Hello all!! I am grateful to find this forum...only wish I had fould it some time ago. It may have stopped me
from making some of the mistakes I did. Anyway, Nadezhda first contacted me back in September 2006. She was with
an agency and had seen my profile on a site I was on here in the states.The agaency sent me a message that this girl expressed a strong interest in me....well, one thing lead to another and now swhe is coming here and we wish to
be married.
My question is this: Can we be married here if she is on a visiting visa, and then can she stay?? I have just
started looking into things like the fiance visa etc. I am mainly wondering if we can get legally married during
the visiting visa. then, can she stay???Any input or info on this will be greatly appreciated.
You don't say where you are from.
In the US it is very unlikely that she can visit you on a tourist visa coming from an FSU country. You must visit her first and then apply for a K1 fiance visa to get her here. You can also marry her in her country and then apply for a K3 spouse visa to bring her here.
Be very careful if she says that she can come to you if you have not met her first. There are scam artist who will contact you and tell you that everything is ready for her trip but the authorities will not let her leave until she pays $$ as a fee, deposit, guarrantee, etc. that she will return. If she starts asking you for money for her trip, BEWARE!!!!
She might send you a copy of a US visa and it might be a fake. It happens. You can always check with the State department to see if her visa is valid.
Whatever you do, do not send money if you have never met. There are a lot of ways to scam you of your money.
Good luck
I thought about the expression 'Nadezhda first contacted me back in September 2006', a letter 10 months ago and already engaged to be married, oh September 2006 was so long ago, we've known each other for such a long time :)
Whatever you do, this is the worst. Can you legally get married? Yes. Presumably she has a tourist visa that will expire. When it does, she will be in the country illegally. So you proceed for an adjustment of status based on her being married. When they find out she came over on a tourist visa and is now married, she will be sent back and your K-1 will be denied. If you have her here on a tourist visa and it works out, then start the K-1 application process immediately. No real way around it and the consequences are severe.
As I read your letter RAJ...it occured to me this is a scam I have read several times. I may be completely wrong and hope I am but who paid for Nadja to come see you???? The scam is for you to pay for her to come and around when she is supposed to leave to meet you she has trouble getting out of country...she needs more money.
First I am troubled that she wrote to you first and expressed strong interest in you, prime scammer line!!!
I even wonder if she has a tourist visa, they are very, very difficult to obtain. Get a copy of visa and check to make sure it is valid. Forget about talk about marriage, that should not be your concern, your thoughts should be on minimizing your losses at this point. I bet you have never met????? Right?
I have been corresponding with my girl for 19 months and have already been to the Ukraine once to meet her, and am planning to go again in October, this time to meet her family and to take a 10 day vacation there with her.
If you have not been there to see her, you have made a big mistake. I seriously doubt she is coming to the U.S.
I hope you have not sent her the money to travel here.
Start thinking with the head above your shoulders and not the one below your waist.
You may need to check on the civil marriage laws for your state to see if they can marry foreigners in this country. If they permit it, then likely you would need to submit the petition for her permanent residence. A fiancé visa would not apply since that is for someone who is not in this country. From what I heard, a visiting foreigner (such as on a work visa) could marry someone here and then they would file for permanent residency.
BTW, sorry for the late reply to your question from almost a decade ago.
Just to answer the original question, albeit it is very late in the response. If anyone had a similar situation, the answer is yes, but with caveats. The granting of permanent residency is NOT guaranteed, even if you were married to a USA citizen.