# US Citizen to marry foreign girlfriend



## xtrmnop (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi to all,

I just would like some perspective from other users here in this forum. So my girlfriend of 1.5 yrs is in the US to visit under the Visa Waiver Program. Initially she was only going to stay for less than 2 weeks but have decided to extend her stay. She has been here for about 40 days and we are talking about marriage. 

After getting married (before 90 days VWP expire) I would apply for a green card petition and an AOS. My only main concern is that the USCIS will think she initially came here to get married but the truth is that we have had a lot of struggles in a our relationship and she came here to see if we can work it out.

Also she was here over a year ago under a student visa and lived in the US for about year and that's when I met her before her VISA expired.

I spoken to a local immigration lawyer and he informed me that there shouldn't be any issue as long as we get married and apply for the green card before her 90 days is up. I'm also thinking about hiring a lawyer but his fee is $1800 for the whole process. 

Should I hire a lawyer or do you think I will be ok filing on my own? Any input would be great. Thank you.


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## MoTo77 (Oct 31, 2010)

File on your own. It's easy. OK not easy, but very do-able. This site will be helpful: visajourney.com

Good luck!


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

xtrmnop said:


> Hi to all,
> 
> I just would like some perspective from other users here in this forum. So my girlfriend of 1.5 yrs is in the US to visit under the Visa Waiver Program. Initially she was only going to stay for less than 2 weeks but have decided to extend her stay. She has been here for about 40 days and we are talking about marriage.
> 
> ...



The lawyer is right -- you must now file within the 90 days of her VWP entry. 

Also, she should be able to answer no to all these questions:
* Have you ever been arrested for anything, anywhere?
* Do you suffer from a serious communicable disease?
* Do you suffer from a mental disorder?
* Have you ever broken the terms of any previous visit to the US?
* Do you any connections whatsoever with countries the US might consider as terrorist in nature? 

The lawyer should also have warned you that the consequences of things going wrong on this route can be more dire than using other methods.

Whether you need a lawyer or not depends on how good at research and detail you are. It's certainly possible to do a filing like this without one. Expect your research to take more than a day or two of study -- there's too much to take in with one sitting.


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