Need help ! Amman Jordan

[Jordandawg05 13]

Dear members:

I am a US citizen and I am looking for the best legal way to bring my future wife to the US. She currently lives in Jordan and already has a tourist visa. i know the tourist visa probably doesn't help much but i need to get some ideas of the best way for our situation to have her move here.

a brief background, i am planning to visit her in December to get engaged officially as traditionally done in Jordan then we are planning to have a wedding ceremony in July of 2012. Our main goal is to have all paperwork done before the July 2012 wedding so she is able to travel back with me to the US.

my questions are below if some could share their thoughts and/or experience that would be great:

1 - would it be faster/legal if she enters the US on her tourist visa then we marry in the US? i know she probably can't stay in USA thus can go back to Jordan and wait while i start petitioning I130? We will probably still do a ceremony/party in July for our families there as well.

2-IF we marry in July 2012, is she able to come visit on her tourist visa while i petition? i know the tourist visa has a 6 month time frame ( you can extend as well??). I know or read its probably not a good idea to do an adjustment of status if she enters on her tourist visa as our situation would not fit that criteria. can she 'wait' in the US while the petition is in process?

3- if we go through the fiance visa, i know processing times vary but how risky would it to go for fiance visa , get married in US, and go back to Jordan for the july 2012 ceremony/party?

any ideas thoughts of how to approach this?

I think this is it for now, i just wanted to get the thread going to get some opinions/ideas/experiences from others to help me get a better feel for our situation.

Thanks !

[Cybjorg 0]

my questions are below if some could share their thoughts and/or experience that would be great:

1 - would it be faster/legal if she enters the US on her tourist visa then we marry in the US? i know she probably can't stay in USA thus can go back to Jordan and wait while i start petitioning I130? We will probably still do a ceremony/party in July for our families there as well.

2-IF we marry in July 2012, is she able to come visit on her tourist visa while i petition? i know the tourist visa has a 6 month time frame ( you can extend as well??). I know or read its probably not a good idea to do an adjustment of status if she enters on her tourist visa as our situation would not fit that criteria. can she 'wait' in the US while the petition is in process?

3- if we go through the fiance visa, i know processing times vary but how risky would it to go for fiance visa , get married in US, and go back to Jordan for the july 2012 ceremony/party?

any ideas thoughts of how to approach this?

I went with option #1. My wife is also Jordanian and she came to the States on a tourist visa and we were married a couple weeks ago. Now she has returned to Jordan and we are filing the I-130. I plan to travel to Jordan in the summer of 2012 to have a marriage party with her family. We're hoping that the process will be finalized by then.

I'd be careful about #2. I'm not positive on this, but I think filing for any sort of permanent residency nullifies prior visas during the processing period. They may not allow her to travel to the States during that time. But as I said, I'm not positive so someone else may want to chime in on this one.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Cybjorg

[Jordandawg05 13]

I went with option #1. My wife is also Jordanian and she came to the States on a tourist visa and we were married a couple weeks ago. Now she has returned to Jordan and we are filing the I-130. I plan to travel to Jordan in the summer of 2012 to have a marriage party with her family. We're hoping that the process will be finalized by then.

I'd be careful about #2. I'm not positive on this, but I think filing for any sort of permanent residency nullifies prior visas during the processing period. They may not allow her to travel to the States during that time. But as I said, I'm not positive so someone else may want to chime in on this one.

Nice - congrats and keep us posted on how things are going for you, i'll be VERY curious. I am hoping to do option one but discussion this stuff with my fiance's dad at this time.

IF i go for option two - i wouldn't have filed anything yet after we marry in July but i do understand its risky at POE as she will be visiting her husband and slim ties to Jordan. She does have a brother though, can she go visit him first and then rejoin me? she will have to be honest at POE if asked directly who and where you will be staying though.

Thanks !

I went with option #1. My wife is also Jordanian and she came to the States on a tourist visa and we were married a couple weeks ago. Now she has returned to Jordan and we are filing the I-130. I plan to travel to Jordan in the summer of 2012 to have a marriage party with her family. We're hoping that the process will be finalized by then.

Question for you Cybjorg- did she have any issues when entering to marry? what did POE officers ask her?

Thanks !

Edited November 21, 2011 by Jordandawg05

[Cybjorg 0]

Question for you Cybjorg- did she have any issues when entering to marry? what did POE officers ask her?

She didn't have any problems entering. As far as I know they didn't ask her anything unusual. She told them that she was visiting her sister and friends (which was true). She didn't mention anything about getting married in order to avoid further questioning. We didn't want them suspecting her of coming for marriage and then staying and switching her filing status, which wasn't our intention anyway. It's not illegal to be married in the States on a tourist visa as long as the immigrant spouse returns to his/her home country in order to file for more permanent status.

As for getting married, it was easy and no questions were asked. It only took about 10 minutes to get a marriage license from my city's Register of Deeds and we were married at the local magistrate's office the next day (we had made a prior appointment). The marriage license arrived in the mail about 4 days later.

[Jordandawg05 13]

She didn't have any problems entering. As far as I know they didn't ask her anything unusual. She told them that she was visiting her sister and friends (which was true). She didn't mention anything about getting married in order to avoid further questioning. We didn't want them suspecting her of coming for marriage and then staying and switching her filing status, which wasn't our intention anyway. It's not illegal to be married in the States on a tourist visa as long as the immigrant spouse returns to his/her home country in order to file for more permanent status.

As for getting married, it was easy and no questions were asked. It only took about 10 minutes to get a marriage license from my city's Register of Deeds and we were married at the local magistrate's office the next day (we had made a prior appointment). The marriage license arrived in the mail about 4 days later.

Ahh cool - sounds like what i want to do and my fiance has a brother too that she can visit ! i am pushing for this option so she can come over and get married here but will see how it goes with her family.

good luck again and keep us updated how it goes!