Newlyweds seeking advice.

[Flyingscotsman 0]

Dear All,

My Partner and I got married on November 12th in San Francisco. I live in Scotland and need to return before January 6th 2010. We have ben looking through this site in an attempt to see where and how we should start.

I already have a b1/b2 visa and as a result i don't know which forms we should be filling in.

Any help or suggestions anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

[john & jean 37]

I asked for mod to move to UK forum. you will get better info there!!!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Moved from Off Topic to the UK Regional forum as the most likely forum to provide advice on possible options for the OP at this time.

[SunDrop 59]

Welcome to VJ. As you are now married, you'll need to read the guides for the CR1 visa. You could go for a K3 but it's not really worth it these days (was introduced during a period where CR1s were taking a lot longer to process). There is also a dedicated CR1 forum which has lots of info regarding your specific visa.

You don't actually need to return to Scotland, however. If you wanted to stay and could demonstrate if asked that you didn't plan on getting married when you entered on your B1/2, you could simply apply to adjust your status, as you are now married to a US Citizen and are still in the US.

If that is something you want to do, then read the AOS (Adjustment of Status) guides and explore the AOS from student/visitor/ etc. visa forum.

Congrats on your wedding

[Justine+David 218]

SunDrop is right, but the burden of evidence is on your for proving that you didn't intend to marry when you got here, so think carefully on it. Welcome to VJ

[Flyingscotsman 0]

I asked for mod to move to UK forum. you will get better info there!!!

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Moved from Off Topic to the UK Regional forum as the most likely forum to provide advice on possible options for the OP at this time.

Thank you very much.

[Flyingscotsman 0]

Dear SunDrop,

Firstly, thank you very much for the congratulatory wishes and welcome to V.J.

Secondly, many, many thanks for the advice below. I did have several wee questions tho' if I could:

I have a B1/B2 visa, and my I-94 immigration card I was given upon entry states that I have to leave the U.S no later than January 6th 2010.

My wife and I want to apply for adjustment of status (AOS) but time is running out I think, In addition I have to return to the U.K to attend to some business.

I'm in SF at present, but my wife had to return to N. Carolina to prepare for school where I plan to join her as soon as humanly possible, as it's only been 3 weeks since her departure and we miss each other terribly.

She found another site with advice about our situation and made a post to which she got the following reply:

"Hey

So I was reading your post in the LDR topic, and thought I'd just drop you a quick PM about it. If you got married to your husband while he was in the United States, and he's still in the US, he can adjust status to a permanent visa. There are two ways to do it. (I know this because I got married two weeks ago to my US boyfriend while I was here for a few months)

1. He can go back to Scotland, and you guys can apply for a CR-1 or Spousal Visa. The wait period is anywhere from 6 months to a year, but you're pretty much guaranteed to get it unless you're marriage isn't real (which isn't the case). There are more minor issues, like whether or not he's ever committed crimes, and the more complicated your case is the more you'd need a lawyer. But technically it's do-able without a lawyer. It's just paperwork. It costs (I think) about $2000 in total for all the paperwork, medical tests and whatnot.

2. He can adjust within the US. This is what I'm doing. The main stipulation for adjusting within the US is that you have to prove the marriage wasn't planned BEFORE he entered the US. i.e. show that he meant to return home after his time in the US was up. This is shown through stuff like bank accounts, lease agreements, return plane tickets, blah blah. For example, I don't have a lot of proof but what I do have is a return ticket, my travel insurance expires so I have no insurance within the US, I have bank accounts at home, a letter from work saying I was accepting a job in the company at the start of the year, a doctor's note scheduling me for an appointment after I was meant to get home... pretty much anything works.

With the second option he CAN'T leave the US, though. If he leaves, he's not eligible to apply for adjustment. But you can apply for it straight away if you plan to go with that. The visa ####### costs $1300 altogether, and then I had to pay for the medical which was $120, and any extra vaccines that are needed. He probably has all the vaccines from childhood, so that wouldn't be an expense. Otherwise, that's pretty much it. You send in the paperwork (which is what I'm at right now) and then you just wait and they'll schedule a biometrics exam (which is a background check) and then down the line in a few months there's an interview which is the place you're supposed to prove intent to return home. I haven't personally experienced it so I can't tell you what I found, but a lot of people who are in the same position say they were mostly asked to prove the marriage was real with photos and letters from friends, and they were barely asked about intent at all. So it really depends. As long as you didn't plan the wedding before he came, and he didn't leave the country and return after the wedding, you guys should be fine.

Okay, I'll stop babbling now. LOL! I just thought I should probably give you a heads up, because when we got married I was freaking out about it so we consulted a lawyer to see what our options were and this is what she said. We didn't hire her in the end because she's expensive, but you don't need a lawyer necessarily.

Anyway, www.visajourney.com is a great place to find a lot of answers to questions about stuff like this, and it has pretty much all your options laid out so you just have to read through it to find which situation applies to you.

Hope this helped, even a little bit. Good luck deciding what you're going to do. smile And don't panic about it, there are lots of ways to work this out."

So my questions, finally :

If I leave, as planned to the U.K, can I return to the U.S on my B1/B2 visa?

If so, am I then eligible to apply for an AOS?

If not is the only option to apply for a CR-1 and wait possibly 6-12 months?

I'm sorry this 'wee' note has turned into a massive spiel, I'm at my wits end and am finding it hard to make sense, so please excuse the length.

Yours faithfully,

Brian

Welcome to VJ. As you are now married, you'll need to read the guides for the CR1 visa. You could go for a K3 but it's not really worth it these days (was introduced during a period where CR1s were taking a lot longer to process). There is also a dedicated CR1 forum which has lots of info regarding your specific visa.

You don't actually need to return to Scotland, however. If you wanted to stay and could demonstrate if asked that you didn't plan on getting married when you entered on your B1/2, you could simply apply to adjust your status, as you are now married to a US Citizen and are still in the US.

If that is something you want to do, then read the AOS (Adjustment of Status) guides and explore the AOS from student/visitor/ etc. visa forum.

Congrats on your wedding

[Flyingscotsman 0]

Dear Justine and David,

Firstly many thanks for your advice on my last post.

I've added a reply to SunDrops post and I wondered, If you have time, what you guys thought?

Regards,

Brian

SunDrop is right, but the burden of evidence is on your for proving that you didn't intend to marry when you got here, so think carefully on it. Welcome to VJ

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

People do that "stay in the US and adjust status" all the time. They most often report that nobody at the interview even brings up the fact that they married on a tourist visa. I'm not advocating anything, but just telling you that is has been done successfully many times.

The petition for a spouse visa (you are back in UK) is the I-130 and includes lot's of forms, documentation, etc. Read the guidelines...see in the menu bar above GUIDES.and read "US Citizen lives in the US & Spouse lives overseas:" Read every single link, flowchart, FAQ on that guide page and get it right.

The people who are both already in the US, send the I-130 along with all the adjustment of status forms. The process is a little different from what most of us here in this forum have experienced, but there is a guideline for it. It's also on the Guide page under "US Citizen and Spouse both live/reside in the US:" Again, study everything before you make your decision.

About returning on a B2. You are never guaranteed admission to the US. It's up to the agent on the day your arrive. There is no rule that you can't visit just because you are married but they might have more reason to think you don't plan to return to the UK as scheduled. If you think you want to skip the spouse visa and adjust status in the US, then you shouldn't leave. It's your choice after you read up and study the guides page. You have 3 choices...a K3 spouse visa; a CR1 where you get a green card shortly after arrival; or stay and adjust now and be prepared to explain your marriage was spur of the moment, not intentional and take your chances.

[Justine+David 218]

I agree with Nich-Nick, who has been around here for a lot longer than I.

From what you said in your original post and following, you do seem like a good candidate for adjusting status from marriage here in the U.S. successfully. However, if you leave the U.S. now and come back, there was obvious intent to adjust status once you got here, which is considered visa fraud since you're entering on a B1 visa.

If you apply for AOS, usually you can get the AP (documents to travel freely while waiting for the green card) within a couple of months.

I would research into the AOS forums here on VJ where there is a lot of information to be found. Good luck!

[lovelyalex 99]

I tend to keep quiet on this forum regarding the technical side because although I am in the US with my husband because our situation is very similar to yours. We got married on a spare of the moment decision on the 19th September of this year. We are working it through with an immigration lawyer and going the adjustment of status route also. The fees at the moment I think are $1365 and my medical was on top of that which came to about $290, with a tetnus booster included and my TB skin test. Patrick my husband has had to fill in a lot more complex forms than me, his being about his $$$ and IRS stuff being all up to date. Mine was more- are you a prostitute? YES/NO do you intend to be a prostitute? YES/NO etc and all the same questions on the I-94 when you come on a tourist visa. We opted to use an attorney to help us as I am convinced that because we haven;t gone about this the preferred manner, how our application gets processed might not work in our favour... so really, for me it is piece of mind. Also we have a 13 month old daughter together so I really would like this to go as well as possible, with less hassle for me. From my initial phoning around, if you wanted an attorney to help their time would probably cost you around $1500 MAX. I know every situation is different but I just wanted to let you know if you do go the AOS route, you're not alone

[Justine+David 218]

Mmm...I'd be leary with having a lawyer. More often than not, they cause problems. No one is going to care more about your case than you. If you do the appropriate research here on VJ, you'll have all the information you need to do an uncomplicated case.