Clarifications about Intent

[Kittyfang 6]

This is very interesting. I understand Kittyfang's concerns. We had the same concerns.

I did some research when we changed our plans and decided to apply for AOS, and my impressions were that USCIS didn't really care about intent when the AOS applicant was the spouse of a USC, but I didn't realize that it was that they couldn't care. Like Kittyfang, we worried that we might be end up being the case they decided to make a lesson out of and we'd have to prove a negative - an impossible task. It was a bit stressful sending off the application.

What I don't understand is why even lawyers will tell you that it's a risk.

As for working without authorization, my husband and I fight about this almost every day. He is dying to work, but I keep insisting that we can't risk our perfect chances by doing something stupid. Is he right that it doesn't matter?

I think working is forgiven. What would not be is getting a phony SSN and using that to work, because that would be misrepresentation. I have heard of people working under the table (without an SSN) and not even mentioning it to USCIS. What I was told is that UCIS' way to find out if you've worked is with SSN. So, if you already have a valid SSN and you work, it would be forgiven. If you have a stolen one, or one that you got by lying, it will not be. Without SSN, I don't think there's anyway, for anyone, to figure out who worked on what or when.

I could be VERY wrong tho.

[juliava 80]

I think working is forgiven. What would not be is getting a phony SSN and using that to work, because that would be misrepresentation. I have heard of people working under the table (without an SSN) and not even mentioning it to USCIS. What I was told is that UCIS' way to find out if you've worked is with SSN. So, if you already have a valid SSN and you work, it would be forgiven. If you have a stolen one, or one that you got by lying, it will not be. Without SSN, I don't think there's anyway, for anyone, to figure out who worked on what or when.

I could be VERY wrong tho.

Kitty, you are going to be a May filer, right?

[Kittyfang 6]

Kitty, you are going to be a May filer, right?

I would love to be, but it's probably going to be June. I have some medical (blood work, T.B. and Tetanus shot) done next week. I'm guessing a week or two to get results. Then another week to see the civil surgeon... And we need to wait till our amended tax returns come back. At best, it'll be June, at worse July-August.

[imarockstar 0]

I am wondering if the advice given about immigrant intent would apply in this situation:

A Canadian Citizen is on TN status for approx. 7 years, always legally working in the US, renewing TN status every year. Canadian Citizen renews TN again, and a few months after coming into the US on the most recent TN status, decides he wants to marry the mother (USC) of his (USC) child.

What are your thoughts about how intent would be looked at in this case? Given the fact that the Canadian citizen would have to prove non-immigrant intent when applying for a TN at the border, how will immigration look at it when he changes his mind and decides to marry and stay in the US?

Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Thank you!

[GabiandVi 34]

I am wondering if the advice given about immigrant intent would apply in this situation:

A Canadian Citizen is on TN status for approx. 7 years, always legally working in the US, renewing TN status every year. Canadian Citizen renews TN again, and a few months after coming into the US on the most recent TN status, decides he wants to marry the mother (USC) of his (USC) child.

What are your thoughts about how intent would be looked at in this case? Given the fact that the Canadian citizen would have to prove non-immigrant intent when applying for a TN at the border, how will immigration look at it when he changes his mind and decides to marry and stay in the US?

Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Thank you!

I don't know how an IO would see this. However, the way that I look at it is that if you have been dating the USC for several years and didn't marry her before she became pg, after she became pg, and have waited until now, that would indicate that your intent to marry was a spontaneous one. Or at least the final decision (you have probably been discussing this possibility for a while now) was definitively made after you entered this last time.

However, the point seems to be that it doesn't matter if your intent was to remain if your AOS is based on a bona fide marriage. So if you look like you might have had intent, but actually didn't, it doesn't matter. Your intent is irrelevant to the USCIS in this case. This is according to john_and_marlene. I haven't read the legal cases and I wouldn't understand them if I did, but it does seem logical to me. As long as the intending immigrant doesn't have any other negative factors that would endanger US citizens or make you a burden on the state, why should anyone care if you intended to remain?

I can understand intent being significant in other situations, but if your CR1/IR1 would be ultimately approved anyway, or your K1 or K3, why should it matter to the USCIS if you didn't have to wait for the time it took their bureaucracy the time it takes them. Now if something comes up in the AOS process that would cause them to deny the CR1/IR1/K1/K3, then the AOS will be denied as well. It amounts to the same thing.

[imarockstar 0]

Thanks GabiandVi!

[EmVee 4]

I am wondering if the advice given about immigrant intent would apply in this situation:

A Canadian Citizen is on TN status for approx. 7 years, always legally working in the US, renewing TN status every year. Canadian Citizen renews TN again, and a few months after coming into the US on the most recent TN status, decides he wants to marry the mother (USC) of his (USC) child.

What are your thoughts about how intent would be looked at in this case? Given the fact that the Canadian citizen would have to prove non-immigrant intent when applying for a TN at the border, how will immigration look at it when he changes his mind and decides to marry and stay in the US?

Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Thank you!

Nobody can tell you for sure that it would be okay or wouldn't be. Technically, it's not allowed. But because of immigration laws that make no sense, it happens a lot. Plenty of people report that they weren't even asked about intent at their interview (myself included) so it wasn't an issue. But there are also people who have been questioned about it or denied or whatever. Chances are it will be okay. But if you take the risk, just be aware that there are drawbacks to going this route instead of CR-1.

If your partner is already in the US and you have made this decision, do it now. For him to leave and come back again, planning to do this, isn't a wise choice. Will they catch on to it at a later stage? Maybe not. But maybe they will. The fact of it is, AOS is not for people who want to get married, so they make their plans, lie at the border to gain admission and then get married. That's against the law. It's for people whose circumstances change, so they make the decision to AOS while in the United States, rather than go home and file for CR-1. If it was legal to just decide to get married and come over here to do it, everyone would do that rather than go the CR-1 or K-1 route.

If this is the choice you've made, you'd be advised to get married and file ASAP. Your husband will not be able to leave the country during this process. Good luck!

Edited May 9, 2010 by EmVee

[imarockstar 0]

Thanks for the response EMVee - I really appreciate your thoughts and the time you took to respond.

All the best!

[john_and_marlene 162]

But there are also people who have been questioned about it or denied or whatever.

Please provide some link or cite where this has occured within the last 30 years to anyone that was the immediate family member of a USC.

[Deb+Steve 13]

I don't think USCIS really cares either way - the only AOS I know of that was denied was because they missed filing a form. Can't remember which one. Nothing to do with intent.

IMO - if someone visits a country with no intent to immigrate then decides to stay because they get married, then decides to adjust their status the first thing would be the AP (even the AP is a joke - seriously, hang around for 3 months when you have a life waiting for you?) How can you not have any intent to immigrate but then not have to return home to tie up loose ends? Or do you just completely hose your existence in country of birth? That is what I don't understand. No one intended to stay but yet they do so for years without a thought for their former life? What is USCIS thinking?

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I wonder for months now: what part of INTENT is NOT being made an issue at AOS, is so difficult to understand?

[john_and_marlene 162]

I don't think USCIS really cares either way - the only AOS I know of that was denied was because they missed filing a form. Can't remember which one. Nothing to do with intent.

IMO - if someone visits a country with no intent to immigrate then decides to stay because they get married, then decides to adjust their status the first thing would be the AP (even the AP is a joke - seriously, hang around for 3 months when you have a life waiting for you?) How can you not have any intent to immigrate but then not have to return home to tie up loose ends? Or do you just completely hose your existence in country of birth? That is what I don't understand. No one intended to stay but yet they do so for years without a thought for their former life? What is USCIS thinking?

They don't have to think at all regarding intent of a USC's immediate family member--the courts have taken that discretion away from them.

[EmVee 4]

Please provide some link or cite where this has occured within the last 30 years to anyone that was the immediate family member of a USC.

TBH I have no idea. Everyone on the forums is just constantly warning against this.

In my opinion it actually looks pretty easy to plan it all out and come here to marry and file, and I'm sure there's people on this site who've done it. But I'm equally sure there are people who've tried it and got caught out. I don't have proof I don't know them and I don't have links to specific incidents. But there wouldn't be so many warnings about it if it didn't happen. And it would be pretty irresponsible of anyone on VJ to advise a newcomer that it's easy enough to skate round the rules this way, and imply that nobody has ever been caught out for doing it.

And if you read through enough forums about people's interview experiences (here and elsewhere online) there's always a few posters in there asking for help because they were questioned further about their intent and then told to go home and wait for a decision.

Just because it doesn't happen often, doesn't mean it won't or can't. That's all I was attempting to convey to the poster. (Perhaps I hadn't properly expressed that) Apologies for not backing up everything I said with case-specific evidence.

[EmVee 4]

I wonder for months now: what part of INTENT is NOT being made an issue at AOS, is so difficult to understand?

What strikes me as weird though is, if it's true that they don't even care about intent anymore, why would ANYONE go the K-1 or CR-1 route anymore?? Sure, sure - it's FRAUD to come here with intent and AOS. But if nobody cares about that anymore, what's the problem?? Any number of people on this site could have come out here with precisely that intent, lied to the border officers and gone ahead with their plans... and nobody cares.

So why do USCIS persist in keeping in place a policy that is actually pretty redundant? Why not just go ahead and make it okay for people to plan it out, come here, marry and adjust status?

The US Immigration system really mystifies me.

[GabiandVi 34]

I wonder for months now: what part of INTENT is NOT being made an issue at AOS, is so difficult to understand?

I think what makes it so difficult to understand is the adamant and continued responses insisting that it could become an issue and if it does, and you have to prove a negative, you could end up banned. This on top of the fact that there is NO official word that intent is irrelevant makes it very difficult to accept it is so on the word of anonymous posts made by lay people on an unofficial site, especially when there is so much on the line.