mymarriagejourney

I don't know how long it takes for the school to report it and immigration to come knocking at your door, but I know you don't want it to happen. There was a woman who posted here not long ago about being in a similar situation, she was taken out of her home in the middle of the night.

If I were you, I'd get down to the courthouse and get married, then get filed. Don't wait 2 weeks. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I'd be scared as hell in your situation.

Our wedding is on Thursday! Yes, it's been a little stressful to wait, but we have family and friends that want to attend. Just a few days now...

I don't know how long it takes for the school to report it and immigration to come knocking at your door, but I know you don't want it to happen. There was a woman who posted here not long ago about being in a similar situation, she was taken out of her home in the middle of the night.

If I were you, I'd get down to the courthouse and get married, then get filed. Don't wait 2 weeks. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I'd be scared as hell in your situation.

Our wedding is on Thursday! Yes, it's been a little stressful to wait, but we have family and friends that want to attend. Just a few days now...

honestly guys, i have to agree with what gegel says.

you can get a marriage license and get married in the townhouse for about $100 in most counties. maybe this is not the right place to be voicing this opinion, but really.. go back to school and get an education. with a good education you can get way ahead and life and will be able to afford a pompous and well deserved vow renewal.

my .02

take it as you wish.

The tuition money is being used for immigration's forms. We are having a tiny, tiny wedding performed outside with a few guests. We don't care much for pomp and circumstance. For what it's worth, my fiance has a bachelor's degree from his home country. He was here for graduate school. He will likely continue once all of this is said and done. It is simply much less cost-prohibitive for him to return to school as a permanent resident, which is better financially for our new family.

At the moment he is in the country illegally. His visa expired the moment he dropped off school, if his I-94 contains the marking 'D/S'.

Note: the verbiage 'we decided to use the tuition money to get married' may be subject to misinterpretation by 3rd parties.

Congrats & good luck!

Thank you for letting me know that my wording may be misleading. In all seriousness, how might I better express our decision to use money for a wedding that would have been spent on courses? It was a financial decision, not an immigration one.

My fiance and I are getting married in less than two weeks. He was supposed to go to school for summer quarter in order to maintain F1 status, but we decided to use the tuition money to get married. Thus, he was dropped from classes on July 3 due to non-payment. We plan to file the AOS paperwork within days of our marriage.

Is he still in status until his school makes a move to terminate? How long after non-payment/non-attendance does a school typically take to terminate the SEVIS record? We don't know what to expect at this juncture.

On an F-1 visa.

Should we put the original arrival date in the US? Or should we put the most recent entry into the US?

Thank you.

Thank you to those who replied.

Thank you for your input.

I agree that if he entered in 8-2011 and stayed here without going home and we got married now, intent would be pretty clear to any outsider. School, of course.

However, because he returned home in April and returned in June to start summer quarter next week, I assume it would look suspicious if we got married now and used the school tuition money to pay for said marriage and AOS... We just want this to go as smoothly as possible. If that's too much of a red flag for immigration, we will wait until late summer to marry and he will go to school this summer.

You are over-thinking this whole process-- the USCIS has no jurisdiction to dictate when a couple may marry. They only decide if what you have is bona-fide, and if it is and you can prove it, then it doesn't matter if you get married today, tomorrow or 2 years from now. It just needs to be a genuine marriage and relationship and any real couple can provide this evidence.

We have plenty of evidence of a real relationship. I just don't want him to be accused of using a non-immigrant visa (F1) to immigrate. He came to go to school. We were romantically involved, but not ready to pursue marriage. He even left the country when money troubles arose rather than get married and do an AOS, as his college's international advisor suggested (believe it or not...). Proof of a bona fide relationship and being accused of visa fraud are two different issues, I think.

I met my boyfriend overseas during an internship in his country.

He entered this country about a year after our meeting on an F1 visa. He attended school, as intended, and was here for 8 months. He lived with me.

After that time, his family ran into some financial difficulties and he went back to his home country. They were resolved within a school quarter and he returned this week for summer quarter.

We really missed each other during his months away and we want to get married. His visa has been valid since 8-2011. Because his school is on a quarter system and he stayed for 2 quarters (not a full academic year), the school had to adjust the SEVIS record to allow an early return home. They did a data fix on the SEVIS record to allow him back in the US.

If we get married and do an AOS now, is this a problem? If we go that route, he probably wouldn't go to school this summer. Instead, we'd use that tuition money to have a small ceremony and honeymoon. Would they look at his original entry in August 2011 or his entry in June 2012 to judge visa fraud (it's not what's happening, but it sounds like hell to be accused...). If doing an AOS now would raise red flags, we'd rather just wait until later in the summer. I start grad school in August, and we'd like to marry before then regardless.