Looking for info. and/or advice

[Tommib 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm a U.S. citizen myself and I have been dating my girlfriend from Taiwan for almost a year now. She has been in the U.S. through a student visa and has finished a medical assistant program as part of her education. She does not have a bachelor's degree however which I believe is one requirement to apply for a work visa. Nevertheless, her student visa expires in a few months because she is out of school now and not taking classes. She wants to attend nursing school which she just needs to complete a few more courses to do so. One issue however is that she has accumulated much debt from educational expenses and would prefer not to take classes in the near future.

My question is if anyone has any idea of options we could pursue together besides marriage? I do love her want her to stay in the country but I don't think I'm quite ready for marriage yet. Also, if we do decide to pursue marriage and if it's one of the only options, are there any obvious difficulties we may encounter? I understand if more information may be needed to answer this.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge in the area but I'm just looking for any ideas or information from anyone knowledgeable or who has had similar experiences.

Thanks

very much.

The only options I see are to keep her student status or marry before she leaves the US.

Thanks for your response but I would appreciate if anyone provided anymore insight or information. I'm new to this process and am unfamiliar with the legal process involved in marrying someone who is not a U.S. citizen.

Again, any more information would be appreciated. Thanks again.

If you are unfamiliar with the marriage process the can I suggest using google? This is a self-help and do-it-yourself community. Members are happy to lend a hand and answer questions but "spoon feeding" is not a strong point.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I know it's ultimately up to me to find a solution and relevant information.

Right, you're asking questions in a fiance visa forum but you have a girlfriend, not a fiance. Until you are ready to decide about marriage, your issue is maintaining her student status or she goes home. If you decide to marry, this is the site for information on her immigration. I suggest you become as informed as possible as to the options before she leaves the USA, as doing so will complicate your further options.

Yes, I realize it's a fiance forum but I wanted to get feedback from people who may have been in a similar predicament. I'm sorry if I bothered anyone posting outside the given parameters.

Regardless, deciding about marriage isn't simply the only issue here for me. I'm considering marriage because we love each other and I want her to stay in the U.S. It's a difficult time for me though as I am in graduate school and trying to save more money. These are issues outside the scope of this forum but thanks anyway for your suggestion.

You misunderstand. I'm explaining, not complaining. The expertise here is in family based visas and status adjustment, which include relationship between US Citizens and their families or fiance(e). Until you make a family decision, you and your girlfriend must focus on other ways for her to legally remain in the USA. As such, you'll benefit more from seeking information about how a student visa holder extends their legal status in the US than from family immigration information.

The primary potential for benefit available to you from this forum, must wait until you have a family issue to deal with.

What I CAN tell you is that if she leaves the USA, that decision will complicate and limit your future potential family based options to those available to people who aren't here already.

Hi, I completely understand what your saying and appreciate the thread you provided as well. I'm simply trying to learn what options there may be aside from extending the student visa or marriage and if there are none, so be it. I'm not considering marriage haphazardly or without serious consideration as it appears you feel that I am doing. I don't consider it lightly and nor will I.

I do have to say that people are sharing their experiences and knowledge in this forum, it's not simply for people who are sharing their expertise with exclusive members in a regulated forum.

I don't understand you last sentence but for the third time other than marriage the only options are to maintain/extend her student status or leave the USA. If she overstays and doesn't marry a USC, she'll be facing a ban from US entry.

I'm sure you don't understand but what I meant is your making my forum experience rather difficult by playing cop with the forum topics. You just seemed a bit too bothered by my post. Anyway, I am aware of the options like you restated several times. And I'm not oblivious to the significance of marriage which should go without saying. That seems to be a touchy issue with you.

Regardless, thanks again for everyone's input.

[pushbrk 12,824]

I think it's important for you to understand that I'm not touchy about which forum you post in or your thoughts on the significance of marriage. Apparently you have quite an imagination. That's generally a good thing, IMO but it has hindered your understanding of my posts. I'm trying to help you by pointing out that the help you need NOW is not related to family based immigration. I'm stating facts, not my feelings about the facts because those feelings are of no value in assisting you.

I took your opening post at face value without judgment. You aren't ready for marriage. As such, you don't have a family based immigration issue, period.

PS: We actually have organizers who play cop with the forum topics. I'm not one of them. If they think the thread belongs in another forum, they'll move it.

Edited June 27, 2008 by pushbrk

[SapphireDreams 71]

my bf and I were in a similar situation actually. We wanted to save money and even though we know we love eachother and want to be together, we wanted to make sure we weren't rushing anything and had a good savings for our future and were at a good place in our lives.

Luckily, I live in Toronto and him in NYC, so doing the long distance thing isn't so bad. What we decided to do was wait until we had a good chunk of money saved and where I'm at a point in my career that I will have the proper experience to get a good job there. I graduated grad school in '07 and have been working for 1 year now and I figure I'll leave my job in another 8 months or so.

So anyways, we've filed now but are not officially engaged. I'm guessing at some point we will get officially engaged before I move there. Then we'll just get married at the courthouse and have our wedding a year after that and consider ourselves "engaged".

If she can't extend her student visa, I like the idea of her going back to Taiwan and then filing for a K1 fiancee visa from there. That would take around 8-10 months. You could save money that way.

[Tommib 0]

my bf and I were in a similar situation actually. We wanted to save money and even though we know we love eachother and want to be together, we wanted to make sure we weren't rushing anything and had a good savings for our future and were at a good place in our lives.

Luckily, I live in Toronto and him in NYC, so doing the long distance thing isn't so bad. What we decided to do was wait until we had a good chunk of money saved and where I'm at a point in my career that I will have the proper experience to get a good job there. I graduated grad school in '07 and have been working for 1 year now and I figure I'll leave my job in another 8 months or so.

So anyways, we've filed now but are not officially engaged. I'm guessing at some point we will get officially engaged before I move there. Then we'll just get married at the courthouse and have our wedding a year after that and consider ourselves "engaged".

If she can't extend her student visa, I like the idea of her going back to Taiwan and then filing for a K1 fiancee visa from there. That would take around 8-10 months. You could save money that way.

Thanks Sapphire, appreciate your feedback.