American Girlfriend And Argentinian Boyfriend

[Hybrid Ambassador]

Hello freiheit.1991, here is my take on how and fast way to secure you an US green card after marrying your Californian Fiancee. I believe getting married in the US soils is the fastest way for you to attain that elusive _Green Card_. If you get married to an US citizen here in the states, you are safe to stay in the US till your Green Card is ready for you. I have been told that if one get to wed an US citizen in US soil, the US immigration & naturalization can-not force you to leave the US while the Green Card being processed for you,despite taking now days a couple of years for the issuance of the said Alien registration receipt card, nee the Green Card. You want to get married in a hurry? just drive or fly into California's neighboring state of Nevada and get married instantly in one of hundreads of wedding chapels in NV.The wedding fees is only circa US$100.00 plus tips for the Wedding chapels stuffs. If you get married to an US citizen outside of US territory, then you have to wait for the Green Card, and can not enter US soils till such Card is issued to you. Oh, by the way, the Attorney fee to do the paper pushing for those people marrying an US citizens, are in the vecinity of US$600~700. One of my acquitance did just that and the fees was that cheap. Once here in the states and married safely, you can do the paper-work by yourself if you are patient and adept at going through the maze of paperwork needed to process your Green Card application. My 2 cents...

 

[sam3g]

Those wonderful days of the Reagan Administration !! You are correct , not so easy now. As advised above get a good immigration lawyer. Remember , if you marry in the US , or apply for a green card after marrying here , YOU cannot leave the US until the process of getting your green card is complete. SO plan accordingly.

An immigration lawyer is NOT necessary to get married and live in the US. If you are educated, determined, and have time to figure it all out you can do it yourself. Final cost will still be a few thousand dollars. I recommend you start familiarizing yourself with visajourney.com.

K1 (Fiance) Visa Steps

It took us about 14 months for her to receive her work permit. Countless hours and lost sleep over the issue.
Not that it will make any difference, but I highly recommend waiting until you are older to make the decision to marry someone.

 

[Farenheit]

If you get married in US as a non-resident and then apply for residency/green card based on your marriage to a US citizen, you can be deported. I know someone this happened to. She was on a student visa and tried to change her status after getting married. They deported her and couldn't return to US for 10 years!

 

[syngirl]

I'm from Texas. My wife is from Argentina. We got married in Argentina in 2006 while I was on a tourist visa. It took about one month to get everything in order for her to move to the US. I'm sure our experience is out of the ordinary (it only taking one month), but it really was SUPER easy.

The ladies at the embassy were awesome. Maybe you should just ask them.

TexasLonghorn, were you together very long before getting married? Because while the US and Canadian procedures for getting residency for your foreign spouse are different, I know that in Canada the more evidence one has that this is a truthful and long-standing couple tends to help speed the paperwork. For Canada we do not have the fiance visa though, you have to get married first and then do the residency papers to sponsor your spouse for a visa. We had to provide all sorts of evidence (photos, emails etc) that we had been together for as long as we stated. And yes, the financial documentation.

In the evidence that they ask you to show for the visa, the USA is very much like Canada -- the more thorough you can be, the more organised you can be, the better. If they ask for financial records you don't need to go above and beyond what they tell you, but do be thorough -- show up to date accts etc. The more organised your documentation is, the better.

I do have to say, the young age of the OP & girlfriend is something that will work against them a bit. That's why they're going to have to make sure everything else is in order.

 

[syngirl]

Not that it will make any difference, but I highly recommend waiting until you are older to make the decision to marry someone.

I'd say exactly the same (wait!), but then again, the immigration paperwork and process is so ridiculous and stressful I often think they do it on purpose to weed out any scammers or those that just aren't in it for the longhaul. [Edit: Not that I'm saying the OP/gf are either of those!]

Marriage is both just a piece of paper and the biggest commitment you can make to any one person (other than raising a child). Getting married is kind of like saying I'll jump off that cliff with you, before you've realised just how high the cliff is, and that there really isn't any parachute strapped to your back.

 

[freiheit.1991]

I'm glad to see so many advices with different points of view, thanks to everyone. Currently I am trying to get a job here in Argentina so I can start saving money to face this process I think we will try the Visa K1 option so I will research more about that and hopefully it goes well.

I hope we have enough proof which shows that we have a true relationship to present in our case, I met my girlfriend in 2010 so we have been in a relationship for 3 years, however we only spent a few months together physically (in Argentina) and the rest of the time is through Skype or phone calls.

Thank you for helping again and any suggestion or advice is welcome!

 

[Peony54]

Freiheit.1991 - I hope things work out for you! As someone else that has passed a lot of their relationship long distance, it can be really tough, but it also can build a really strong bond! Best of luck!

 

[StuckLikeGlue]

I hope we have enough proof which shows that we have a true relationship to present in our case, I met my girlfriend in 2010 so we have been in a relationship for 3 years, however we only spent a few months together physically (in Argentina) and the rest of the time is through Skype or phone calls.

This reminded me of another thing.... to qualify for the K1 visa you need to have met in person at least once in the 2 years before you apply. So as long as you are planning a trip to visit one another at some point, you will have no problem applying! All of those Skype conversations and phone calls can be used as proof of your relationship so make sure to save them!

 

[freiheit.1991]

This reminded me of another thing.... to qualify for the K1 visa you need to have met in person at least once in the 2 years before you apply. So as long as you are planning a trip to visit one another at some point, you will have no problem applying! All of those Skype conversations and phone calls can be used as proof of your relationship so make sure to save them!

By the way, Do I need to present a paper showing that I work in Argentina or it is not necessary?

 

[StuckLikeGlue]

By the way, Do I need to present a paper showing that I work in Argentina or it is not necessary?

I don't think it will be something they ask you to bring, but it might be a good thing to have to prove that you have held a steady job despite your youth (i.e. you are also planning to work in the U.S. and not have your girlfriend support you).