kenfeyl

How about:

1. Get married

2. Go on honeymoon

3. Re-enter on F1

4. File for CR-1

5. Go to home country just for the interview

6. Return to the U.S. as LPR

That is the version you and your fiancee agree upon. Your fiancee will then have no intent of adjusting her status after arrival on F1, thus not breaking any laws or committing fraud. Of course, if you surprise her at the day of filing and slip her an additional I-485 form to fill out, well, her intent remained clear at the time of entry. Your intent has nothing to do with it. Oh, what a lovely surprise would that be. Wink, wink.

Cheers!

Thanks to everyone who replied -- you all have been absolutely wonderful sharing your opinions and I am happy for the chance to see the spectrum of opinion and understand the risk. Here are a few additional clarifications and questions:

1. I am intrigued by the option quoted above, but do not fully understand it. How long would she need to be in her home country if we go the CR-1 route? Will they find it odd that we filed a CR-1 when she is actually living in the U.S.? Also, how does it nullify the issue of intent at her post-honeymoon re-entry -- does intent apply only to AOS and not to CR-1?

2. We have a window of three years left on her F1. Suppose we waited a year or more to file the AOS after her re-entry. Does that change anything?

3. Several suggested waiting to marry and making this a vacation. Unfortunately, I have already put down a nonrefundable $6,000 in deposits towards the ceremony event in late June. Postponing the wedding would be a bigger loss than postponing the honeymoon. This would also offend the relatives.

4. However, we could have the ceremony on the planned day but delay getting the actual certificate until after the honeymoon. No one has yet commented on whether this delay would be meaningful. During an AOS interview, would it be an issue that the ceremony occurred before the re-entry and certificate? Or is the certificate date the only meaningful one?

5. Since many mentioned this, I have looked into the fees associated with changing the various parts of our honeymoon, and it appears that roughly $2,000 would be salvageable and $2,000 lost if we reschedule this now for the following year. It would all be lost if we cancel it outright, or if we waited until the last minute to reschedule.

All in all we are leaning towards giving up on the honeymoon (we are afraid since she is in the middle of a graduate program), but are curious about the CR-1 route mentioned above.

Thanks again to everyone for your time and patience.

I don't think there is a strong risk that she will be denied entry on the F-1. The main way that USCIS knows someone is married to a US citizen is if there is a I-130 petition pending, and there won't be one for her. I am trying to imagine a conversation that border patrol would have with her that would reveal the marriage, and I can't really think of one. F-1s travel on vacation all the time and return, and as long everything is in order for her F-1 visa I wouldn't have a strong expectation that there will be a problem. Of course, she has to be honest if CBP asks if she is married. In addition, she definitely needs to be in-status on her F-1 when she returns. Hopefully she is still in school and can explain to the CBP that she went on vacation but is coming back to go back to school. Still, you have identified a risk, and only you can say if you're willing to accept it. As far the options you were describing go:

Option C definitely won't work. You can't expedite a CR-1 or K-3. It can take 5 months to more than a year.

Option B could work if you work quickly. You'll need to gather everything you need for an AOS application and get the marriage certificate soon, so you have time to submit the application for adjustment of status and advance parole. I am not aware of any companies that expedite advance parole, but you can ask USCIS to expedite AP if you have proof of imminent travel plans. I would imagine that most people spend several weeks to several months putting together their AOS papers, so it just depends on how quickly you can work and what you might need that will hold you up (medical examination and vaccinations come to mind, but you need a lot of other things too).

Option A could also work, but again I am not sure there is much difference between getting married before or after the honeymoon. It makes sense to avoid adjusting status soon after entry whether or not she is married when you go on your honeymoon.

Thanks for the speedy advice (to you and all others as well). A few extra tidbits in response to this:

1. She is in-status on her F1 for three more years.

2. If we do go with A, how much risk is there down the road at her AOS interview? If we delay the certificate until some number of days after the honeymoon, would it still be a problem that we met, got engaged and conducted a ceremony prior to her re-entry? It would be great if someone could give me a sense of how much risk we would be introducing into her life by trying A.

3. Several people asked what I was thinking about expedition. What I had in mind was something like passport expedition services -- I know there are several companies out there offering high-speed passport processing for a price. But from what everyone is saying, it sounds like there is no such option here, regardless of which immigration paperwork is necessary.

4. It is sounding like the only real option is to postpone the honeymoon and take the financial hit. Do others agree with this?

EDIT: I see that while I wrote this, several people have advised against option A. I do not mean to violate TOS by pushing on option A above, so please consider my request null and void in that case.

I am a U.S. citizen marrying an F1 visa holder in late June. We already booked a $4,000 honeymoon abroad for shortly after the wedding. I have since stumbled on visajourney threads suggesting that if she re-enters the U.S. on her F1 after this, then she may be denied entry because her marriage to a citizen indicates intent to immigrate. I am hoping to avoid giving up on our mostly nonrefundable honeymoon. Can anyone suggest a solution? Below are three ideas -- how viable are they?

A. Make the June wedding a ceremony only. Obtain the marriage certificate and file the AOS paperwork 90 days after re-entering so that, pursuant to the 30-60-90 rule, she would not be suspected of visa fraud at her AOS interview.

B. Get a marriage certificate ASAP and file the AOS paperwork right away. Pay extra to expedite this so we could get her advance parole application done before July. (Are there companies that can accomplish this this?)

C. While overseas, pay extra to expedite an IR1 or K3 for her return. (Are there companies that can accomplish this?)

I realize I messed up in booking $4,000 worth of travel without checking on this first. It didn't even cross my mind . Can anyone think of a possible way to thread the needle on this? Thanks!