This is NOT a definite ressource, rules change with time and location, you are hereby urged to verify and re-verify it before using it for anything - but it was more or less what we did to get yours truly a K-1 visa, and if nothing else, it could give you an idea of the number and size of hoops to jump through to enter the US with marriage aforethought.
The process, including the post-wedding application for “Change of Status”, “Advance Parole” and work permit, has cost us about $1500 up till now, wedding costs not included - we’re up for the “change of status” interview in about two weeks, and hopefully that’ll lead to me getting the 2-year green card as a “conditional permanent resident”. (Very fast work, actually.)
The bad news: There’s some serious paperwork ahead.
The good news: It’s certainly doable. We started the application in January, handled everything ourselves and got married in May.
thanks to you both for the help to date. Will get back to this thread if anything else comes to mind. Had to put it in my ‘Favourites’ since it always so move so fast!
Ummmm, NOOoooooooo!! :wally It is, however, wonderful to be sooooo totally in love. Yes, LOVE is grand.
I want to thank everyone who submitted their opinions and helps to this thread and to our lives. This is one of the single most heart-breaking experiences I have been through in my life: Having to look at my love through a video cam. ARGUH!!
If I have anymore questions I will certainly bring them here; everyone has been so pleasant, helpful and understanding. Thank-you so much.
Also, if anyone learns anything new in the near future could you also post it to this thread?
Here was the sequence of events for my marriage to my Peruvian wife of the last 6 years:
Wife (fiance at the time) had tourist visa prior to our meeting
Met my fiance and after 2 years got married in Peru
We both travelled to the US and wife entered as tourist
Submitted change in status paperwork (I-130)
Received letter accepting change in status
Submitted application for permanent residence and work authorization (I-485, I-765 and other crap)
Wife received her work card and subsequently her green card
At no time was the fact mentioned by INS that my wife had entered the US on a tourist visa after marriage. I guess this method exists as a “loophole” in the system.
I’m not sure it’s a matter of not getting caught (INS knew from the forms we mailed in that my wife had entered on a tourist visa after we were married), since I really don’t see what law was broken. I know lots of people who did EXACTLY what me and my wife did. Recent cases, too - post 9/11.
Maybe INS is more strict now… or maybe they just don’t want to look like they’re breaking up families. I’ve never heard of anyone being deported or prosecuted for doing what me and my wife did. I figure, as long as the marriage is legitimate (and INS will find out if it isn’t!!!), what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that when you enter the country on a nonimmigrant visa, you are telling the INS you do not intend to immigrate. If you then turn around and apply for an immigrant visa, you’re admitting to the INS that you lied. This is visa fraud. No, they don’t get everyone who does it, even when they know you did it. But as a former immigration paralegal I guarantee you it can get you into serious trouble. Please do not encourage others to break the law in this way.
Easy big fella. No encouragement here. I never said, “Do this, it’s easier.” Only sharing my experiences. You try anything mentioned on this BBS at your own risk.
I state again that I’ve NEVER heard of ANYONE being deported or denied a green card for doing what me and my wife did. It appears you have (though you haven’t said so), but I’ll bet there were other circumstances that caused INS to focus on those cases.
Yes, I have. And in the cases I’m personally familiar with, I’m not aware of the existence of any other special circumstances - it wasn’t that the INS was trying to get rid of the person anyway and found this one technicality with which to do so, IOW. There might have been “other circumstances” as in the agent handling the case was in a shitty mood at the time (which certainly wouldn’t be an exceptional situation), but that’s something that could happen to anyone.
And as for the “big fella” bit, wrong on both counts.
Sorry about the :big fella", just an expression. :o
I submit to your greater knowledge. I should tell you though that I called INS prior to getting married and even checked at an INS Service Center and everyone I talked to said what I was planning was OK. I’m a criminal for life… :smack:
well, I’m reasonably okay with the principles of coming to America on a tourist visa but there’s a few questions I have regarding work visas…
do I need a work visa b/c I’m coming there to LOOK for work or would having pre-arranged employment prospects help?
I’m looking into whether or not the skills I currently possess are transferrable/recognisable in the USA. I have several certificates that are nationally recognised in Oz and wandering if there’s any RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) or RCC (Recognition of Current Competencies) schemes that I can look into over there? Apart from my firefighting, I also have supervisory/managerial and instructional/teaching skills.
How hard is it to open a bank account over there? (Over here, we have this scheme that requires a kazillion forms of ID so that one can accrue a certain number of points in order to satisfy the bank that you’re who you say you are and you aren’t trying to ‘shift’ inordinate sums of money.
Is my Oz driver’s licence easy to transfer or would I need to sit local requirement testing? Would an international license be easier to transfer?
Unless you have a very special skill (e.g. world-recognized sportsman or artist), you need to have a job to come to. You can’t just come in and start looking for work.
**I found it quite easy, but I did open an account at the branch that my company banks at.
You will need to sit the test for the state you reside in. Don’t worry - it is trivially easy. Actually, do worry, there are millions of people allowed to drive after the most casual of testing. But that’s another thread.
- we’re up for the “change of status” interview in about two weeks, and hopefully that’ll lead to me getting the 2-year green card as a “conditional permanent resident”. (Very fast work, actually.)