As the fiancé of a U.S. citizen, you are theoretically one step away from being an immediate relative—an immigrant who is immediately eligible for a green card. You will be an immediate relative as soon as you get married. Unfortunately, your eligibility may not get you a green card anytime soon. The trouble is that only certain categories of immigrants are allowed to apply for their green card in the United States (using the procedure called adjustment of status). People who entered the United States without being inspected and admitted by a U.S. official are not among them.

However, a very few people might be lucky enough to fall into an exception, based on having started the application process before the laws changed and made them ineligible. You may be eligible to adjust status in the United States if an employer or a family member of yours (whether it was your spouse or someone else) filed an immigrant visa petition (Form I-130 for family members) on your behalf either:

• before January 14, 1998, or

• between January 14, 1998 and April 21, 2001, if you can also prove that you were physically present in the United States on December 21, 2000.

If your visa petition was approved, or was denied only because of a mistake by USCIS, you may be allowed to adjust status in the United States. (For more details on this issue, see Chapter 2, Section A.) If you have the I-130 petition on file as described above, you have a ticket to adjust your status and get your green card without leaving, even though you entered the United States illegally.

If you fall into this exception, by all means get married and file for adjustment of status in the United States. This is especially true if you have stayed in the United States for more than six months. If you were to leave and try to apply for your green card at a U.S. consulate overseas, the consulate could punish your illegal stay by preventing your return to the United States for three or ten years.

NEXT STEP

If you are sure this option will work for you, proceed directly to Chapter 11, Section D, for instructions on how to begin the application process.