Legal Question in Immigration Law in District of Columbia

Re: Can You Marry A Tourist from A Foreign Country

An alien may marry a lawful permanent resident. However, the alien would not be able cannot get any immediate immigration benefit from this marriage. The quota is backlogged almost 5 years. The best you can do is to get married and become a US citizen in two years when you are eligible. Then you can file for your wife and she can simultaneously file for adjustment of status if she is her legaly or illegally.Whether she will be allowed to wait around depends upon whether she comes to INS' attention. If she decides to overstay and overstays more than 3 years and then departs, she would be barred under the law from returning for 3 years. If she overstays more than one year, she is barred from returning for more than 10 years.

My suggestion would be that if she stays, she should try to do so legally. She should try to find a legal nonimmigrant status that she is eligible for.