Marry, emmigrate then apply for Greencard?

[Sacha 0]

Hi All,

I have an Irish friend who is planning to marry her fiance then move straight away to America to be with him permanently. I told her that she won't be able to live in America straight away because she would need to be granted with a residency visa first (K3?).

She knows that I am currently applying for a fiance K1-visa and has told me that I'm making things long winded for myself.

I am quite adament that I'm right in a sense that you cannot move ot America without a spouse/fiance visa in your hand. I really want to help her see this but don't want to give her the wrong advice in case it's me who's in the wrong.

Can you please give me some advice? I'm going to point her to this website/thread.

Many thanks in advance.

Sacha

[TracyTN 237]

Does she have some other kind of visa? Like a work visa?

I can't think of any scenario beyond that where what she is planning to do would work. The minute she showed up at the POE into the states, tons of suitcases in tow, they'll be asking her where her visa is - because clearly, no one visiting on the VWP would come over with all their worldly possessions.

[rebeccajo 14]

Tell your Irish friend to get on over to VJ. After about 15 minutes of looking at the site she will realize that she cannot enter here and stay without a visa. In fact she may very well get turned away if she comes over here married to a US citizen and it looks to the CBP folks as if she is NOT planning to return.

Then after she's over the initial shock (that we all experience) tell her there is lots of help here!

LOL - Dang Tracy - was that stereo posting we did, or what?

Edited June 7, 2006 by rebeccajo

[Sacha 0]

I don't think she's going with any kind of visa in hand. I think she's just going to get over there, then apply for permanent residency.

She's very naive indeed. I'll need ot point her ot this website before she makes a terrible mistake then gets deported.

[Cygnet 0]

I am quite adament that I'm right in a sense that you cannot move ot America without a spouse/fiance visa in your hand. I really want to help her see this but don't want to give her the wrong advice in case it's me who's in the wrong.

Yes, you are right, Sacha. Unfortunately, there are people out there who have done what your friend is planning on doing.

Just a couple of days ago, I spoke to one of my friends who also think I am going about things the wrong way. She probably thinks this because she knows somebody who went to the US, got married, and then is now working (apparently, it took her only a few months to sort things out with immigration). I don't know any details and my friend doesn't either. But I do get the feeling that my friend thinks my husband and I are nuts and that we just can't seem to get our act together like the other couple.

I'm happy my husband and I chose to do things this way. It's always better to do things the correct way... to be well-informed and to do things legally.

Edit: Just realized... you said they were going to get married first, then move. What are they planning to do? Lie?

Edited June 7, 2006 by Cygnet

[TracyTN 237]

Tell your Irish friend to get on over to VJ. After about 15 minutes of looking at the site she will realize that she cannot enter here and stay without a visa. In fact she may very well get turned away if she comes over here married to a US citizen and it looks to the CBP folks as if she is NOT planning to return.

Then after she's over the initial shock (that we all experience) tell her there is lots of help here!

LOL - Dang Tracy - was that stereo posting we did, or what?

I know!!!

[JenT 0]

If she attempts to intentionally deceive the Powers That Be, she might be permanently banned from the US. Not worth the risk if she does indeed love her partner.

[meauxna 15]

Tell her to google "ten foot pole" at this group: http://tinyurl.com/hlc66

Then you won't have to explain it to her. About it being illegal and all.

[E&K 0]

Tell her to google "ten foot pole" at this group: http://tinyurl.com/hlc66

Then you won't have to explain it to her. About it being illegal and all.

But what if she did have a visa??? not an immigrant visa but a visitor one?

Let me explain why I say this:

My fiancee and I sent the I129F form and all the paperwork they ask for a K1 this last march. We received our NOA1 from the Nebraska center with a receipt date of March 9th, 2006 telling us that it would take from 80 to 110 days to process, all OK up to that. Based on this we started our wedding planning for this coming August thinking we had more than enough time to get through the process: we reserved church, reception place, DJ, video, and all the works. We saw the dates kind of moving on the Nebraska center website, so we went ahead and told our guests that they could start buying their plane tickets to go to our wedding.

But now we know that our case was transferred to the California center! and only God knows when it will be approved based on all the postings I read on that topic.

Since we started this process many of our friends have asked us why we bother to go through this K1 process when we could just get married in Mexico, move to the US with my visitor visa, and then adjust my status once I'm already in the US as his wife. Apparently a lot of people do this but I'm not sure if they are going through the whole K3 process or just doing a direct adjustment of status.

I'm also not sure what would happen if I do this after having sent the I129F for a K1, does anybody know if we would have to contact them and "cancel" the petition? also, does anybody know if it is legal to do it the way these people did it? apparently they don't initially move to the US with all their belongings so the officials at the port of entry can't really tell whether they are just visiting or moving. We really want to do things the right way, but I want to avoid losing all the money we have already paid and also have our guests pay more for the rescheduling of their plane tickets. We even asked the priest who's going to marry us in the US if he can just do the religious ceremony withouth legally marrying us-just like we do in Mexico so we can go ahead and still have the wedding and the reception afterwards and later-once the K1 is approved- get married by the law, but he doesn't think he can do this

[zyggy 9]

Tell her to google "ten foot pole" at this group: http://tinyurl.com/hlc66

Then you won't have to explain it to her. About it being illegal and all.

But what if she did have a visa??? not an immigrant visa but a visitor one?

Let me explain why I say this:

My fiancee and I sent the I129F form and all the paperwork they ask for a K1 this last march. We received our NOA1 from the Nebraska center with a receipt date of March 9th, 2006 telling us that it would take from 80 to 110 days to process, all OK up to that. Based on this we started our wedding planning for this coming August thinking we had more than enough time to get through the process: we reserved church, reception place, DJ, video, and all the works. We saw the dates kind of moving on the Nebraska center website, so we went ahead and told our guests that they could start buying their plane tickets to go to our wedding.

But now we know that our case was transferred to the California center! and only God knows when it will be approved based on all the postings I read on that topic.

Since we started this process many of our friends have asked us why we bother to go through this K1 process when we could just get married in Mexico, move to the US with my visitor visa, and then adjust my status once I'm already in the US as his wife. Apparently a lot of people do this but I'm not sure if they are going through the whole K3 process or just doing a direct adjustment of status.

I'm also not sure what would happen if I do this after having sent the I129F for a K1, does anybody know if we would have to contact them and "cancel" the petition? also, does anybody know if it is legal to do it the way these people did it? apparently they don't initially move to the US with all their belongings so the officials at the port of entry can't really tell whether they are just visiting or moving. We really want to do things the right way, but I want to avoid losing all the money we have already paid and also have our guests pay more for the rescheduling of their plane tickets. We even asked the priest who's going to marry us in the US if he can just do the religious ceremony withouth legally marrying us-just like we do in Mexico so we can go ahead and still have the wedding and the reception afterwards and later-once the K1 is approved- get married by the law, but he doesn't think he can do this

If one has the intent to immigrate to the US, then one can only enter the US on an immigrant visa. To enter the US on any other type of visa with immigrant intent is considered a making a fraudulent entry by making a material misrepresentation at the POE. The penalty for this is a permanent ban on entering the US... Very severe...

YOu have to keep in your mind what the long term goal is here. That is to be with you spouse in the US for a long life together. I don't know about you, but when you make decisions that may benefit the short term at the detriment of the long term, they typically come back to get you.

You have the rest of your lives together... what's a few months to wait to get the proper visa. Because the penalties if things go wrong are very dire...

Edited June 8, 2006 by zyggy

[meauxna 15]

Since we started this process many of our friends have asked us why we bother to go through this K1 process when we could just get married in Mexico, move to the US with my visitor visa, and then adjust my status once I'm already in the US as his wife. Apparently a lot of people do this but I'm not sure if they are going through the whole K3 process or just doing a direct adjustment of status.

I'm also not sure what would happen if I do this after having sent the I129F for a K1, does anybody know if we would have to contact them and "cancel" the petition? also, does anybody know if it is legal to do it the way these people did it? apparently they don't initially move to the US with all their belongings so the officials at the port of entry can't really tell whether they are just visiting or moving. We really want to do things the right way,

Doesn't that make you question the legality of what your acquaintances are doing?

If you'd done the search I recommended, you'd find that what is illegal is the act of entering the US on a non-immigrant option, with immigrant intent.

You need to do the research and reading to make this choice for yourself. Be warned that asking questions on most family-based immigration boards will not get you a very positive response. There is a difference between those who adjust status from an NI entry when it 'just happens' and those who plan ahead to break this rule to their advantage.

Sorry that I can't give you a more straight forward answer. I had the same question when starting out and decided against it as it didn't suit our needs. I found out that it was NOT kosher after that.

[Jersey Girl 2]

E&K, it doesn't matter whether you apply for K1 or K3. The foreign partner stays in their own country during the process. If that person comes to the U.S. as a vistor and gets married, they still have to return to their own country until their visa is granted.

You may have been overly optimistic in predicting the time it takes to get a K1, and might want to consider postponing the wedding. And now, with IMBRA, it's even harder to predict times.

Don't listen to people who go around the law. You started doing the right thing, so follow through. Get the K1 first and then plan the wedding. If you withdraw your K1 and come to the U.S. with the intent of marrying, staying here, and then applying for adustment of status, you'll risk eveything.

[E&K 0]

Thank you for your advice, we do want to do what's legal, that's why we started the long K1 process to begin with, but we thought the process was going to take 4months or so.

The stories we heard are about people we don't personally know, so we don't know exactly what they did, or if it was done legally. All we heard was that they got married outside the US, they both moved to the US, and later they applied for the green card and got it approved in about 6months while living in the US all this time, pretty much like the story mentioned in a previous posting from Cygnet.

We only thought about maybe doing it this way when we found out our K1 may not be appproved on time for our reserved date, but we wanted to find out first if it was legal and second how we could do it if it was legal. We definitely don't want to risk our future together for just a few months of more waiting, our peace of mind and knowing that we will be together are way more important.

We may just have the party anyway as an engagement party so we don't lose all the money we have already paid, and then get married in a simpler ceremony later when the K1 gets approved. The good thing is that I can still visit the US with my current visa for 6 months at a time, so we can wait together as long as it takes .