Urgent question

[mocat19 0]

Hi, all:

Okay, so my fiance is coming from London at the end of the week so we can get married July 3rd. He will be returning to London a few days after the wedding to wait while we apply for his visa. We have a slight problem, though: He only just started his job and has not been paid yet and does not have any kind of documentation that he even works there besides a hand-written schedule from his manager. He has a tenancy agreement signed by himself and his landlady as well as his return ticket. Now he will be calling his job's human resources office tomorrow to see if they can fax him some sort of proof of employment, which shouldn't be a problem. But say he can't get the proof of employment and only has the tenancy agreement along with his return ticket... Will that be enough proof for border patrol that he's not planning on staying in the country illegally after the wedding? If he can't get the proof from HR, would it be taking a huge risk to not tell border patrol that he's here to get married and then return home. My argument is that once we apply for the marriage license, it might send up a red flag for immigration services to come knocking on our door to kick him out of the country. We might be acting a bit paranoid, but we've got so much time and money invested in this wedding that we don't want anything to happen. Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Molly and Sam

[Bumbo 0]

Hi, all:

Okay, so my fiance is coming from London at the end of the week so we can get married July 3rd. He will be returning to London a few days after the wedding to wait while we apply for his visa. We have a slight problem, though: He only just started his job and has not been paid yet and does not have any kind of documentation that he even works there besides a hand-written schedule from his manager. He has a tenancy agreement signed by himself and his landlady as well as his return ticket. Now he will be calling his job's human resources office tomorrow to see if they can fax him some sort of proof of employment, which shouldn't be a problem. But say he can't get the proof of employment and only has the tenancy agreement along with his return ticket... Will that be enough proof for border patrol that he's not planning on staying in the country illegally after the wedding? If he can't get the proof from HR, would it be taking a huge risk to not tell border patrol that he's here to get married and then return home. My argument is that once we apply for the marriage license, it might send up a red flag for immigration services to come knocking on our door to kick him out of the country. We might be acting a bit paranoid, but we've got so much time and money invested in this wedding that we don't want anything to happen. Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Molly and Sam

To the best of my knowledge a person is permitted to enter the US under the VWP in order to get married providing they meet all the VWP prerequisites. As most people will tell you what will satisfy the immigration officer on the day of arrival can vary from IO to IO, some requiring you to show nothing but a return flight to far more.

It is vital he has a return flight. The tenancy agreement is a good document but a job offer/proof of employment is better. They can also ask for evidence that you can maintain yourself financially without recourse to public funds or illegal work, so he should carry evidence of sufficient funds (unfortunately there is no set figure)- suitable evidence would include bank statements, travellers cheques, etc.... I cannot categorically state for certain but i dont believe that the immigration dept and those supplying marriage licenses are connected. Not telling the truth can come back to bite people in the butt...

I was previously a UK imm advisor and one piece of advice I always gave my clients was to be as prepared as possible but do not offer any more information than is asked of you.

There are unfortunately no guarantees, I wish you the best of luck and hopefully someone on here who has actually done this can offer you a little insider perspective.

Edited June 21, 2010 by Bumbo

[mocat19 0]

Thank you so much for the advice! Any little bit helps, and it's nice to know that this is coming from a former UK immigration officer. I told him to try his hardest to gather any information that ties him to the UK and proves that he doesn't plan to stay here illegally. He has been working for Games Workshop for a few weeks and has not yet received anything that could be used as proof of his employment there (since they pay monthly instead of biweekly). About the only thing he has is his work shirt... He's flying through Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and in his experience the immigration officers there ask more questions than the ones in my "home" cities of Buffalo or Rochester in NY. But I told him all he can do is to be prepared with whatever evidence he can gather and hope for the best. He is traveling with his best man, who is a police officer in London and I believe may be training with the police special forces. Not that his status as a police officer will hold any weight for my fiance, but you never know with IO's. I suppose all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best... Thanks again for reaffirming that it's better for him to tell the truth about his visit than to lie.

Molly and Sam