# Question on Immigration Law **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482 "2006-05-27T20:14:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/1 "2006-05-27T20:14:23Z")
I just read this story:[http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj\_home/2006/May-26-Fri-2006/news/7631126.html](http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/May-26-Fri-2006/news/7631126.html) …and I’m a little confused. Granted, this guy came here on a visitor visa and stayed beyond his time limit _and_ he apparently ignored the warning letters he was sent (an inaction his own wife calls “stupid”). I was, however, under the impression that if a foreigner marries an American citizen, he/she is entitled to stay in this country. I realize that there are “marriages of convenience” entered into for the sole purpose of allowing someone to remain in the U.S., but since this couple has _six_ children together, that scenario probably doesn’t apply in this case. So what is the law in this case? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/2 "2006-05-27T21:11:32Z")
If you marry a US citizen, you can apply for US citizenship, but it’s not automatic. There is a long process involving forms and interviews and whatnot. If he didn’t do that, then he doesn’t get any special treatment for being married to a citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/3 "2006-05-28T13:34:11Z")
> [@want2know](#): > > I was, however, under the impression that if a foreigner marries an American citizen, he/she is entitled to stay in this country. Not anymore, IIRC. The law changed in the late '90’s such that almost everyone must return to their country of origin to wait for their status to be adjusted (which means getting their visa or being granted resident alien status - a green card). IOW, very few are allowed to stay in the US while they wait for their papers. In fact, if an alien has been in the US illegally for more than a year, they are barred from returning to the US for ten years, regardless of whether they are married to a US citizen or not, and regardless of their situation, and regardless of whether that marriage was entered into in good faith. It’s pretty harsh. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/4 "2006-05-28T15:57:25Z")
No. You must apply for citizenship and go through all of the proper channels. The only automatic citizenship for a non-American person is if they’re born in America. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/5 "2006-05-28T19:56:07Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > The only automatic citizenship for a non-American person is if they’re born in America. That’s an odd way to put it, since a natural-born citizen is never non-American. (And FWIW, you can be a natural-born citizen and be born in another country. If you’re born to American parents overseas, for instance.) ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/6 "2006-05-28T20:41:53Z")
It’s an awkward way to say it, but what I mean is that if you are born in America to two non-American people, you automatically become American. If you’re born overseas to two American people, your birth must be registered or America doesn’t know about it. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/7 "2006-05-28T23:54:03Z")
Didn’t read your link, but what everyone has said is correct. And the last thing you want to do is piss off the INS. Here’s my current situation. Why wife is in Korea right now. She’s waiting on her Immigration Visa so she can come to the States and be able to work and go to school. She already has a tourist visa that she could actually come here with. She’s been here to visit in the past 6 months before she started on her immigration visa. But if she came here on that tourist visa with the intent to just apply for an immigration visa when she got here… that’s some kind of Abuse of the System, and they could just deny her immigrant status altogether. So even though she’s allowed over here, she’s only allowed here with the intent to visit and go back. She’s doesn’t have permission to come here and try to stay, or to even try to fill out paperwork that allows her to stay. So it’s best to just do things the right way. For the scenario in the OP, the correct thing to do would have been to leave the country as scheduled, and then have the Amierican Spouse file an Immediate Reletive petition. It would knock the 2 year visa process down to about 5-8 months. It could be done even FASTER, if the American Spouse flies to the other country and files the petition at the US Embassy over there. In that case, the whole process could be done in like 2-3 months. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/8 "2006-05-29T00:07:36Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > She already has a tourist visa that she could actually come here with. She’s been here to visit in the past 6 months before she started on her immigration visa. But if she came here on that tourist visa with the intent to just apply for an immigration visa when she got here… that’s some kind of Abuse of the System, and they could just deny her immigrant status altogether. The abuse of the system that it constitutes is entering the country with the stated purpose of the type of visa one has but actually doing something different which requires a different type of visa altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/9 "2006-05-29T03:14:41Z")
Was it not clear when I said it? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/10 "2006-05-29T04:50:35Z")
Well, you said “some kind of” and I just fleshed it out a tad. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-immigration-law/358482/11 "2006-05-29T13:58:11Z")
Actually, what’s sad is that at the time they got married (in the early 90’s), she could have petitioned for him, he would have been able to stay in the country and pay a fine and all would have been well.