Attorney Quote on us getting married on (her) Visitor's Visa

[JFH 12,191]

6 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

I agree, the OP needs to clarify how long her authorized stay is on her current B2 entry.

Chile is a VWP country so she likely is using that and therefore only has a 90-day authorized stay. 

 

OP, use a lawyer if you wish - your money, your choice. But I certainly wouldn’t use a lawyer who recommends putting your girlfriend at risk of deportation. Every minute that she overstays whilst not married to you is a risk. Overstay is forgiven for spouses of USCs but not girlfriends. Will ICE come and take her on day 91? Very unlikely but the risk exists and why would you take the chance? As we have seen here before, all it takes is to be a passenger in a minor traffic accident for the police to check documents and realise she is out of status and send her to jail. Once AOS is filed and you have the receipt for the filing, she’s in a period of authorized stay. If I were you I would make sure that gets done before day 90. 

 

Has she been married before? 

[Rose711 35]

I have friends who married spontaneously on a visitors visa.  It all worked out.

 

Just to point something out : She had to stay for the entire process which took over a year. She couldn’t work or so much of anything, that was difficult for her, even though she was planning a long visit on her visa. She had visited after  a contract job that just ended. Her mom took care of getting her documents, etc. They ended up traveling a lot.

 

They filled out the forms on their own but got a request for evidence even using the guides here. If you fill out the forms yourself do it carefully. 
 

Good luck.

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Rose711

[Sparkle Sparkle 914]

9 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

So she has the type of lifestyle where she can just up and move and not go back to Chile or work for 6-8 months?  

 

9 hours ago, Nitas_man said:

Amazing right?  Absolutely no business to close out back home.

Almost seems.......planned

Yeah... Just straight up marry like it was not planned... How convenient. 

13 hours ago, jptt1239 said:

spontaneously

That's the key word.. No need for a lawyer, you can get all the info you need for AOS from here free of charge😉. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Sparkle Sparkle

[NikLR 13,232]

Some people are spontaneous.  My husband will be like, lets go camping and get in the car.  Meanwhile he doesn't have a tent, a sleeping bag, or even a coat. Some people plan, others do not. 

[Cathi 5,794]

So you're going to give 3k to an attorney who doesn't know what he's talking about when you can do it all on your own?

 

Interesting...

 

(It's a little obvious that the marriage wasn't spontaneous when you went out of your way to tell everyone that it was spontaneous. Especially when your spouse can stay for an extended amount of time without tying up loose ends at home. Just sayin')

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

11 hours ago, Eric&Mirella said:

I have Chilean friends and they don’t need B2 visas to enter the US. They’re part of the ESTA program. That’s why she can only stay for 90 days. Maybe he forgot to mention that. 

Thanks for the clarification. So the attorney is indeed telling them she first needs to overstay/go out of status before they do anything. Hmmm. 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

3 hours ago, NikLR said:

Some people are spontaneous.  My husband will be like, lets go camping and get in the car.  Meanwhile he doesn't have a tent, a sleeping bag, or even a coat. Some people plan, others do not. 

Slight difference between an overnight camping trip and getting married, though.

[NikLR 13,232]

30 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Slight difference between an overnight camping trip and getting married, though.

Of course.  Marriage was likely discussed before but deciding to stay together may have been spontaneous.  I just get annoyed with the "sure whatever" statements.  Who the F cares.  Until the law changes and it's actually illegal, then it doesn't matter and no one in VJ is anyone's moral police.  

[ThomasNC1988 762]

1 hour ago, NikLR said:

Of course.  Marriage was likely discussed before but deciding to stay together may have been spontaneous.  I just get annoyed with the "sure whatever" statements.  Who the F cares.  Until the law changes and it's actually illegal, then it doesn't matter and no one in VJ is anyone's moral police.  

It's called jealousy, it's a story older than gaming the immigration system. 🤣🤣

 

 

[NikLR 13,232]

30 minutes ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

It's called jealousy, it's a story older than gaming the immigration system. 🤣🤣

 

 

I don't even know that it's that.  I certainly didn't want to AOS.  

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

4 hours ago, NikLR said:

Of course.  Marriage was likely discussed before but deciding to stay together may have been spontaneous.  I just get annoyed with the "sure whatever" statements.  Who the F cares.  Until the law changes and it's actually illegal, then it doesn't matter and no one in VJ is anyone's moral police.  

It is illegal, it just gets forgiven for spouses of USCs. No way in hell the attorney would suggest an overstay if the resident spouse was just LPR, because guess what, it’s illegal to adjust from overstay and it’s illegal to adjust from a VWP visit. Of course, CR/IR categories game the system all the time because they know they get forgiven. Clearly only the suckers here wait in line dutifully.

Edited December 29, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[NikLR 13,232]

30 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

It is illegal, it just gets forgiven for spouses of USCs. No way in hell the attorney would suggest an overstay if the resident spouse was just LPR, because guess what, it’s illegal to adjust from overstay and it’s illegal to adjust from a VWP visit. Of course, CR/IR categories game the system all the time because they know they get forgiven. Clearly only the suckers here wait in line dutifully.

No it's illegal to enter with intent to stay.  Its not illegal to adjust status. Over stay is also illegal but ignored. 

And what i mean is until they make adjusting status illegal, there's nothing to be done about it. 

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

41 minutes ago, NikLR said:

No it's illegal to enter with intent to stay.  Its not illegal to adjust status. Over stay is also illegal but ignored. 

And what i mean is until they make adjusting status illegal, there's nothing to be done about it. 

Overstay is illegal but ignored for IR categories. (You cannot adjust from an overstay in any other category.)

Adjusting status from VWP is not allowed - except for IR categories*.

working out of status is illegal - but ignored on adjusting for IR categories. (Not for other categories.)

see, it IS all not allowed... but it’s all forgiven for IR categories. That’s the point. No wonder they all game the system. Of course they all “suddenly” decide to change their minds. And all the suckers on VJ go “no no you are not allowed to do that”, and that’s technically true, but it doesn’t matter for them because they get forgiven. Only the naive it seems follow the rules.

 

i have to say I’m glad I got my visa through a different category because I admit, it would have annoyed the hell out of me to follow the rules and see all these other people break them with impunity.

 

* INA section 245(c)(4) renders aliens admitted under the VWP ineligible to adjust status to that of a person admitted for permanent residence. This provision, however, includes an exception for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/nativedocuments/2013-1114_AOS_VWP_Entrants_PM_Effective.pdf

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[geowrian 22,338]

It's even more nuanced that that, really. If somebody went to the AOS interview and said "I told the CBP officer I was visiting but I really was planning to stay.", things likely would not go very well...a misrep inadmissability at least would probably be in the future.

So it's not a matter of being "forgiven"...it's that - combined with the rulings about preconceived intent - they do not pursue the issue. It doesn't make it legal even if they got through POE intending to violate law...just that they aren't going to get caught (barring something like telling the IO otherwise).

 

Anyway,

There's nothing in the OP's post that implies they intended to do so beforehand. It's all conjecture.

Of course, if others from her country start doing the same en masse (VWP requires like what...<=3% for the prior year and <=2.5% over 2 years?), then VWP privileges for everybody from that country goes away.

[Nitas_man 3,100]

5 hours ago, ThomasNC1988 said:

It's called jealousy, it's a story older than gaming the immigration system. 🤣🤣

 

 

Jealousy has nothing to do with gamers who make it harder for relatives of our spouses to get visas for real visits.