Getting Married while on a Work Visa

[TimN 0]

Hi all,

I have been lurking in these forums for a while, and I have learnt a lot already, and I figure that now the time has come to test my understanding. My apologies in advance if this is the wrong forum to post this in.

My situation is this: I am an Aussie guy who met a wonderful American girl online a little over a year ago. We have been to visit each other, and I want to move to the US and spend the rest of my life with her. Having heard that, most of you would probably just point me to the excellent K-1 forums, and wish me all the best, but I want to be sure that that is the best path for me.

I have had steady employment all my life, and really I would much prefer to have work lined up when I go to the US. If I can find employment in the US (and I know that might be easier said than done), then I am eligible for the E-3 visa, but this is strictly a non-immigrant visa. I believe that to receive my E-3 work visa, I would need to convince USCIS that I have no intention to stay permanently, right? I assume that if it comes up that I have a girlfriend in the US already, that will raise a red flag right away and likely get the visa rejected? And that "forgetting" to mention that fact would be even worse, and give grounds for me to be deported when the USCIS looked closer, as they likely would when we did get married.

My two questions are:

• What are my chances of being granted a temporary work visa (E-3 in my case) when I already have a very good reason to want to stay in the US?
  
• If I am granted a temporary visa, then later married while I was on that visa, would my future application for permanent residency be rejected on the grounds that I misrepresented my reasons for coming in the first place?
  

Edited March 8, 2011 by TimN

[canadianeh 0]

I did this with an R-1 Visa.

My fiance (now wife) even had an appointment with a USCIS officer, who told her as long as we waited 3-6 months after entering on the work visa that it wouldn't be a problem.