Candian marrying American in U.S.

[DeadPoolX 9]

Yeah, I didn't explain that too clearly, did I?

[Blitz 3]

I was just thinking about all the Canadians (some marrying Americans) who go to Vegas to get hitched with Elvis!

[warlord 73]

Yeah, I didn't explain that too clearly, did I?

I got it perfectly the first time.

The OP stated specificially that they considered marriage and so he then 'moved' over to stay with his girlfriend and get married in that 6 month period.

This is intent to marry prior to comming over to the US.

Yes you can marry someone, but how he entered was not very legal. If he had came over to the US to visit his girlfriend and then during that 6 months they thought maybe they should get married, then he would be fine as the intent wasn't there to enter the US.

Will he get caught or denied? Depends on the IO at the interview. They usually waive things like that and give people a pardon on things like that, but not sure if that's standard now or not...

[trailmix 77]

Yeah, I didn't explain that too clearly, did I?

I got it perfectly the first time.

The OP stated specificially that they considered marriage and so he then 'moved' over to stay with his girlfriend and get married in that 6 month period.

This is intent to marry prior to comming over to the US.

Yes you can marry someone, but how he entered was not very legal. If he had came over to the US to visit his girlfriend and then during that 6 months they thought maybe they should get married, then he would be fine as the intent wasn't there to enter the US.

Will he get caught or denied? Depends on the IO at the interview. They usually waive things like that and give people a pardon on things like that, but not sure if that's standard now or not...

Well, that's not really right either Warlord.

When you say "This is intent to marry prior to coming over to the U.S." - there is nothing wrong with having intent to 'marry'. Marrying someone is not illegal.

Going to the U.S. with the intent to reside there and adjust status, without first obtaining a visa - is frowned upon.

Getting married in the U.S. is a completely separate thing. We have probably scared the OP off now anyway

[warlord 73]

Yeah, I didn't explain that too clearly, did I?

I got it perfectly the first time.

The OP stated specificially that they considered marriage and so he then 'moved' over to stay with his girlfriend and get married in that 6 month period.

This is intent to marry prior to comming over to the US.

Yes you can marry someone, but how he entered was not very legal. If he had came over to the US to visit his girlfriend and then during that 6 months they thought maybe they should get married, then he would be fine as the intent wasn't there to enter the US.

Will he get caught or denied? Depends on the IO at the interview. They usually waive things like that and give people a pardon on things like that, but not sure if that's standard now or not...

Well, that's not really right either Warlord.

When you say "This is intent to marry prior to coming over to the U.S." - there is nothing wrong with having intent to 'marry'. Marrying someone is not illegal.

Going to the U.S. with the intent to reside there and adjust status, without first obtaining a visa - is frowned upon.

Getting married in the U.S. is a completely separate thing. We have probably scared the OP off now anyway

You cannot cross the US border with the intent to marry period without having filed the proper documentation. Marrying as we have been saying in the US is fine as long as there was no intent on comming over to marry or if you have the proper documentation.

In this case as demonstrated, the OP came over with intent to marry. This has nothing to do with the marriage, but comming into the US under false pretenses. If they were to tell the border guard their plans, they would be denied entry. So this is in the USCIS's eyes an illegal presence since there was an intent but wasn't disclosed at the time of entry and there was no proper paper work filed.

So yes this is unfortunaly how it is...

Edited October 26, 2009 by warlord

[Marilyn. 340]

haven't we been over this before?? ..lol

there is nothing wrong with coming to the US with the intent to get married as long as you plan on leaving afterward.. although it is up to the POE officer if they will let you through or not if they find out you are getting married.. I don't think it is an outright denial though.. it all depends on if you have strong enough evidence that you are planning on returning to Canada after the wedding

in the OP's case yes they could get married but then he would have to go back to Canada

[warlord 73]

haven't we been over this before?? ..lol

there is nothing wrong with coming to the US with the intent to get married as long as you plan on leaving afterward.. although it is up to the POE officer if they will let you through or not if they find out you are getting married.. I don't think it is an outright denial though.. it all depends on if you have strong enough evidence that you are planning on returning to Canada after the wedding

in the OP's case yes they could get married but then he would have to go back to Canada

And which again, in this case they have mentioned remaining in the US after intent to marry which is not allowed.

The big thing is now, since they are here, and are about to get married, USCIS will ask about his presence in the US prior to the wedding and what status he was on. They will usually waive illegal presence at that time. So getting AOS and the Green Card probably won't be any issue.

Leaving the US prior will be an issue trying to get back in.

This isn't the right way to go about doing this, but they do have a waiver to allow people that have done it this way to get their Green Cards. It's just how the INS works unfortunatly. I don't think they've gotten much stricter in the past few years at all...

[Marilyn. 340]

haven't we been over this before?? ..lol

there is nothing wrong with coming to the US with the intent to get married as long as you plan on leaving afterward.. although it is up to the POE officer if they will let you through or not if they find out you are getting married.. I don't think it is an outright denial though.. it all depends on if you have strong enough evidence that you are planning on returning to Canada after the wedding

in the OP's case yes they could get married but then he would have to go back to Canada

And which again, in this case they have mentioned remaining in the US after intent to marry which is not allowed.

The big thing is now, since they are here, and are about to get married, USCIS will ask about his presence in the US prior to the wedding and what status he was on. They will usually waive illegal presence at that time. So getting AOS and the Green Card probably won't be any issue.

Leaving the US prior will be an issue trying to get back in.

This isn't the right way to go about doing this, but they do have a waiver to allow people that have done it this way to get their Green Cards. It's just how the INS works unfortunatly. I don't think they've gotten much stricter in the past few years at all...

I am not sure what you are on about ..lol you don't need a visa to get married in the US and he did have legal status in the US before the wedding.. he hasn't overstayed yet or anything...

and seeing as how it seems there was intent to marry before he came across the best course of action for them would either for the OP to go back home and file for a K1 or for them to get married now while he is in the US and for the OP to go back home and file the CR1...

Edited October 27, 2009 by Marilyn.

[warlord 73]

haven't we been over this before?? ..lol

there is nothing wrong with coming to the US with the intent to get married as long as you plan on leaving afterward.. although it is up to the POE officer if they will let you through or not if they find out you are getting married.. I don't think it is an outright denial though.. it all depends on if you have strong enough evidence that you are planning on returning to Canada after the wedding

in the OP's case yes they could get married but then he would have to go back to Canada

And which again, in this case they have mentioned remaining in the US after intent to marry which is not allowed.

The big thing is now, since they are here, and are about to get married, USCIS will ask about his presence in the US prior to the wedding and what status he was on. They will usually waive illegal presence at that time. So getting AOS and the Green Card probably won't be any issue.

Leaving the US prior will be an issue trying to get back in.

This isn't the right way to go about doing this, but they do have a waiver to allow people that have done it this way to get their Green Cards. It's just how the INS works unfortunatly. I don't think they've gotten much stricter in the past few years at all...

I am not sure what you are on about ..lol you don't need a visa to get married in the US and he did have legal status in the US before the wedding.. he hasn't overstayed yet or anything...

and seeing as how it seems there was intent to marry before he came across the best course of action for them would either for the OP to go back home and file for a K1 or for them to get married now while he is in the US and for the OP to go back home and file the CR1...

You cannot enter the US without either returning back and having proof to Canada OR you have the proper paper work to allow you to stay. This would mean a visa, CR1, K1 whatever. This again has NOTHING to do with getting married. This has everything to do with it not being legal to come over the border, pass immigration with intent to marry and remain in the US without the proper documentation.

If the OP had walked up to the border and told when asked the purpose of his visit and said "I'm comming over to marry my girlfriend and stay in the US and file for AOS" he would be DENIED. The reason is he does NOT have the proper paperwork period.

The issue is he didn't tell the officer he was comming over to marry (which he stated was his intention). The whole thing people are seeming to be missing posts after post is that the OP had no intention of LEAVING the US which would mean technically an illegal presence and if caught before the AOS was approved a deportable offence.

Again to remind people. The OP stated they were going to REMAIN in the US and NOT return to Canada. This is what this issue is about and how it ties to the original "intent" upon entry.

If this wasn't the case, then why is everyone on here bothering with getting a K1 visa for? Why not do what the OP did and just come across the border with an intent to marry and get it done and file for AOS. Why bother doing all the other processes people on here are going through?

Edited October 27, 2009 by warlord

[thetreble 19]

Can you not come to the US with the intent on marrying someone, but also show the BP officers that you plan to return home afterward with ties to Canada?

Obviously not leaving is illegal and when they came in, they should have said they were getting married and leaving...

But I think the way you guys are saying you can't enter the US to marry is getting people who might not understand the semantics. You can probably get married in most countries in the world. You just can't stay.

[Flames9_RN 358]

Thats where the confusion is---some are not talking about the Ops situation! Yes knowingly coming to the USA to marry and then just stay without a visa is illegal. BUT (not referring to the (OP) coming to the USA, getting married and then leaving is fine. many of us, including me, have done it this way

[warlord 73]

Thats where the confusion is---some are not talking about the Ops situation! Yes knowingly coming to the USA to marry and then just stay without a visa is illegal. BUT (not referring to the (OP) coming to the USA, getting married and then leaving is fine. many of us, including me, have done it this way

Exactly!!!!

[raphael7546 0]

what? yes you can enter the US with the intent to get married...

what is not allowed is to enter the US to get married with the intent to stay and apply for AOS..

That's what I said. If you can't apply for AOS, what's the point? That's why you can't intend to get married. If you do, you'll have to be apart during the process. If you don't intend on getting married and suddenly decide to do so, you can stay and apply for AOS.

So as I said before, it's the intent that matters. B)

Ummm I came here with the intent to marry and NOT live here. I WAS NOT going to move here after we married. My husband was to be deployed so why would I want to stay in a country where he wouldn't be anyways!

People plan and marry in the usa all the time. They aren't however allowed to plan, marry & stay.

[MacTO 6]

Hi all. Thanks so much to all of you whom posted the replies. I was worried sick that day after running into the lady whom I mentioned in my post, especially when my girlfriend was scared. The lady was, believe or not, an Antiques store dealer. We almost stepped out the door after checking out the store at first, and then got into a small talk at the door. Literally. What are the odds that the small talk about me coming from Canada, which led to the revelation of her past marriage to another Canadian, which turned out to be quite a scare for me? Anyway, all of your replies certainly shed some light on the matter.

Sorry. I am not 100% sure what to do yet (and that's why I still need to clarify a couple of things with you guys if you don't mind) even though I have read all of your posts a couple of times. So, I've decided to post a breakdown of what I've understood so far with some additional information about the matter in order to get clear answers. Please, bear with me, and correct me and guide me if I am mistaken.

First off, the intent. My American girlfriend and I had wanted to stay together before I crossed the border, of course, thinking of wishful marriage down the road. I say 'wishful' because of the reason that follows below. (To clarify. I'm not using the word to void what I said in the first post. I just want to explain where I was coming from.)

As you all know, love blinds everyone and surely it did me. We talked about marriage in numerous occasions, but I can't say that it was concrete that she would marry me immediately upon my arrival.

Because...

She was coming out of divorce when we started having our long distance relationship. So, she was definitely reluctant to jump right back into marriage, and her divorce wasn't finalized at the time when we talked about the move.

It was more of trial basis because our long distance relationship had never involved live-in periods until I joined her as you suspect in spite of the fact that we travelled back and force to spend time together with each other. She first suggested that I come down and stay with her. Of course, it meant that I had to drop everything. I gave it a great amount of thought and made the 'move.' It was a leap of faith on my part that it would work out eventually, including marriage down the road. I quit my job in Canada, which means you can arguably say that I no longer have ties to Canada at this point. (Please, correct me if I am mistaken about 'ties to Canada.')

Once again, I can't say that I crossed the border knowing 100% that we would eventually marry. Of course, I hoped we marry. Who doesn't when he/she makes such a big, life changing move? Even though she and I talked about it several times, however, the thing is that she never agreed to the idea that she would marry me so that I could stay legally (because of the reason I mentioned above). In other words, she would consider it but wanted to make sure if our relationship worked before she came to decide. I am sure some of you might know what it is like to be in that position. However, as scared as I was, I really wanted to give our relationship a try. (I hoped for the best when I had to just lunge into the water, not knowing how deep it is.)

So, if everything goes as she and I talked about it, without any unforeseen disagreements and conflicts that would erupt in the trial period, we (not just I, but we) assumed that we would eventually get married. Of course, my brother and my mother were skeptical about the idea because what if it didn't work out, I had to move back. My brother was even worried if she didn't marry me before the six months were up.

To be honest, I had been ever hopeful until one day she and I had a big argument over some complaints about each other and she stated that she would never marry me. It was one of the scariest moments, and a couple of days after we patched it up, and everything is fine now, but it made me realize at the time that marriage might not happen. Of course, I am happy to inform you guys that she and I are planning to marry next month.

Bottom line is that it definitely wasn't a spur of the moment thing, however, it wasn't also a done deal per se as far as marriage's concern. (Please, clarify it for me, DeadPoolX, warlord. Note: Swear to God, I am making as clear as I can.)

Second, what the majority of you guys are saying is that, if I am not mistaken, there's no problem on marrying an American in the U.S. while visiting, however, if I want to stay and apply for the AOS, it is not legal to do so when it is considered that I had all the intention to marry someone here and to stay afterwards. That's why it all comes down to the intent. (Please, verify it for me, Ant+D+A, Kathryn41, trailmix, DeadPoolX.)

So, what are my next steps? Like some of you mentioned, after marriage, would my immediate next step be to go back to Canada and to apply for the CR-1 while my girlfriend files an I-130, if I am considered to have an intent to marry her and to stay afterwards (like Kathry41's detailed guideline)?

Or, if not, should I just stay here to apply to AOS after our wedding next month, followed by other paperwork (like Kathry41's and Ant+D+A's detailed guidelines)?

I apologize once again if what I wrote above isn't even close to what you guys have been trying to explain to me.

All I want is to stay with her. If I must return to Canada after our wedding next month, I will. Also, if you guys still think that my intent was not okay to marry her and stay, then I guess she and I shouldn't have a wedding next month (even though she's already begun looking for a judge). But if I can stay and start the paperwork even though it takes a year to complete the process, I'd love to do that.

Thanks for all the replies, and please, guide me in the right direction.

[trailmix 77]

I don't blame you for being confused.

First of all, forget the marriage thing completely for a moment - because it is beside the point.

Ask yourself this question:

When I crossed the border from Canada in to the U.S., did I intend to stay, reside, live here? Or was this purely a visit.

Then you will have your answer.

Your story is not black and white, it has shades of gray. In reading it, my personal opinion is that you did intend to move to the U.S. and reside there, without applying for a visa first - that's just what I take from it. The fact that you and your soon to be wife were undecided - well I see how that plays in to it a bit - but - well.

I have no preconceived idea of what people should or shouldn't do when it comes to adjustment of status - besides follow the rules, so I want you to know that I don't consider my opinion to be biased. In fact I would prefer to just be telling you that adjusting status seems like a great idea for you - but I can't.

All that said, unless you don't want to live apart while married - it would be a good idea to get married next month and apply for a CR1 visa. Otherwise, if you apply for a fiance visa it will cost you more, you will have to adjust status after you enter the U.S. and use the K1, you will not be able to work for a period of time etc etc - the CR1 is a much better visa.

You can stay until your 6 month visit is up - but then you will have to return to Canada until processing is complete and you receive your visa (you can still visit though, but you should bring proof of strong ties to Canada when you cross the border).

Edited October 28, 2009 by trailmix