URGENT: proposing to girlfriend who is due to leave in a week

[Cathi 5,726]

13 hours ago, Crazy Cat said:

You don't need that attorney for this process.  

This. This. THIS!!!!

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to hire an attorney. Follow the guides here and ask questions as needed. Period. My husband and I did the entire process on our own from the original petition-up to and including naturalization-on our own and we had many so called "red flags". We never even had any requests for evidence (rfe)the entire time. I found this site after our petition was approved, just before my husband's interview at the consulate. If I had questions, I came here and I was never once given the wrong advice.

You said money is tight and attorneys cost A LOT, plus time and time again we see them give VERY bad advice, and the attorney you spoke to is a perfect example of that.

Best of luck.
 

[Cathi 5,726]

38 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Pre-application?

 

You realize you cannot submit a petition until you have a certified marriage certificate, right?

What Jorge said. You can't apply for a thing until AFTER you're married.

[confusedURGENT 1]

2 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

Pre-application?

 

You realize you cannot submit a petition until you have a certified marriage certificate, right?

I am talking about the process for getting a marriage certificate, the online pre-application, and getting married. Why would I ever think you can submit papers for your spouse without a spouse 🤔😆. As far as I am aware there are no pre-applications for the I-130 or I-485 unless you know something I don't 

[confusedURGENT 1]

1 hour ago, Cathi said:

What Jorge said. You can't apply for a thing until AFTER you're married.

What part of "pre application" indicates anything to do with the visa process is what I am confused about with both of your responses, as far as I am aware there are no pre-applications for the I-130 or I-485. I even stated in my previous comments that I would still need to get all my evidence and such compiled before even thinking about submitting, please read..

Edited February 21, 2023 by confusedURGENT

[confusedURGENT 1]

1 hour ago, Cathi said:

This. This. THIS!!!!

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to hire an attorney. Follow the guides here and ask questions as needed. Period. My husband and I did the entire process on our own from the original petition-up to and including naturalization-on our own and we had many so called "red flags". We never even had any requests for evidence (rfe)the entire time. I found this site after our petition was approved, just before my husband's interview at the consulate. If I had questions, I came here and I was never once given the wrong advice.

You said money is tight and attorneys cost A LOT, plus time and time again we see them give VERY bad advice, and the attorney you spoke to is a perfect example of that.

Best of luck.
 

I will be utilizing this site 100%, I wonder why these attorneys seem to be consistently incompetent.. I wonder if they are giving advice that would be more work = more money to hire them. He was as unprofessional as they came anyway..

[RamonGomez 271]

On 2/19/2023 at 11:36 PM, confusedURGENT said:

Hi,

 

My girlfriend is due to leave the country in a week, she came on a tourist visa (visa waiver and global entry), this is her 3rd trip here and I can't stand to be apart from her for long periods again. I want to marry her and I want her to stay here with me. If she agrees to this, when is best to get married if we plan on then adjusting her status after, before or after her 90 day period?

 

I talked to an attorney who said to get married after the 90 days (due to within 90 days would supposedly show prior intent to stay, and then file for adjustment after that). There are outside factors that have pushed me to decide I can't be apart from her for longer, she is in a bad situation in her home country and a week before she arrived here had to call the police to report physical assault on herself within her home, and my job is a risky one and close encounters at work make me fear if something happens to me she won't be here.

 

I am a citizen with a US passport.

 

Please advise!

 

If you're 10000% sure you're going through with this, then generally the best answer with regards to any immigration question is ASAP. The time it takes you to prepare and submit stuff to USCIS is pretty much the only thing you can control, and the overall big-picture trend is "the sooner the better" (though of course there are random exceptions). 

[confusedURGENT 1]

So, I'm unsure if this is a spanner in the works, but I was reading some stuff and it says things such as "overstayed a visa" and "can be forgiven if inspected by CBP". Does this apply to my partner? As she entered the country on a visa waiver program and using global entry, so she technically doesn't have any visa (tourist/work/school etc) and she was never inspected by CBP at the airport, she said they just allowed her to scan her passport at a kiosk and then the officer called her name and waived her through, no "inspection", just called her name and said welcome and she headed straight to baggage claim.

 

Is this an issue? Can they make that an issue?

[Crazy Cat 41,345]

2 minutes ago, confusedURGENT said:

So, I'm unsure if this is a spanner in the works, but I was reading some stuff and it says things such as "overstayed a visa" and "can be forgiven if inspected by CBP". Does this apply to my partner? As she entered the country on a visa waiver program and using global entry, so she technically doesn't have any visa (tourist/work/school etc) and she was never inspected by CBP at the airport, she said they just allowed her to scan her passport at a kiosk and then the officer called her name and waived her through, no "inspection", just called her name and said welcome and she headed straight to baggage claim.

 

Is this an issue? Can they make that an issue?

She was inspected.  That means she entered the US legally.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[SalishSea 17,535]

15 hours ago, confusedURGENT said:

I am talking about the process for getting a marriage certificate, the online pre-application, and getting married. Why would I ever think you can submit papers for your spouse without a spouse 🤔😆. As far as I am aware there are no pre-applications for the I-130 or I-485 unless you know something I don't 

Well, you seem a bit generally lost, and since this is an immigration site, I figured your question was related to immigration, rather than your county’s marriage license application.   

[powerpuff 6,479]

16 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Well, you seem a bit generally lost, and since this is an immigration site, I figured your question was related to immigration, rather than your county’s marriage license application.   

I also thought it’s related to immigration. 

[SalishSea 17,535]

15 hours ago, confusedURGENT said:

What part of "pre application" indicates anything to do with the visa process is what I am confused about with both of your responses, as far as I am aware there are no pre-applications for the I-130 or I-485. I even stated in my previous comments that I would still need to get all my evidence and such compiled before even thinking about submitting, please read..

We can only reply to the quality of the info provided.   No where in that comment did you indicate that you were talking about a marriage license.   
 

[confusedURGENT 1]

1 hour ago, Jorgedig said:

We can only reply to the quality of the info provided.   No where in that comment did you indicate that you were talking about a marriage license.   
 

This is true, my bad for that, however pre-applications don't exist anywhere in the USCIS world as far as I'm aware so my response was saying I don't know why you'd think I would think of something non-existent 

Yes, I have not looked into much about immigration and blindly trusted an attorney I thought would know the best route considering.. he's an immigration attorney, so I definitely was lost. There were no hard feelings  I appreciate the help everyone has given and maybe after my process I can help others also.

 

edit: and I will surely have plenty more questions as the process continues lol

Edited February 21, 2023 by confusedURGENT
added info

[Redro 4,609]

2 hours ago, confusedURGENT said:

This is true, my bad for that, however pre-applications don't exist anywhere in the USCIS world as far as I'm aware so my response was saying I don't know why you'd think I would think of something non-existent 

Yes, I have not looked into much about immigration and blindly trusted an attorney I thought would know the best route considering.. he's an immigration attorney, so I definitely was lost. There were no hard feelings  I appreciate the help everyone has given and maybe after my process I can help others also.

 

edit: and I will surely have plenty more questions as the process continues lol

Sometimes people  aren’t first language English speakers/ don’t use their words correctly so “pre-application” to me read as 

“completing my application before I submit it” .

if you have any questions best advice I can give is to identify the form. 

Id like to add, state and county laws differ so some places will allow you to marry out of status and others won’t…

So, if you have any state/ county specific questions you should identify where you are…I believe some counties really drag on issuing the marriage certificate and people have been caught out by marrying too late and having the beneficiary fall out of status.

 

question: does your partner have their original birth certificate with them? Not a copy… I hope you’re aware this is needed for the application. 

[confusedURGENT 1]

6 minutes ago, ROK2USA said:

Sometimes people  aren’t first language English speakers/ don’t use their words correctly so “pre-application” to me read as 

“completing my application before I submit it” .

if you have any questions best advice I can give is to identify the form. 

Id like to add, state and county laws differ so some places will allow you to marry out of status and others won’t…

So, if you have any state/ county specific questions you should identify where you are…I believe some counties really drag on issuing the marriage certificate and people have been caught out by marrying too late and having the beneficiary fall out of status.

 

question: does your partner have their original birth certificate with them? Not a copy… I hope you’re aware this is needed for the application. 

We are marrying during her legal stay, but how would the clerks office/court know whether or not the person marrying is out of status or not? No I don't believe she has the original, she might do, but it can be mailed worst case.

[Redro 4,609]

9 hours ago, confusedURGENT said:

We are marrying during her legal stay, but how would the clerks office/court know whether or not the person marrying is out of status or not? No I don't believe she has the original, she might do, but it can be mailed worst case.

They know because they request proof of status: passport with stamp showing legal entry to the US and I94 indicating the permitted period of stay - you can find it online. 
And you have to provide proof of identity when you marry. 
Whenever I visited the US, they would indicate my permitted length of stay in my passport. 
example here: 
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJA_enKR961KR961&hl=en-US&q=esta+stamp+in+passport&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhz73gnqn9AhX8TTABHTbPAvkQ0pQJegQIDxAB&biw=1080&bih=691&dpr=2

but I believe they’ve stopped stamping passports at some airports so it is always a good idea to check your period of stay online. 
 

https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home