locatei

My story is a long and complicated one...

I am a canadian. In 2002 i met an americian. After visiting eachother several times... I stayed with my americian boyfriend for about 5 months [the legal limit is 6 months] anyway we decided to get married [2004] during that time and he called a lawyer to get advice on what to do... The lawyer suggested that instead of doing the fiancee visa route.. we just marry and then apply for adjustment of status, perm residency etc. So we marry... however we didn't send off the paperwork for several months after the marriage [it was very intimidating]... and for some unknown reasons PA took forever to process our paperwork and in the middle of the process we decided to get divorced....

This is where things get bad.. i contact a visa cousellor to help me with figuring out what's needed to be done with the divorce and withdrewing paperwork etc. She told me that since i overstayed my visa, i will be deported. Which obviously sucks but i am okay with returning to canada.. i dont really want to stay in the states, the only reason i even did in the first place was because i loved this guy.

But... my fears are.. what will happen when i cross the border and they look at my passport and see that i have been in the states for longer than 6 months? Do people go to jail over this stuff? I tried googling it up but all i found relating to overstaying + jail was thailand so i'm hoping that i would just be banned from the states and not thrown into jail or anything? I tried contacting the visa lady to find out more about this issue but she has not replied to any of my additional emails. I am finishing up the divorce and as soon as that is done, i'l be heading to canada. It'll be good to be back home but as one would expect.. i'm horribly nervous about what could happen at the border.

does anyone have experience with this?

Hello. I desperately need to sort through some issues with an immigration lawyer. I was wondering if anyone here has had a lawyer from houston or any surrounding areas in texas? Any contact info/names, experiences with lawyer would be greately appreciated. Thank you!

[wasn't sure where to post this.. but it is marriage related]