RWBlog

Here is detailed updated to the matter touched in my previous post (Marrying a Russian Woman already in the U.S. on a visa).

So, the question: Can they get married and then apply or is it better to apply first and then get married.

1)

Charlie,I have friend AM who married RW on religious visa.I believe
marriage comes first then AOS filing.Recommend to make appointment for
immigration lawyer consultation (over the phone).

2)

Unless the “rules” have changed recently, the “quicker” process in such
situations was to file a petition for a fiancee visa, showing proof of
meeting, along with all the same forms. When the visa is approved by USCIS,
she will need to return to her country of origin to complete the process and
receive her immigrant visa from the US Consulate there. She can wait here
until her other visa expires. If they marry now and apply for an alien
relative visa, her current visa will probably expire before the immigrant
visa is granted. I do not know if she can get permission to stay here until
it is done. Previously, while awaiting the alien relative visa, she could
get a K-1 and wait here, but that must still be received from the US
consulate overseas. And the cost are compounded. You may have better luck
contacting the USCIS by telephone, to ask them directly. Good luck!

3)

K visa’s are vehicles to bring family members or promised (Fiancee)
family members to the US.

This non-citizen is already legally here.

So:

They must get married first, THEN they file for Adjustment of Status.

4)

Absolutely correct. I have a buddy a few miles away from me
that did exactly that. His wife makes salads that my wife asks recipes
for (different part of Russia). But my buddy went and hired an
immigration lawyer to do all the paperwork and it cost him a load of
money. His wife is a citizen of USA now. The lawyer just did what any
one of us could do if we followed the rules at Visa Journey for the same
circumstances.

Be advised that things change constantly. Visa Journey keeps up with that
more than any other source that I know of, so I say it is a great site for serious info. The site most
accurate, and also most difficult to understand at times because it
always changes is USCIS.
http://visajourney.com/forums/index.php?act3Dhome
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

5)

This is regarding someone here on a non-immigrant visa, and not a permanent
resident alien, true?
Not all visas are created equally. Being “legally here” on a non-immigrant
visa is not the same as for an immigrant visa, and there are exclusions.
Some non-immigrant visas are specifically prohibited from changing status
directly.

See:
http://www.uscis.gov/propub/ProPubVAP.jsp?dockey3Dbd147bb53086f60b6630f3ee0399da03

or call 1-800-375-5283

So, before you do anything, consult with the USCIS or a qualified immigration attorney.
And the rules can change at any time with little or no
notice, so what was true yesterday may not be true today.

With my first wife, she was here illegally. We got married, and her status
was changed almost immediately. That was possible 34 years ago. Last year, a
number of girls who came here on student visas and then married Americans
were deported for violating immigration laws. There is a legal process, and
I am sure there are ways to work within the law and succeed.

If “just get married and change status” works so easily, then why follow the
harder path? And getting married first makes her ineligible for K-1 (was
processed faster than K-3).

Do not take my word on it - check it out. Look before you leap. I would be
very happy to be wrong about this…

6)

I knew I had seen this text somewhere:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom3Dcustom&page3Di130guide2

Your reference to the Visa Journey website led me there. Read the “BE WARNED” segment,
and realize that it may apply to non-immigrant visas other
than tourist visas. When it comes to the bureaucratic maze of the USCIS,
a good ‘road map’ is much better guessing or wishful thinking.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Just use the right way…

Here is another reference: (search for “dual intent”)
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Nonimmigrants_06.pdf

If the USCIS gets the idea that the non-immigrant gained legal entry with
the intent of immigrating after arrival, that is considered fraud, unless
such dual intent is considered acceptable for the particular non-immigrant
status.

7)

My buddy’s wife was here on a visitor visa, which had expired 4
months prior to their initial meeting, which just happened to be
through a ‘religious’ website. So, she was ILLEGAL.

This helps to explain why he hired an immigration lawyer,
although he surely could have done all the work himself. He paid BIG
BUCKS to have a lawyer by her side through every stage of the
proceedings, which was probably the right thing to do in his case. I
have a very hard time understanding her minimal English with my
hearing disability, but when she ‘rattles on’ she understands my “Par
Russki Shute Shute” (I speak little Russian) quite well. She a beautiful
woman with a hearty laugh, and a great cook with a sense of humor.
Together, they act like schoolkids in love. They both have my
admiration for their accomplishment.

Luckily, both of their dreams came true. He is 70, she is my
age of 66. He is divorced from wife 2 from St Petersburg RU who was 19
years his junior, but that was 15 years ago. He knew what a RU could
be like firsthand before his second venture, so I guess he found out
what a May-December nightmare could be. ((N.B. No Criticism on MY
part for those that work out well, because different people react
differently)). His first marriage just didn’t work out well.

But his second marriage which was about 10 years later did not work out well either
and that was to the RU from St Petersburg.

Was this very recent, or some time ago? When my brother was stationed in
Okinawa, he married a Korean girl (he did not speak Korean and she did not
speak English, but they both spoke Japanese, which led to some ridiculous
double translation misunderstandings). They applied for her immigration
through the Air Force, and by the time his deployment ended, she was granted
her immigrant visa. (1982)

My nephew was in Nicaragua as a humanitarian aid worker, when he met another
foreign humanitarian aid worker, fell in love, and got married. (1992) They
applied at the US Embassy. It took almost two years to get her visa
approved. However, she waited here. (Do not try this!) Because of her
physical appearance (golden hair, fair skinned, blue eyes, slender) they
simply walked through the border crossing at Tijuana. They were stopping
only those who “looked foreign” while waving through throngs of US typical
tourists. But she did have to return to her “home country” to get her visa.
Her having been here illegally never came up.

But the rules have changed over and over since then. Bureaucrats love
bureaucratic complexities.

9)

In this case she became a citizen just this past winter (March I
think). So, considering the concept that the entire process takes
roughly 5 years, it all started back in 02 with whatever rules were
applicable then.

I truly believe that soon the rules will change and everything
will get more complicated. I say this because it is an election year and
for sure there will be a regime change. Insofar as a NEW BROOM
sweeps clean, and officials love to leave their particular mark
irrespective of political affiliation, things will change. We both know
that nothing ever gets simpler.

I’ve never heard of any form or process getting easier, and our
ever expanding tax code is a prime example, with our citizenship
process coming in at second place. Come to think of it, I’ve spent the
past 40 years voting for the politicians in all levels of government that
I thought would do the least amount of damage. What a Life!

I appreciate all the replies, this helps. I did all the paperwork myself.
It helps that my company produces a software package called “Immigration Law
Interactive Drafting System (IDS)”. This software provides over 150
automated forms from the USCIS, ICE, EOIR, and DOS. DOLETA, IRS, SSA, SWAs,
I was able to store information that was used on several forms like bio
info and it automatically populated any info from any other form into any
form we need to fill out, which lessened then need for repletion in tying
duplicate information. It does a lot more. It is not for the normal person but for
lawyers I found the process very easy back in 01./02. The only glitch I
had was I answered “m/a” for the number of children for each of us and
the INS wanted a number as an answer. So I put zero and this delayed the
process about 3 weeks..

More details here:

• Again, Married in Russia and file K3?
• Married in Russia and file K3?

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