caeremonarius

Banking does not require a SSN or a Green Card. I have stated it many times and I state it again:
You can be an oil sheik from Saudia Arabia, living on a yacht that anchors in Monaco, and transfer millions of dollars from one of your accounts in Zürich or Lichtenstein to one of your accounts in New York or Miami without ever having visited the United States. Imagine that everybody who would want to engage in business transaction had to get a Green Card or SSN . . . business as we know it came to a shrieking halt.
Banking has everything to do with money, and nothing, absolutely nothing to do with immigration.
The fact that some brain dead bank drone told you so doesn't mean it's true. Go to another bank.

CT is in the second circuit. That circuit has not started routinely denying VWP overstays as far as I know, but things are changing rapidly. People who use the VWP sign away their rights to appeal immigration decisions, and therefore some circuits have determined that a VWP overstay cannot adjust status. I guess your friends either try to adjust and risk denial and deportation which would require a waiver to overcome, or go home and file for CR-1, for that they would also need a waiver to overcome the overstay. So if AOS is denied, they would need two waivers to overcome her ban for overstay and her deportation order, if they went for CR-1, they would need only one waiver.
I *think* the 2nd circuit will be favorable to you, but I would maybe have a consultation with a good immigration lawyer to see what has been happening at your local office with VWP overstays. Be wary of someone who guarantees success, or hasn't done one in the past 6 months or so. A lawyer cannot change the laws, and many people file AOS on their own.

Exactly. Who cares if it's a "2-hour ordeal": ALWAYS tell the truth to USCIS and to ICE. The potential consequences just aren't worth it!

You choose choice A for a concurrent I-130/I-485 application. (I was just commenting in a thread next to this how that sentence in choice A is really hard to decipher! lol). Good luck.
Choice A says, with the irrelevant parts omitted, "attach a copy of the approval notice, OR a relative...petition filed with this application that will give you an immediately available visa number, if approved."
You qualify under the latter part of that sentence.

I know two people that came here on tourist visas and did AOS. One without intent to marry and one with intent (a no no) and in both cases there were no difficult questions or grilling. Both cases were successful. I suggest doing AOS directly.

Reminded me of George Orwell and his book 1984...totalitarian government bent on total manipulation.

It's going to get worse belinda63. Most Americans are deluded, operating on a fantasy about American Exceptionalism instead of paying attention to what is actually happening. They think that just because it is America, we must be free people with more rights than anywhere else in the world, and as the Chosen People it will never change. They don't have an appreciation for why America had more freedom - those principles embodied in the constitution that are increasingly suspended.
An important part of this delusion is thinking that despite more than thirty million illegal aliens in the USA at this time, that the police-state thugs interrogating the law-abiding at the border are even remotely effective. Whenever you hear people excusing this police-state behavior you know they live in some fantasy bubble where all the government has to do is say that it is for a good reason, and they're satisfied. They don't even want to look at any evidence that it is effective because their delusional views are too precious to their ego. They get angry when you point out how ridiculously ineffective it is.
We often hear people saying they are glad the government treats the law-abiding like criminals because it is keeping the thirty million illegal aliens that are here from entering. Those thirty million simply avoided the line the law-abiding must stand in. The police state thugs love a line of innocent sheep that will meekly obey every command. Why go out into the hot desert to stop what you know is 100% illegal entry by people potentially dangerous when you can have a nice cushy air-conditioned environment where you are the only person armed, every square inch is under your control, and less than 1% are criminals?
That's why the government sets up speed traps to ambush the regular citizens while allocating insufficient manpower to unsolved murders, rapes, assaults, etc.
I was entering in LA and seeing everyone with a laptop go through extremely invasive interrogations as they went through pictures on their computers. The guy in front of me was standing in front of a bed of flowers in one photo and the officer kept hounding him about it. Re-asking the same questions, expressing suspicion and doubt. I don't take any kind of computer or thumb drive if I can help it now because I got tired of these searches.
I was in the middle of a hostile interrogation from a border thug who was very envious that I travelled a lot, demanding to know more about my business and how I could run a business and still be able to travel, how much money I made to be able to do it, demanding I show him evidence of my business on the computer...
But there was an American in the next line who was questioning why they were doing such extensive interrogations of people - and every border guard in the area swarmed upon him. Mine left me to join the shark attack, which I was relieved about, but they strong-armed this guy into a room. The only thing he had done was question why they were being so invasive, but he was cooperating.
While they were forcing him into this room they were telling him loudly enough for eveyone to hear that the treatment by U.S. border officials was better than anywhere else in the world - that he should be grateful this was not China or some other place. As he was being roughed-up and forced into the room he was responding that he had been through China, Russia, Japan, Korea, etc, and no border people were worse than the USA. "Just look at what you are doing to me..."
He was absolutely right. Anyone looking at this had to be impressed at how delusional these thugs were, preening about how grateful the guy should be for being treated this way by his own government.
A couple of hours later I ran into him because we were taking the same flight to Seattle. He was extremely shaken by the experience. They had strip-searched him in there, including cavity search, and basically terrorized him because he dared to ask questions.
That action would be taken as sexual assault if it had been perpetrated by him on someone else. But because the government was doing it by force upon an innocent citizen, it is perfectly OK. That is how backwards and delusional our thinking is.
Most places I enter there are no questions, no searching - nothing. It is only the USA - my own country - that interrogates me and searches my stuff.
I have never seen border people do that to anyone except the USA. I even overstayed my visa in Russia once because my secretary had filled out the application to come home on the day my visa expired - but it was one day later in Russia as it was across the international date line.
The Russians asked me about it, but they were polite, courteous, and understanding. If I had been exiting from the USA, I would have been handcuffed.
My Fiance was interrogated when she entered. The border guys were very rude, asking in detail about sexual relations, and saying she really should be with them instead of me. Here again, these people can behave like lewd peeping Toms simply because they wear a government-issued costume.
Just watch though. Historically all empires become increasingly vicious and paranoid. Everything the USA is doing with respect to foreign policy, immigration, and domestic police-state spying is moving in that direction instead of getting better.

Actually, it's the OVERSTAY from VWP that caused the denial, not just the adjustment of status from VWP. After the 90 days of VWP, some offices in some districts (San Diego in the 9th District being one of them) have decided not to adjust status. Other offices have continued to adjust VWP overstays as usual without any issues. However, AFAIK, all offices are continuing to adjust VWP marriage cases within the 90 day limit without any problem. For now, there's nothing "ballsy, ignorant" or "insane" about AOS from VWP without overstay.
AJ

Actually, it's the OVERSTAY from VWP that caused the denial, not just the adjustment of status from VWP. After the 90 days of VWP, some offices in some districts (San Diego in the 9th District being one of them) have decided not to adjust status. Other offices have continued to adjust VWP overstays as usual without any issues. However, AFAIK, all offices are continuing to adjust VWP marriage cases within the 90 day limit without any problem. For now, there's nothing "ballsy, ignorant" or "insane" about AOS from VWP without overstay.
AJ

That's right, don't file I-131 for Advance Parole, but DO file for I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). This will allow him to work legally (and get paid!).
The important thing is to get married ASAP to get the ball rolling. Get married, start collecting information and follow the Guides! Then, when all the dust has settled, you can have your big wedding celebration!
Good luck!
AJ

That's right, don't file I-131 for Advance Parole, but DO file for I-765 for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). This will allow him to work legally (and get paid!).
The important thing is to get married ASAP to get the ball rolling. Get married, start collecting information and follow the Guides! Then, when all the dust has settled, you can have your big wedding celebration!
Good luck!
AJ

Check box (a). As the spouse of a USC, if your I-130 petition (which you should be filing concurrently) is approved, then you'll have a visa number immediately available. Note the second part of that answer, "(Attach a copy of ... a relative ... visa petition filed with this application that will give you an immediately available visa number, if approved.)"
Good luck!
AJ

I would wait for the GC if you can, because the SS card you get with the EAD will say "not valid unless with work authorization" or something like that. When you get the GC, she will be registered as an LPR and that wording will not be there and her current status will be correct (saves you 2 trips). Congrats!