Immigration to the United States, some questions

[dandesmommie]

Whatever you do, DO NOT use the visa waiver if you are planning to adjust status. You sign the waiver card stating you will NOT attempt change of status. Penalty is deportation for 5- 10 YEARS.
Trust me on this one!!!

 

[Joannm]

There is if he wants to get married here.

While a UK passport holder is given his visitors visa at the point of entry, he will be interviewed and asked the purpose for his visit. If he says, “I’m here to get married,” he’ll be on the next plane back to the UK.

Actually not. My brother in law did that and after detaining him for hours for interviewing they made him stay in this country 6 months, during which time they got married but he could not leave. If he did he would not be able to come back for a lengthy amount of time. The big probelm was that his business was in London and it caused all sorts of hardship for him to run his business from the states. It all got straightened out but it took a long time and long hours sitting in immigration offices and visits to their house from immigration officers, interviews of my sister and her kids and all sort of other proof that the marriage was legit.

 

[ac_claire]

As I suggested, I think you should check everything out instead of relying on anonymous posts. Why an immigration agent would tell you to get a tourist visa to get married on is something I would not understand. When the person applied for a tourist visa for marriage purposes they would have to lie about why they wanted the visa. Had someone told you they had called the USCIS instead of your doing it yourself?

I was there when the calls were made. Apparently the fiance has a visa waiver already, which he obtained for a visit to the States a few months ago to see his fiancee. I don’t know if these can be renewed or if they are automatically given for a certain amount of time and can be re-used when travelling within that time period.

Whatever you do, DO NOT use the visa waiver if you are planning to adjust status. You sign the waiver card stating you will NOT attempt change of status. Penalty is deportation for 5- 10 YEARS.
Trust me on this one!!!

Really? Would you mind sharing your experience, by PM if you’d prefer…? We would really appreciate it.

This is exactly the plan the USCIS gave us. The wording used (two different agents, two different calls) was something along the lines of explaining how to do the petition for an alien fiance and the K1 visa, and then saying (paraphrase) “after reviewing the cost and the time this will take, you may want to consider Plan B…” And Plan B was to get married in the US while the man is here on his Visa waiver and then the new wife applies for an adjustment of status for her husband.

There is if he wants to get married here.

While a UK passport holder is given his visitors visa at the point of entry, he will be interviewed and asked the purpose for his visit. If he says, “I’m here to get married,” he’ll be on the next plane back to the UK.

The way it was explained to me this is the only real tricky part. The man will be coming over on a round trip ticket on the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). He can tell the HSA that he is coming to visit his girlfriend OR that he’s coming to get married and then plans to fly back to the UK alone to wait for his immigration visa. (Which would, of course, be dishonest). And then instead of flying back, he just stays past the return ticket and they file the adjustment of status after the wedding.

 

[4Squarebaby]

The way it was explained to me this is the only real tricky part. The man will be coming over on a round trip ticket on the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). He can tell the HSA that he is coming to visit his girlfriend OR that he’s coming to get married and then plans to fly back to the UK alone to wait for his immigration visa. (Which would, of course, be dishonest). And then instead of flying back, he just stays past the return ticket and they file the adjustment of status after the wedding.

Then we come to the part of what should we do, try to game the system the worldly way or do we have a different standard?