Many fiancés and spouses immigrating from overseas wonder why they cannot simply use a tourist visa to enter the United States. They know they will spend a long time outside the United States waiting for their proper visa, while their fiancé or spouse is living inside the United States. But they also know that a tourist visa can be gotten in a few days. So why, they wonder, can’t they just pick up a tourist visa, come to the United States, and then worry about the rest of the green card application process once they’re together here?

There are two problems with this idea. First, if you pose as a tourist with the secret intention of staying in the United States for an indefinite time, you will have committed visa fraud. Visitor visas, or indeed any temporary visas, are for people who intend to stay temporarily—and then leave. They are not for people who plan to marry and live happily ever after in the United States. If U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly called “INS”) chooses to make an issue of it, your misuse of a tourist visa could lead to your losing the right to obtain a marriage-based green card and most other types of visas.

USCIS will be especially suspicious if you get married within two months of entering the United States. Sometimes USCIS will turn a blind eye, or you may be able to convince them that when you entered the U.S. on a temporary visa you really planned a short stay (and only decided to marry after you arrived). If USCIS remains unconvinced, you can ask them to forgive your error, but obtaining such forgiveness (in legalese, a “waiver”) is not easy and not covered in this book.

EXAMPLE 1:

Detlef enters the United States as a tourist, marries Sally (a U.S. citizen) a week later, and they apply for his green card in San Francisco. At their green card interview, the officer asks, “When did you decide to get married?” Detlef answers, “Oh, I asked Sally to marry me during a phone call last month, and when she said yes, I was so happy that I got a tourist visa, got on the next plane, and we were married in the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas the following Monday.” This is an unfortunate answer, because it practically forces the immigration officer to notice that Detlef committed visa fraud.

EXAMPLE 2:

Nigel enters the United States as a tourist, marries Ellen (a U.S. citizen) three months later and they apply for his green card in New York. At the green card interview the officer asks, “What was your intention when you entered the United States?” Nigel says, “Our relationship was going very well long-distance, so I decided to travel to the United States to see Ellen in person. Frankly, it was also time for a vacation. A few weeks after I arrived, we realized we were really and truly in love. And when that feeling didn’t wear off, we decided to marry.” This answer has promise. Even if this couple was contemplating marriage before Nigel arrived, Nigel’s candid answer, plus the fact that they waited over two months to get married, makes clear that Nigel didn’t just use the tourist visa to get around the U.S. immigration laws.

The second problem is that if your U.S. fiancé or spouse is a permanent resident (not a citizen), you will, as mentioned above, have to wait for years until you are eligible for permanent residence or a green card. That means that if you come to the United States as a tourist and your visa runs out, you will be here illegally for all of those years of waiting. Living here illegally will cause many problems described in detail later on. For now, just keep in mind that it could ultimately make getting a green card extremely difficult.

RESOURCE

Still curious about other visas? There are many types of visas and immigration benefits for temporary and permanent U.S. residence. Though in many cases they apply only to narrow categories of people, you might want to scan the summary provided in Appendix A. If you see any likely prospects, you can check out their advantages and disadvantages before continuing with the application covered by this book. You will find more detailed information on these visa categories in U.S. Immigration Made Easy, by Ilona Bray (Nolo).