Fiance Visa while already in US?

[clueless_in_usa 8]

If the two of you are not prepared to marry by the time her visa expires, she will need to return to Russia and wait until she obtains the K1 fiance visa. If you do marry while she is here, then you will file for the AOS (green card) and the receipt for your filing (NOA1) will be used to show that she is legally here until the application for AOS is acted upon. The marriage must be bona fide, not just on paper.

To the OP:

Be careful what you do. If she pays for a fake visa, she will be deported and may be fined a lot of dollars.

The easiest option for a J-1 to stay legally in the USA as long as she wants is to adjust status to F-1. That can be done while in the USA and she will have no problems. Then she can stay as long as she is studying. However, there are two caveats:

1) She needs a sponsor to prove that she will be able to pay the course of study and living expenses. The sponsor can be herself or her family if they are loaded with money, or it can be you, if you can show that you have enough money saved for that. The cheapest option is usually Community College. Unless the institution where she studies gives her a job, she will not be able to work while she studies. That is why she needs to prove that she or the sponsor have the money to pay the full course of study (it is done by year).

2) She will not be able to leave the USA and return. If she leaves the USA, she will have to go to her consulate in Russia (any of the three) and apply for the actual F-1 visa before she can come back. Being that she is young and single, she will most likely be denied and she will have to stay in Russia.

I hope this helps, if you are still around.

Edited August 13, 2009 by clueless_in_usa