Mister Adequate

Thank you again for the addition input (most especially the very comprehensive posts by yuna628 and CatherineA!). I am disabled, meaning I don't have work obligations back in the UK, and she does meet the annual earning requirements. Barring emergency I wouldn't need to go back home for anything specific; but then again the thing with emergencies is you can't really plan for them! We've talked a little more and it's looking like I'll be heading home and doing the K-1. Given that it's quite late on my VWP stay and we'd need to get paperwork from various places in a hurry, we feel it's probably safer that way - not that we anticipate problems, but we're both cautious people by nature.

Thank you all once again, you've all been very helpful in guiding and advising us (You may well see some posts for me down the road as we file for K-1 if something is unclear! )

Okay, thanks for the input everyone, every bit of info and opinion helps us make a better decision.

And sorry it was in the wrong forum!

Hi folks, my fiancee and I have been browsing this site for awhile for help, but we're currently looking at a possibility we hadn't previously considered. I'm from the UK, she lives in Montana, and I'm here visiting her under the VWP; I arrived in the US on September 20th through SLC. My original return flight was October 21st, but we changed if after I got here so I am now due to leave on December 14th. (We've extended my stay before when I visited, but always of course remaining under the time allowed by the VWP.) My VWP leaving date is 19th Dec.

We have been engaged since 2013, and are planning to submit a K-1 fiancee visa application after I fly out, but before the prices go up on December 23rd. We've already got the package pretty much ready to go, in fact, and my current visit was largely to meet the requirement to have met in the two years prior to filing, as the last time we met was in 2014. But is me returning and waiting necessary? I've seen other people say they've married and remained despite being here on the VWP, and that the main consideration in that regard is whether I came here with intention to marry. (I didn't.) We bounced the idea around a couple of weeks ago but figured we'd need an immigration lawyer to ensure it was done properly, but were we overly pessimistic?

So basically I'm asking for advice on a couple of points:

With the understanding that there's always some risk of being suspected of having entered under false pretenses, is marrying and me staying viable?

Would the procedure actually be much the same, i.e. filing for a K-1, marrying upon acceptance, filing for AOS, and so on? Or would we use a different visa? Or would it be a different method entirely?

Related to the above, is the cost the same either way? Would we end up paying more if I stayed? (Other factors like airfare aside, of course).

We would want to file ASAP of course, but is there any leeway? Is it okay if I'm here for a few days between my required departure date and them getting the package, or us receiving NOA1?

Thanks very much for your help and advice everyone! It's probably not going to prove to be achievable, but it'd be neat if I could stay so we didn't have to be apart for another span of time.