F-1 marrying a USC

[haveheart 0]

"I went to the U.S. in January 2011 to study English under a F-1 Visa. My girl is from Dallas, TX and I've studied in Houston, TX and later transferred to a school in Fort Worth, TX. I took a brake from the studies in July and in January 2012 I plan on going back to the U.S. to study English a bit more like a month or two! The thing is, I met my girlfriend on the first time I was there (early January) and didn't not have any intention to get married. I am also going back in January without any intention of getting married and also a letter in English from my current employer saying they need me in the country/two apartments under my name/etc. The thing is, my girl has the intention of us getting married and she wants to talk to me about it when I get there. So there might be a slightly chance of us getting married on my F-1 visa. Would we find any problems if we would do that? I mean, I would be entering the country with the intention of leaving and with evidence of an intend to go home. Would it ever be considered Visa Fraud?"

This is not my doubt, this is my friend's Daniel.

Thanks for the attention, guys!

[Little_My 464]

It is fraud now since you've publicly stated you have obvious intentions to enter on a non-immigrant visa to possibly marry a US citizen and adjust your status to permanent resident..

Safe choice: Come to the US with whatever visa you have, have a discussion with your GF, marry if you want to - and after your non-immigrant visa status expires, return to your home country to wait out the CR-1 process. You can start the spousal visa application while you are still here on an F1 visa.

It is pretty obvious from your post that there is intent to get married. F1 visa is not a dual-intent visa, so you cannot use it to come to the US to adjust your status after marrying a US citizen. CR-1 would be the right way to go, if you do choose to marry on your next visit.

Edited September 25, 2011 by Little_My

[haveheart 0]

Thanks for replying.

As far as I understood he has no intention to do so yet recognizes it might come down to this and I believe this is where the doubt lies. If it comes down this would it be a problem since he had no intention in the first place?

[Little_My 464]

Intent is a tricky thing. It's often very hard to prove, and the burden of proving intent to immigrate when a person entered on a non-immigrant visa lies on USCIS. However, there are ways to immigrate to the US through marriage and do it by the book - and ways to immigrate here through bending the rules and taking the not-so-by-the-book route. Latter is always a gamble. And what your friend is planning to do definitely falls into the latter category.

He may say he has no intent, but he does. Whether he will follow through with what he now contemplates on doing is another matter - but it is obvious that he is planning to return to the US on an F1 visa, and most likely marry his girlfriend and apply for a greencard. This is visa fraud.

If he goes ahead with this plan, whether he will run into trouble or not when he tries to AOS is another matter. He might be fine. Many are. Or he might run into a world of trouble, he might have committed material misrepresentation along the way, he might face deportation and even a life time ban to the US. Is this likely? Probably not. Would it still be fraud to do what he plans to do? Yes.

Edited September 25, 2011 by Little_My

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Intent is a tricky thing. It's often very hard to prove, and the burden of proving intent to immigrate when a person entered on a non-immigrant visa lies on USCIS. However, there are ways to immigrate to the US through marriage and do it by the book - and ways to immigrate here through bending the rules and taking the not-so-by-the-book route. Latter is always a gamble. And what your friend is planning to do definitely falls into the latter category.

He may say he has no intent, but he does. Whether he will follow through with what he now contemplates on doing is another matter - but it is obvious that he is planning to return to the US on an F1 visa, and most likely marry his girlfriend and apply for a greencard. This is visa fraud.

If he goes ahead with this plan, whether he will run into trouble or not when he tries to AOS is another matter. He might be fine. Many are. Or he might run into a world of trouble, he might have committed material misrepresentation along the way, he might face deportation and even a life time ban to the US. Is this likely? Probably not. Would it still be fraud to do what he plans to do? Yes.

I concur that intent is a fine line here, however, relatively simple to resolve: Will the person on the F-1 go on to marry if his girlfriend poses the question? Since he knows there is this talk awaiting, he has likely already decided one way or another. If he has already defined his position as no marrying, then there is no intent; regardless of what happens once he is in the US. Now, IANAL so don't take my word as legal advice. As the other postings have noted, you might not have any problems when AOS time comes, or you might get some deeper scrutiny. Many other students marry while doing their studies, is not unheard of, specially if studies have been partially completed and is not as if he just showed up for first day of class and ends up married.