Marrying without a visa, visiting on Preclearance.

[Micah_D 0]

So me and my fiancee realized that she can travel from the Bahamas, where she's currently living, to the US without a visa at all as long as it's for a short period of time due to this preclearance operation.

There's no issue with us marrying in this scenario, right? Since there's no visa involved at all... And then could there be an Adjustment of Status from that point? I can't seem to find anything stating that traveling under this preclearance prohibits marriage, and then from there... It should work, right? I can't find any evidence that would point to this causing an issue, but I just wanna make sure before we make any plans.

 

I'm a US citizen by the way, born and raised, if that matters in this scenario.

[EandH0904 1,184]

It's fraud to come here knowing you will adjust status and say. Her not needing a visa to come here is the same as if she was on ESTA. When you try to adjust status and show your proof how will you show that your marriage (esp w such a short stay) was not pre-arranged? 

 

If she wants to come and visit and get married, great, but she would then need to go home and you can file cr1 paperwork for her to get her here LEGALLY and be thankful that Bahamas is so close you can visit easily during the process. 

[Micah_D 0]

Thanks for the clarification, we really don't wanna do anything illegal and make this harder on us. That really only leaves one last question before we start this process...

 

What would be good things for her to present as proof that she'd be returning to the bahamas after marrying me? She's in school, and she plans on finishing school. I read some people have like letters from employers and stuff like that, but she's not currently employed. Is there anywhere I can find a list of things that she might want to take with her as proof?

[EandH0904 1,184]

Does she have a lease at the place she lives? If she wants to finish school, how was she planning on adjusting status? It may be difficult to show if she has no job, no lease or mortgage, no children to go home to, etc. 

[Micah_D 0]

She lives on campus currently. She was going to finish school here, but with our only real option left being a CR-1 (Or really, our best option, as a K-1 seemed to not be as good of an idea for us) she was just going to continue where she's at. But I guess if we have no way to prove that she'd return, maybe we do have to do the K-1 visa instead...

Edited March 30, 2018 by Micah_D

[1HappyGuy 45]

Generally a K-1 visa is a quick process as the CR-1 can take longer.  If she is going to finish school, do that first.  You can apply on the K-1 while she is finishing up school and once that is done she can come with no problems.  It is best not to take advantage of her ability to come to the USA visa free since once they find out you have known each other for a while the "spur of the moment" marriage will probably not fly.  Don't take a chance of a fraud finding if she still has to finish school first.

 

We all understand about the desire to be together, but relax.  If you are doing this right, it should be for the rest of your lives.  So be patient, take advantage of the opportunity to visit visa free when possible but do everything legally.  You will sleep better at night.