Can a person on visit visa change her status in the US

B

BlueHope

Registered Users (C)
Hi,

I am an EB2 based GC holder for almost 6 months. I am planning to get married to this girl who lives back home in Colombia. She has a US visit visa valid for 3.5 years. Is it possible that she could come to the US and get married to me and change her status to something other than visit visa? I would like her to stay here with me as my spouse and be able to visit her parents back home whenever she has to. Also, i am not sure if she would have to leave after every 6 months and come back to the US as usually the case is with visitor visa holders.

How long would it take her to get her GC?

I am not sure how the procedure works but it would be great help if you could please guide me. I just dont want her to lose her legal status if she gets married to me and tries to stay here.

Thank you in advance!!
 
Hi Jackolantern,

She has not applied for any other status but yes she is qualified to get an admission into a University. I can certainly look into finding an employer who can sponsor her. Do these things make any difference?

Thanks!!
 
Thanks TheRealCanadian. Can she apply for an admission into a College to get an F1 visa instead of L or H? Will that make any difference? Otherwise, i guess i will have to wait till i become a citizen :(
 
BlueHope said:
Thanks TheRealCanadian. Can she apply for an admission into a College to get an F1 visa instead of L or H? Will that make any difference? Otherwise, i guess i will have to wait till i become a citizen :(
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Bluepill,

F1 for students intending to enter college. L or H are for people who have educational qualifications and technical skills that are important. It seems as if she has no college degree, am I mistaken? H1 visa requires a labor certification. How far are you from becoming a US citizen? Since she has immigration intent, you should be careful.
 
Hi Al Southner,

She has a degree in BBA but from Colombia. She also took TOEFL a year ago to apply in College but she never applied. I can apply for her admission so she could at least go to college to get her Masters degree in Business Administration. I am pretty far from becoming a USC. Thanks!
 
You missed TheRealCanadian's point about immigrant intent. Her relationship to you is likely to result in refusal of the student visa, because she clearly would want to immigrate to stay with you, and the student visa does not allow immigrant intent.

In addition, they have clamped down on allowing changes of status from tourist visa to student status. These days, normally one has to leave the US, get the student visa at a consulate, then reenter the US with the student visa.

However, the good news is that the backlog has been significantly reduced for spouses of permanent residents. The way things are going now, she can have a green card in less than a year after you file the paperwork. So I would suggest this plan of action:

1. Have her travel to the US. Forget about the student visa.
2. Get married.
3. You file an I-130, requesting a consulate in Colombia on question 22.
4. She leaves the US before her 6-month authorized stay (or 3 months or however long they give her) expires.
5. 6-12 months after you filed the I-130, they (hopefully) would have approved the I-130 and crossed your priority date in the visa bulletin, so she and you would file the final paperwork with the consulate and she would interview at the consulate.
6. After approval at the consulate, she enters the US as a permanent resident.
 
I am not quite sure if I will agree to this game plan. I am a US Citizen and my wife's I-130 and the entire process is expected to take 8 months minimum and I am already 5 months into it with no hope. With that said, I-130 for permanent residents(LPR) is taking about an year to process and I am not quite sure if the Visa numbers are current for spouses of Permanent residents. That's something that needs to be absolutely looked at and ascertained before following this game plan. In the past, it used to easily take about 4-5 years before spouse of LPR could come to the country.

If it's indeed that long of a wait, you would either want to become US citizen and then tie the knot or just do it as Jackolantern suggested, get your fiancee over here, marry at least after 90 days or more like after 120 days, file I-130, wife goes back, stays for some time and tries to get back in the country and visit you over tourist visa itself. They may deny her entry at the POE and that's a great possibility.

The other option is to try F1 visa and better yet H1 from the beginning and try to have her come here on that, stay here for a good amount of time maintaining her visa, marry after the usual 90 days minimum or more like after 6 months or so and continue to live happily for a few years by which time you become a US Citizen and you can file AOS assuming her I-130 will be approved in that much time and it should be.


Jackolantern said:
You missed TheRealCanadian's point about immigrant intent. Her relationship to you is likely to result in refusal of the student visa, because she clearly would want to immigrate to stay with you, and the student visa does not allow immigrant intent.

In addition, they have clamped down on allowing changes of status from tourist visa to student status. These days, normally one has to leave the US, get the student visa at a consulate, then reenter the US with the student visa.

However, the good news is that the backlog has been significantly reduced for spouses of permanent residents. The way things are going now, she can have a green card in less than a year after you file the paperwork. So I would suggest this plan of action:

1. Have her travel to the US. Forget about the student visa.
2. Get married.
3. You file an I-130, requesting a consulate in Colombia on question 22.
4. She leaves the US before her 6-month authorized stay (or 3 months or however long they give her) expires.
5. 6-12 months after you filed the I-130, they (hopefully) would have approved the I-130 and crossed your priority date in the visa bulletin, so she and you would file the final paperwork with the consulate and she would interview at the consulate.
6. After approval at the consulate, she enters the US as a permanent resident.
Click to expand...
 
jazzysingh said:
If it's indeed that long of a wait, you would either want to become US citizen and then tie the knot or just do it as Jackolantern suggested, get your fiancee over here, marry at least after 90 days or more like after 120 days, file I-130, wife goes back, ...
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There is no need to wait to get married or wait to file the I-130 if she will leave the US before her I-94 expires. They can get married the next day after she arrives in the US and then file the I-130 immediately after that; the fact that she leaves the US will nullify any potential issues of immigrant intent. Issues of immigrant intent only arise for those who entered in a nonimmigrant status* and then stayed in the US to attempt to immigrate, so it will never be a problem in the green card interview at the consulate.


*more specifically, a nonimmigrant status that isn't a dual intent one like H1B or L1
 
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jazzysingh said:
I am not quite sure if I will agree to this game plan. I am a US Citizen and my wife's I-130 and the entire process is expected to take 8 months minimum and I am already 5 months into it with no hope.
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You filed a I-130 for consular processing? Remember that this process is dictated by filing date, expediency in the consulates and NBC or NVC.
 
Hi All (Jackolantern, Al Southner, jazzysingh, TheRealCanadian),

Thank you for all the great comments you all have provided. I understand how the process works now. I will get married and initiate the process right away so we dont have to wait for a long time. Current time frame for LPR's category is Jan 10.

Thanks!!
 
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