Getting married without a Fiance Visa???

Question

I am a German citizen. If I go to the States as a visitor and marry the father of my daughter (a U.S. citizen) shortly before I'm scheduled to fly back to Germany with her will I have to file all petitions before my 3 months as a visitor are up? Say those 3 months were up on March 5th and we got married March 4th, how would we possibly file all those petitions in a day? Would I be able to stay with him while we wait on those petitions to be processed? What if we filed a couple days after the 3 months are up? And what are the names of all the petitions we would have to file??? ( My daughter is a U.S. citizen, she is in the process of getting her American passport, but she is only 5 years old...Just so you don't ask what the status of the daughter is.)

Answer 1

A fiance visa allows you to stay in the US while you adjust your status following your marriage to the US Citizen who petitioned for a K class visa made available to you.

Any tourist can get married in the US, but because they are a tourist they still have to follow the rules of their visa. In your case, you will no doubt be entering the US on the Visa Waiver Program. This gives you 90 days in the US, after which you have to leave. You're also not eligible to use the VWP if you intend to visit the US with intention of emigrating there.

So, If you hypothetically did visit the US on the VWP, got married and stayed past the 90 days, you'd have fraudulently used the VWP (which then makes you ineligible to ever use the VWP again) and overstayed your visa (3 to 10 year ban depending on length of overstay).

In terms of how and what to file, you will need to submit an I-130 and an I-485 to adjust your status. However, on those forms you will need to list your status in the US. If your status is tourist using VWP, expect your case to be thourghly checked over for signs of visa fraud (ie using the VWP when your intent is to stay in the US, or overstaying your visa). You'd then be in a catch 22 situation. Can't stay because the VWP has expired after 90 days, can't technically adjust status from the VWP, and if you did leave after sending in the petition then it becomes abandoned when you leave the US and they stop processing.

With you travelling with a daughter, if you turn up to the US with everything you own in baggage you're going to face serious questions from the Customs and Border Patrol agent, with a risk of being denied entry. If you do gain entry, get married and file the petition, they can and will look at your circumstances to determine intent to reside. The fact that you came over on vacation with your daughter, got married and suddenly decided to stay is not a very believable story. You're going to face problems.

The safest option would be to just apply for a K1 fiancee visa, given your situation.

Answer 2

First of all, it is not advised to enter on VWP with intent of marriage to US Citizen. It is against immigration law. Also, techinically on VWP since you don't have any visa status you cannot adjust your status in US.  And if you do get married on VWP you must file and get the receipt notice of all the immigrant visa documents from USCIS before your duration expires in order to stay in US legally. Otherwise, if you stay even 1 day over on VWP, you will have to file later I-601 Waiver for your overstaying to aviod ultimately the possible denial on your immigrant visa.

Secondly, lots of States don't issue marriage certificate right after the marriage. Sometimes it takes upto 2 weeks. Without marriage certificate you cannot file any petition.

So this is why it is better to go with K1 Fiance visa.

If you decide to get married on VWP anyways, then after you get married and have all the supporting evidence, such as marriage certificate, birth certificate of your daughter, your US Citizen spouse file I-130 Petition for Alien Relative. And you file G-325A, Biometric Information, I-485 Register to Permanent Resident or Adjustment of Status, I-131 Advanced Parole (travel document), I-765 Employement Authorization Document (work permit) along with your husband's I-864 Affidavit, your I-693 Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record from USCIS doctor.

The filing fee of I-130 is $355, filing fee of I-485, 131, 765 all together is $1,010.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/m...

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index....