This is actually a very frequent question. The truth is, that a visitor, with a B1, B2, or B1B2 visa or who is either visiting using the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA) or the Canadian Visitor Privilege, may choose to marry in the USA, while visiting. Even two foreigners may enter the USA and marry wherever the local jurisdiction allows it. This happens often in Las Vegas, or other “Destination Wedding” locations in the USA. A “fiancée or fiancé visa” is not a requirement for marriage in the USA.
These visas are used when the foreigner intends to both marry in the USA…AND…adjust status to Lawful Permanent Resident based on that marriage. While it would be reasonable to conclude that since there is a visa specifically for this purpose, that obtaining it is the only way to accomplish being together in the USA, if not already married outside the USA.
In practice, this is far from true. I regularly tell my clients who are adjusting status based on marriage to a US Citizen without having obtained a fiancé or fiancée visa, that on the day they interview for their status adjustment, there will be a hundred or more other couples around the USA in other USCIS offices, successfully obtaining Lawful Resident Status, under the same of virtually the same circumstances as their own.
Even so, there will be those who say this is “cheating” or even illegal. Usually, those persons are either expressing sour grapes, because their own circumstances did not allow them to take this route, or they simply do not understand how US Immigration works. Please note that I am not offering any of this information as “legal advice”. I’m not an attorney, so I’m not interpreting laws. I’m informing the reader about what, in fact, does happen every day local USCIS offices are open.
In fact, people are just as successful adjusting status without having obtained any special visa to do so, even after significant overstays past the time allowed by the visa or other visitor status they originally used to enter the USA. Some of them having overstayed many years before even meeting their US Citizen Spouse. Noted exceptions would be marriages entered into, specifically to avoid deportation, or even legitimate marriages entered into after removal proceedings have begun.
All that said, when entering the USA knowing you might possibly marry and apply for Lawful Resident Status, you still need to expect to be asked the purpose of your visit. If you answer, that your purpose is to get married to your US Citizen fiancé or fiancée, and stay to adjust status, you can also expect your entry to be denied, and whatever visa or visitor privilege you were using to be revoked. There are other truthful answers to that question, that will raise no flags and get you a quick, “Welcome to the USA.”
How to avoid such problems is part of what we help with, in any of the Immigration Consulting Services we offer.
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Along these same lines applicants often ask “Should I first try to obtain a visitor visa for my loved one, in order to avoid the more lengthy family immigration processes?” The answer is Absolutely Not. I’ll be discussing why it is difficult to impossible for many people to obtain visitor visas, in another blog post very soon.
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I’m curious if anyone, ever, has said they are entering the US because they are looking to get married and stay here. It’s pretty obvious, to me at least, that this would result in their entry being denied.
Anyway, this is an important topic and there is a lot of misunderstanding about it, so it would be a good idea to write more about this.