers to a few questions, I decided to try and use a forum, where people with knowledge and experiance could help clear up some of my questions.

On to the issue at hand. I am 23/ male, and am a US Citizen. I was born here and all of my family are from the US, but my fiancee is from London, England. Just so everyone knows all the details, I will provide as much details as possible here. We originally met online, and were just friends, would call each other back and forth etc. She had been planning to vacation to america before we met, and once we met, she decided to take the vacation and come to my location, in north Florida.

She came from London, flew through Atlanta, then into FL on the Visa Waiver Program, and stayed here for 3 months (the maximum amount of time allowable by the visa waiver). Needless to say, we were fairly involved at this point, but never considered breaking any immigration rules. She returned to London, and started the process of obtaining a Tourist Visa. Within 1 month she had obtained the Tourist visa, and returned to me. She was stamped for 6 months on port of entry (after a bit of a hassle from airport immigration).

Our plan was to get her here on a tourist visa, and then she would get accepted into a college, and change her status to a student visa. She was a mental Health nurse in London, England, and wanted to further her medical studies, so this is what we set out to do.

For the past 3 months, we have been doing everything the college has been asking for, paying money for companies to validate her 2ndary education (highschool), and get her into this community college. We have come down to the wire now, and was supposed to have everything done and submitted to immigration for approval about 2 days late on her visa deadline (entire 6months now being exausted). We had read that its not really a bad thing to file late, but that you would need to submit reasons for filing late, and she had that ready as well. (The college gave us a lot of run around, requesting new documents each time we would visit their office). Needless to say, trying to get her into college exhausted the 6 months. After showing up to the school 2 days past her allowed time on the visa to finalize everything, we ran into a huge problem. She was missing some grades in Math, and the college said they could not accept her. Without going into a lot of annoying details on the subject, she was now denied entry to the college, and was 2 days overstayed on her visa now.

We are about to pull our hair out now. She is about 5 days past her stamped date on the tourist visa, and school has, atleast for now, been removed as an option. Being faced with having to let her fly home now, and be flagged for staying past her date, and not knowing when she would be able to make it back over here if she is forced to return home again, we have had to put our heads together to figure something out fast. We fear that if she returns home now, it could be some time before she is able to return, not to mention any trouble she would get in for overstaying her date. Im under the impression she could possibly even lose her visa.

So, of course, the topic of marriage came up. We had talked about marriage a lot in the past, but had planned to let that fall in place after she was a student, and was settled into her studies. We are in love, and want to be together, but I didnt want to rush into marriage. Being faced with our options now, It would appear we have to either get married, or say goodbye. She is 22 years old, and has exhausted a lot of her personal savings comming back and forth and paying countless fee's. Her family is well off however, and has been supporting her through this, to give their daughter the life she wants. I say all that to help anyone reading understand where we stand on this decision. Her family simply tells her to marry me and end all this hassle (lol). So this is where we are right now as I type this.

I have never doubted wether I wanted to be with her Longterm, but now that marriage is on the table, I personally have some questions I want answered in stone, or as close to "in stone" as I can get them. Anyone who is able to answer these questions for me, or help me with them, I would appreciate it tremendously.

1. If we do get married, with her being a week or two past her Tourist visa allowed date, will we run into any problems?

2. If we do get married, given the above circumstances, is there anyway they could still make her go back home? Ive been told that if we marry, that they cant send her back home, but this is just people talking. I need solid answers on this question. Could her overstay on a tourist visa cause such problems?

3. If we get married, will we be guaranteed to be able to remain together, and work through everything without her ever having to return home at some point?

4. If there are still risks of her being sent back home after marrying me, what are those risks, and where would they arise?

By the questions most people can see where my concerns lie. I would hate to go through the process of marriage just to have her ripped away and sent back to london for something that we werent aware of. I am doing all I can to educate myself on every aspect of immigration law that relates to our situation, but I have never dealt with this stuff before, and to be honest I feel overwhelmed, and a bit scared. I do not want to do something wrong and screw up our chances, or mess up her life. We simply want to stay together, and have a normal life together. Everytime I discuss this with someone, they simply say "Just marry her, and they cant touch you". Does this saying actually hold up in reality? Her family is standing by ready to fund an all out wedding, they have insisted that we made this decision they wanted to pay for it. We just need to make a decision, and we are already out of time.

For the record, we are both honest people, we neither have any criminal records of any kind.

Any comments, suggestions, answers, anything at all that anyone can give me will be appreciated greatly. I will check back often and try to answer any further questions if it will help assist people in answering some of my concerns. Thank you everyone, and I apologize for the essay of a post, I wanted to get everything out there, so you can better help and understand my situation.

[Abena 0]

Tornado,

From reading information on this and other sites, including the USCIS site, you can encounter issues by entering the US on a tourist visa and getting married. Usually, to marry in the US, you need to file an I-129F which, once approved, allows your fiance to apply for the K1 (fiance) Visa. You will then enter and have 90 days within which you should get married. Then your wife can stay and adjust status in the US.

Another option: If you get married outside the US, your wife will not be able to return with you to the US to live. You will need to file an I130, get the first notice, and use this to file a I129F to allow your wife to apply for the K3 visa at the consulate in the country where you were married. Once approved, this allows her to move to the US and adjust status.

I'm not sure what challenges you will encounter now that she has overstayed her time in the US, but once she can prove ties to her country, she should be able to visit you during the process using the tourist visa.

Perhaps you can consult an immigration lawyer to see if you have any other options. Good luck whatever route you choose.

Abena

[sjoefl01 1]

I am not giving marrage advice, only immigration advice. I am also not an expert but I have read a lot here and here is what I think.

The overstay becomes a problem if she leaves the country. If you take that route you may have to file a waiver for the overstay. The only real justification for the waiver is if her absence could be proven to be an extreme hardship on the family. This decision seems to be arbitrary.

If you get married and file for adjustment the overstay is more or less forgiven. It doesn't seem to be a serious issue for USCIS. The guiding force for that decision seems to be to determine that the marrage is valid.

In summary:

You will likely have problems with reentry if she leaves the country for any reason. You will probably find adjustment of status very uneventful if you choose to get married.

Question:

1. Probably not

2. The USCIS can always tell somebody to go home. There is really nothing in the constitution that guarantees any kind of rights for immigrants or sponsors. Nobody on VisaJourney will use words like " never, always, or can't " where the USCIS is concerned.

3. Nobody on VJ will make guarantees either. The probability of her having problems is very low.

4. You are considering marriage. This is a very important decision. The very lowest thing on your list of things to worry about is deportation. There is almost no chance of that happening. The probabilty of her getting deported after you marry her is probably .01% ( only a guess ). The probabilty of the marriage ending up in divorce and you walking away with a chapped ### is about 20% ( fact ).

[Kez/JWolf 6]

If you decide to get married and for her to remain here in the usa then you need to follow the steps listed in this link....

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...page=i130guide2

There are many of us who have done AOS from a tourist visa or VWP... as long as she did not have intent to remain in the USA when she entered then you should be fine... just be honest with USCIS and if you have doubts have a meeting with a immigration lawyer and go over you situation with them....

You are doing nothing wrong by doing AOS as long as this was not your plan when she entered the country...

Good Luck

Kezzie

[Tornado 0]

First of all I want to thank everyone for taking the time to reply to me. Your replies and information are appreciated more than you will know. I checked this post probably 200 times during my work day yesterday to see if anyone had left me some information.

I understand that going the route wit ha K-1 or K-3 visa is the proper way to marry. However, As mentioned already, We dont exactly have plans for her to fly back home. It takes a lot of money to fly back and forth from the US all the time, not to mention the stress it can put on a person. Right now, She is trying to be strong, and stay focused, but at nite when everything settles down, she has her moments where she will break down. Just all the pressure she is carrying for a 22 year old woman. She is doing something that I personally could not do, and she does it all because she loves me. That makes me want to do all I can to fix it for her, and do as much as I possibly can to get the right answers, and make the best decisions. My biggest fear right now, is immigration makeing her leave the country against our will. I am also worried due to her overstay on her visa. At the same time, I wasnt sure how serious an overstay was, and if deportation was something I should be stressing over, Im what you would call a simple southern boy, you dont hear of people marrying outside of the country around here, so you are never exposed to these things. I have however done as much digging on the internet as I can, so much so that people are now telling me I need to stop reading everything on the internet, because it will just drive me crazy lol. You have some people who seem to make my circumstance seem very simple - "Get married and you will be fine" and then some people like to talk about how bad it is to overstay a visa, and talk about 3-10 year bans from the country.

I will stop rambling and get back to the subject here. Yesterday my girlfriend called about 3 different lawyers to see what they would tell her. All 3 lawyers told her "Get married, and come see me, you will be fine, and wont have to leave the country" She was also told that the cost of having the lawyers help through the AOS process would be about $2500. We do plan to hire a lawyer through this process, because I want it done right, and I dont want any problems, if at all possible. The lawyers also told her that the AOS process would take about a year, possibly a little longer. Is that accurate? To be honest, we dont really care how long the AOS process takes, as long as she doesnt have to leave.

One person who mentioned about my girlfriend comming into the country, and said that as long as she came into the country without the intent to pull this off, it would be ok. I just wanted to address that a moment, because my girlfriend did run into some slight problems at port of entry. When she arrived, and was having the brief interview with the official, she made the mistake of mentioning that she also was thinking of looking at some colleges while she was here touring. She was pulled to a closed room and questioned further by another official, who pulled out everything in her bags, and was actually quite rude to her when she asked why she was being interegated, he pretty much replied that she would being done this way because they can. She replied with "I dont mind, I just didnt know what the problem was" he replied "I dont care if you mind or not." We were told by a lawyer that the reason she was flagged like this at port of entry is because she mentioned "taking a look at some colleges" when "Prospective Student" Was not stamped on her Tourist visa. She never mentioned having a boyfriend here, or seeing a guy, or anything. Now, wether or not that little hassle at port of entry could factor into anything down the road, I dont know.

I have also read that it is actually a good idea to wait a while once you get into the country, before pulling off a marriage or AOS, because it makes it appear that it wasnt your initial plan when entering. I guess that is one positive (if it even is one) of waiting 6 months.

I have one more question Id like to toss out there real quick, or concern of mine. It could be another week or week and a half before we could get the marriage thing actually rolling. Due to our time constraints, we plan to get married without a ceremony, and then come back later once everything is done, and have a proper ceremony. Will we be ok waiting a possible 2 more weeks, with her already 1 week now past her date? Or, should we try to just get it done asap? The only thing we could find out from a lawyer was to not overstay by a period of 90 days or so. He said we could start running into problems if she overstayed by around 90 days. We dont plan to come even close to 90 days, more like 3 weeks. I am jsut wondering if time is very critical right now, with her being illegal. This is also one thing that is stressing her out as well, she doesnt like the idea of sitting here in the country illegal, and is worried she is going to cause herself some problems.

I realize I am asking a lot of questions that one cant just give me solid answers on all the time, and I dont really expect a guarantee or in stone yes or no, but what im hoping I can find out, is what is most likely. The guy who went in detail and answered every one of my questions, I appreciate that, you made me feel a little better here, knowing that I shouldnt really be worried about deportation. I just dont want her to get ripped out of the country for some reason. We have encountered alot of dissapointment the past 6 months, with trying to get her into colleges and different things, so I guess our spirits are a bit low, and I know I am atleast scared of this failing as well, and causing us alot of heartache.

Thanks again for all the input everyone, Anything else anyone can give would be much appreciated. I will continue to visit the topic and answer any questions any has to help better answer my questions and concerns.

[Kungfufi 0]

I am "kind of" in the same situation, in the sense that I entered into the US with my visa waiver, but got married 2 months after that (my now hubby proposed to me while I was here). I have now officially overstayed my visa by almost 2 months and have my AOS interview next week. The only thing different is that we got married before my visa ran out. However, because we got married 2 months afte I entered on the visa waiver, I guess would be harder for me to prove my intention of entry was indeed for holidays than your fiance would.

We are applying for status via an immigration lawyer and they seem to be not nervous about my over stay at all. We are not worried neither...

My suggestion is to consult a lawyer, from your post I can see you are stressing over this issue a lot, a lawyer can really ease your mind on this, in the long run I believe it is worth spending the money than having all the emotional hassels.

I will be able to give you a better indication of how easy or hard it is with our situation after our interview next week. I will keep you posted!

[Tornado 0]

Awesome thanks Kungfufi, and indeed, keep me posted! You are right, I am stressing and worrying over this a lot, probably too much, but thats just how I am. Im just curious though- What happens if you do get married, and then fail the AOS interview? Will they actually take your wife and send her back home? At what point in the AOS process does the interview happen? Ive had, as already stated, lawyers tell us that the AOS process will take a year or longer to complete.

My one and only worry, and my girlfriends as well, is that she will somehow be forced to leave the country. We are willing to deal with 1 year's worth of immigration hassle, and lawyers, and the money, if we can just stay together, and not have our life uprooted. I guess im looking at everything to try and prove to myself that she will not have to leave, so I can then rest my mind. I cant rest if I know there is a chance they can take her away, and the thought of having her not only taken away, but then being bar'd from entering for a long time, is down right scary. It would be very hard to deal with something like that.

Thanks for the replies, and keep them comming! You guys are being a big help

[Yodrak 7]

Tornado,

You and your fiancee should certainly go in and have a consultation with 1 of those 3 lawyers she talked with on the phone, perhaps with all 3. They may have said over the phone that she'll be OK, but I expect that she may not have given all the details in the phone conversation that you have given in your posts here, and there may well be a few additional details to come out that may be relevant.

After a consultation the answer may still be 'you'll be fine', but everything needs to be revealed and discussed before that opinion (and it will be just an opinion) can be reached.

After a consultation or 3 you will be in a better position to decide if you want to retain an attorney to work on the case with you, and which attorney. The case does have possible issues, I would be inclined to retain an attorney who has a lot of experience with adjustment from a tourist or other non-immigrant visa. If the case isn't presented properly the USCIS could come to a conclusion different from what the attornies opinions are - I should think that you would want experienced professional help in leading the USCIS to see the situation the way that you want them to see it.

Yodrak

Edited October 5, 2006 by Yodrak

[Tornado 0]

Thanks Yordak for your advice. I do plan to try and get the best help we can find. I am hoping we can get a good lawyer. As I mentioned before, I live in a rural area, so to get a really experianced lawyer, I would probably have to drive a ways. There are some immigration attorney's fairly close, but Its still fairly small cities, and im not sure how experianced they are, compared to one who is based in a large city where things like this happen on a daily bases probably.

[Kungfufi 0]

I totally agree with Yodrak! I am glad that I have consulted a lawyer, just makes the whole process less confusing and has put our minds at ease. As everyone says, you can never been 100% sure when dealing with immigration. I think the whole I-130 etc process will take 1 yr or even longer, but I would be surprised if she is sent back to her country. Well at least that is what I am hoping as I am in the same situation.

anyway that is my 2 cents and will keep you updated after our interview next week.

[sjoefl01 1]

Just remember that the lawyers first priority is to the lawyer. Their job is to get 2 or 3 thousand bucks out of you so they will try to make things sound more serious than they really are.

Unless there are more issues than you have posted here I don't think you will have a problem with AOS or possible deportation. There are many people here that adjusted from various non K visas to LPR. Iy is quite common. The USCIS is primarily looking to prove intent on entry, a valid relationship, and no criminal/terrorist background.