Legal Question in Immigration Law in Tennessee

Re: I want to marry

You have a couple of options. Your intended can come to the U.S. to visit and marry her here while in the U.S. At that point you can apply for adjustment of status based upon immediate relative status which should be done within sixty days of date of marriage or prior to the expiration of her authorized visitor stay in the U.S.

The second option is to obtain a "K" visa which is a special visa in which you represent that within 90 days of her entry into the U.S. you all will be married. There is a lot of work involved in the "K" visa.

You should know that she should not come to the U.S. as a stated visitor while intending to stay permanently as a wife/immediate relative. The Board of Immigration Appeals addressed that situation in which the spouse got a visitor visa to come to the U.S. intending to marry and remain. The Service's position (which was really correct) was that the tourist visa was obtained by misrepresentation and should be void from the beginning. The BIA indicated that if that was the only adverse factor in the alien's case, an immediate relative adjustment of status from inside the U.s. would be allowed. This case; however, only applies to spouses. A subsequent case tried the same thing for a brother of a U.s. citizen and the BIA did not allow adjustment from inside the U.s. The two cases are Matter of Cavazos and Matter of Ibrahim. Hope that helps.

P.S. Best wishes to you and your bride to be.

Stephen Spring

Penton, Wheeler & Spring, L.C. An Interstate Law Firm

226 South Palafox Place Suite 106