Marrying a Canadian Citizen (in the US)

[darcness 3]

Hi all, new to this forum and new to the whole immigration process. If you need some background, check out my thread that I started in the AOS forum, it has all the relevant information. I'll give some cliffs notes just to refresh. For reference I'm a US citizen, and she is a Canadian citizen.

My fiancee is currently visiting me in the US. We've been dating for 2 years now, going back and forth the whole time pretty much every 2 weeks to a month at the most. Obviously we talked about marriage at some point, but nothing was decided. We then found out that one of her childhood friends was an immigration lawyer and we met with him for a consult. He suggested that she not go back to Canada this time, stay here, and that we get married, then file all the paperwork. We talked it over and then her mom said if we wanted, she would pay for the wedding and give us whatever was left over (her father passed, inheritance) for us to keep for immigration funds, living expenses, etc. Therefore we decided to follow the lawyers advice and we are getting married on the 26th of this month (November).

I have a few questions....

She came into the US the first week of September (this year) to visit again. They admitted her as a visitor, no I-94 form. How long do we have to get the AOS paperwork filed? Also what date do they consider this paperwork officially filed, when they get it, or when it was sent?

I know you can't enter this country with the intent of getting married and living here, which is a concern that I have. If they feel that she did this, they can obviously deny us right? Is there any way to prove that this isn't the case? Has anyone done this successfully?

We do have records of all the times we've come and gone because we got pulled into secondary every single time she was with me, due to prior incident which has long been resolved at the border. According to our lawyer this incident (small amount of marijuana) shouldn't and hasn't excluded her from visiting or immigrating to the US.

I'm just looking for other people who have done this. I see most people get the K visa first, and then do everything I am doing now. I'm really hoping the lawyer didn't royally screw this up for us. I'm trying to do everything as transparent and honest as possible to avoid any problems.

Edited November 16, 2011 by darcness

[warlord 73]

Well it's good to see that you did some research on this topic. Many people don't and are clueless about the entire process and think one can just walk over the border, get married and be done with it. You seem to understand the issue and the risks involved.

Lawyers will all tell you different things, so it's kind of hard to know especially when it's a close family friend whose one, they made be letting their emotions for their friend get in the way of good judgement.

The issue is when she entered in Sept, it seems there was no intent on getting married on either part (other than talking about it, but nothing other than that). Plus since she's been coming over quite often and such, it seems pretty straight forward. If she had been questioned about marriage and stuff last time she entered, she probably wouldn't have shown any nervousness at all while being questioned as that thought wasn't why she was coming back over for a few months again.

With that, it seems she did enter legitly. So in this case it seems that going a head with the wedding and sending away for AOS won't be a problem. Sure they'll question the both of you during the Green Card phase, or even request additional information during the AOS possibly, but it's highly unlikely. Sure they can deny you if they feel it's not a valid marriage, but usually getting to the Green Card part, they are very forgiving on how couples met, even people who have entered illegally which I don't understand. Your situation seems to be pretty good that she not only entered legally, but had no intent until after she was already in the US.

And yes many people do this, many of them do it illegally which really pisses off those people who did the entire K-1 process. I for example was already in the US, though under a TN status when I met my future wife to be. I know a friends sister who was working illegally in Florida, then got married. She was doing everything wrong and I was hoping she would have gotten caught, but nope. Not too long I saw an interview on the news about America's Secret Illegal Immigrants or something and it was a short documentary about Canadians being over here illegally with some getting married and having no problems.

Could there be issues, most definitely and I hope INS starts cracking down big time on those cases where people come over just to marry and skip the entire process like they are special. But in your case from how I read it, it seems that there was no intent when she crossed over in Sept and it happened after wards while she was already here...

[hikergirl 277]

Keep in mind too if you decide to go with the AOS route, she will not be allowed to travel to Canada until all the paperwork goes through. She will also not be allowed to work. Essentially, she will be stuck in MI with nothing to do but wait.

Here are the guides as to cost and times involved in each of the routes:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2

[warlord 73]

Keep in mind too if you decide to go with the AOS route, she will not be allowed to travel to Canada until all the paperwork goes through. She will also not be allowed to work. Essentially, she will be stuck in MI with nothing to do but wait.

Here are the guides as to cost and times involved in each of the routes:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2

She can't work until the EAD comes in and cannot leave until the AP is done. Both are separate documents that do not arrive at the same time. Once the EAD comes in, they can leave the country even if the EAD has not. And one can work if they have received the EAD, even if the AP has not arrived.

Generally neither one takes too long in most cases...

[SapphireDreams 71]

She can't work until the EAD comes in and cannot leave until the AP is done. Both are separate documents that do not arrive at the same time. Once the EAD comes in, they can leave the country even if the EAD has not. And one can work if they have received the EAD, even if the AP has not arrived.

Generally neither one takes too long in most cases...

Actually time are a changin' there is now an AP/EAD all-in-one card that everyone gets now. Time to update your brain files

[darcness 3]

Thanks so much all. I definitely was getting really scared after seeing people say that we can't do it this way. We had no intent of circumventing any process at all. We just decided to take the word of our lawyer. I hope it's not an issue and things go ok for us. I can't imagine being without her now after we've been together for these last 3 months. We had to go through so much to get to this point even. I know many of you do it and I don't know how. I commend you all for that one, that's for sure. I guess when it's love, it's love and you'll do just about anything for it!

Just so you know, we had to go to secondary each and EVERY time she came into the US. She had an issue with a small amount of marijuana at the border before we started dating and she was flagged for it. Of course she got lucky because they didn't make her inadmissible or do a ban, but it still made things very difficult at times. The 3-4 hour drive from Toronto to Michigan turned into a much longer trip because of this. There were times when we were sitting in secondary for 2-3 hours waiting to get admitted. After almost 2 years and probably 50+ times in secondary I felt like it was my second home! Like I said though, for love, it's worth it.

Thanks so much everyone and any other advice is definitely welcome!

Edited November 16, 2011 by darcness

[Kathryn41 3,205]

one post has been removed at the OP's request.