Marrying My Fiancée

[jest247]

My situation is complicated and partly my fault. I met my fiance 4 years ago, she was just starting graduate school for speech therapy (on a student visa) and i was a undergrad. We got engaged a few years ago. Since the engagement she applied for and got a work authorization card. We were going to get married but we got cold feet. Since then her work authorization card has expired and she had to leave the country because of a death in her family. I know we can get married and she can come back if we apply for the fiance visa, but the attorney said its going to take at least a year and we dont want to wait. I guess my real question is if she enters the country legally as a tourist can we get married then. If we were able to do this what all does it involve as far as what we would need to file for. Also how soon could she work again. She owns a car in the states as well and makes payments over the internet (this is irrelevant i know). I would appreciate some advice plzz.

[mmadsen55]

If your fiancee enters the country on a tourist visa WITH the intention of getting married, that will be most likely viewed as Visa Fraud. You can still go through the process of petitioning her to naturalization I130 and adjustment of status I485 but you run the risk of these being denied because of perceived fraud. I will not advise you to lie or make some questionable decisions, but if you can somehow Prove that your GIRLFRIEND entered solely as a visitor, and then and only then, after she was here you decided to get married, then that should not constitute fraud. But you must show good proof.
Once you are married, the process is is to File a I130 Petition for alien relative and then and I485 to adjust her status from visitor to permanant residency (green card) There are a slew of other forms and procedures so I would read up on the website. www.USCIS.GOV...your attorney can help make sure you get all the necessary forms...
Depending on where you are and the current case load, she would be able to get a work permit anywhere from 4 Months to a year.

As far as the processing times for the Fiancee visa, you can look at the same website...www.uscis.gov and search on processing times

https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/js...cesstimes.jsp?

As of today, it looks as though the national benefits center is working on finacee visas from July, so I would guess about a 6 month wait..