Do you know someone who has entered the U.S. knowing they were wanting to immigrate but stating they were not?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

yeah, i know a bunch of people who came here on tourist visas with the intent to stay. it's common.

[randolady 1]

I don't agree with it at all, but yeah he was from a European country. He married a USC, she came back, and so he followed. Didn't need a visa or anything. Now they're adjusting status.

[DanielParul 50]

I don't personally know anyone who has committed visa fraud, but sometimes when I look at the pics of some VJ members and see some old, very unattractive guy with a beautiful, very young girl, I do wonder.

Or viceversa. Don't personally know anyone but sometimes wonder too...Tchnically does not constitute visa fraud, if they are applying for the right kind of visa for the relationship portrayed. Just raises a question about Bona Fide Relationship...

Edited July 29, 2008 by DanielParul

[Nagishkaw 510]

I believe there is one on VJ.......

[Cassie 8]

Nope. One of my best friends came to the US to visit with her BF for a while (10 years ago), and they ended up getting married. They put off doing all the official AOS paperwork (ignorance is bliss! ) until they went back to Canada for a visit, and the border guard on the way back told her that he's making a note on her file, that if she tries to cross again without her paperwork done and GC in hand, she'd not be able to do so (I can't remember if this was the Canadian side or American side who told her this). The thought of being separated from hubby or Canadian family got her motivated to get AOS done.

[tom&tata 2]

Yes, I knew somebody. A friend of a friend. She told me what she planned to do (come on tourist visa & adjust) - I told her we did CR-1. Never heard of her again.

[sparkofcreation 0]

A friend of a friend did it on the advice of an American immigration attorney. As in, while she was here on vacation, she and her (now-)husband went to an immigration attorney here and that attorney told her to just get married and adjust status the next time she came on the VWP.

Our mutual friend (friend of my husband's from back in the UK) asked us if that was really legal and of course we told her it's not and grounds for a ban if you get caught, but they did it anyway. I never heard anything else so I assume she did it legally.

I also had a friend I've lost touch with years ago, who was a lesbian who married her (male) roommate so he could adjust status. They'd been divorced about 5 years when I met her.

[Savanphil 3]

Don't know anyone who has the b@lls to try it.

Edited July 30, 2008 by Savanphil

[Ms. Squirrel 11]

I know a few couples who got married in the States and then filed for AOS. I have no idea what they said at the POE and I have no idea how they managed to pull it through (they are not direct friends).

[Nessa 23]

I believe there is one on VJ.......

only one?

[Empress of Groovy 373]

A (platonic) male friend I hung out w/ a few years had a whirlwind Internet courtship w/ a girl from Brazil. After corresponding for a few weeks, he flew down there to meet her and proposed. She came to the U.S. on a student visa, fully intent on staying, and they married within a few days of her arrival. I don't know the details of their AOS, though. This was about six years ago, and I didn't know as much about the whole process as I do now (it was before I met my resident alien). I'd be interested to know how they did it, what documents they had to produce, and if they just lied through their teeth regarding their intentions. I seem to remember that the AOS took quite a long time, like over two years, during which time she was volunteering because she couldn't work, and she also couldn't leave the country. As far as I know, they're still happily together and living in Texas somewhere. At the time, I thought they were both kinda nuts because they barely knew each other when they got hitched, but it seems to have worked out.

[milwaukeegirl 0]

One of my friend's coworkers just married someone who was here in America on a work visa. Now they have a lawyer and are filling out the paperwork to keep him here. It sounds like a very sketchy situation. The American citizen has confided to my friend that her husband keeps a lot of secrets about his past and won't even give her a straight answer about how he obtained his original work visa. He gets defensive when she asks questions about his past and details pertaining to their visa paperwork. Sounds like a terrible situation to be in!

Another unrelated story...

About 5 years ago, my then best friend was dating a Polish citizen who was in Wisconsin on a work visa. It was at about the same time I started dating my husband. Because I had just looked into all of the immigration rules, I knew that her boyfriend had overstayed his work visa. She lied to me and all of our friends and said that he was here legally. Well, after he went home to Poland willingly to visit his family, she said that he couldn't come back to America because he had overstayed his visa. Shocking!! We all knew she was lying to cover his back. I don't understand how or why he was able to continue working on an expired work visa. He worked for a major department store. Maybe he was paid out of pocket.

[Nagishkaw 510]

I believe there is one on VJ.......

only one?

Yes, that I know of.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

How about these scenarios - what do you think?

Scenario 1

Say a Husband and Wife are pondering a move to the States, in fact had decided to move and were looking at their options, K visas, IR1 etc.. Then, the Husband gets offered a job in the U.S. tomorrow, the company wants to sponsor him for a TN visa and give him a 2 million dollar salary (ok I just threw that in for fun).

Because they had discussed their want to move to the States and had discussed possible immigrant visas, if he then turns around and accepts that job and they move to the U.S. - would that be fraud - assuming they decided to do an AOS later?

Scenario 2

2 Canadians are married, they move to the U.S. on a Nafta visa, have been living there for 7 years on this visa. Each year they have to cross the Canada/U.S. border and renew the visa.

Last year the wife discovered that she had a claim to derivative citizenship and promptly filed the N-600 and had her citizenship documented. Now we have added an American citizen to the mix.

This year they come up to Canada and cross the border as usual, renewing his TN visa and that of their child. She shows proof of her U.S. citizenship at the border.

They have now applied for AOS for the child and the Husband. Would you consider that to be fraud? Should they have left the home that they own, his job of 25 years (Canadian company which became a U.S. company) to come to Canada and file the I-130?

No and No.

How about these scenarios - what do you think?

Scenario 1

Say a Husband and Wife are pondering a move to the States, in fact had decided to move and were looking at their options, K visas, IR1 etc.. Then, the Husband gets offered a job in the U.S. tomorrow, the company wants to sponsor him for a TN visa and give him a 2 million dollar salary (ok I just threw that in for fun).

Because they had discussed their want to move to the States and had discussed possible immigrant visas, if he then turns around and accepts that job and they move to the U.S. - would that be fraud - assuming they decided to do an AOS later?

Scenario 2

2 Canadians are married, they move to the U.S. on a Nafta visa, have been living there for 7 years on this visa. Each year they have to cross the Canada/U.S. border and renew the visa.

Last year the wife discovered that she had a claim to derivative citizenship and promptly filed the N-600 and had her citizenship documented. Now we have added an American citizen to the mix.

This year they come up to Canada and cross the border as usual, renewing his TN visa and that of their child. She shows proof of her U.S. citizenship at the border.

They have now applied for AOS for the child and the Husband. Would you consider that to be fraud? Should they have left the home that they own, his job of 25 years (Canadian company which became a U.S. company) to come to Canada and file the I-130?

No and No.

No. It's reputed that only soothsayers have talent to portend the future. It get's sticky when individuals plan their immigration process, eliminating the step of securing an immigrant, or non-immigrant visa that permits adjustment within the USA, by way of entering on VWP or a tourist visa.

A TN-1, while it is not dual-intent, is neither a tourist visa nor VWP.

Also, it is NOT illegal to develop immigrant intent AFTER entering on the TN-1 (and obviously also not verifiable).

Plus, trailmix made a serious error in the second scenario--that of renewing a TN-1 for a child:

• if the child is US-born, he/she is American
• if the child is Canadian below 18, then the visa issued would be a TD, not a TN-1

Edited July 31, 2008 by CherryXS

[bora bora 1]

I know TONS of people in this situation. Most of my students come on tourist visas with the intent to stay...but there is a legal way - it's called an I-20. You can come to the U.S. on a tourist visa and legally change your visa to a student visa, as long as you study 15 hours a week at a language institute. These people meant to stay, but they have permission. The fact that they work illegally is something else....

I also know another girl who came here on a tourist visa almost 10 years ago and got married while she was here. She said she didn't know anything about the immigration process and wasn't necessarily planning on getting married. She had no problem.