jeffreyhy

Excellent question!

One arguably valid answer would be when you changed your mind and decided to immigrate, but there are undoubtedly other answers that could be put forth as well.

Another possible answer, that could be strongly defended, would be when your I-485 is approved granting you PR status.

Regards, JEff

Johnny5isAlive

I like that one!!!!

ian-mstm

I've got to chuckle at this... another person who believes the 30/60 rule applies to them.


You should know that you still have an address in the UK where you are living. Until you actually file the AOS forms *and* they are accepted, you are *VISITING* the US. You are not yet living here.


If we had a dollar for every person who comes here looking for answers who believes this, we'd all be able to retire.

Ian

Johnny5isAlive

no disrespect intended but are you a lawyer?

Duncan Roberts

Some things.

1. I never said this was illegal.
2. When you sign the visa waiver document there is text in there that says you are agreeing not to adjust your status while you are on it. There is not additional text saying that if you decide to get married on a whim that this piece of the agreement is null.
3. USCIS is federal law not state and while they may forgive or overlook certain things it doesn't mean that they are allowed or they will forgive them 100% of the time.
4. The one lawyer who advocates this method of immigration heavily also makes it very clear that if you attempt to do this without a lawyer doing the application you run a good risk fo very bad things happening.
5. You also signed away your right to appeal any immigration decision. This is a big thing because if you get something slightly wrong or things don't wor out, you have no right to appeal the decision.

Really I don't care either way. It will either work out fine for you or it won't but neither will impact my life one bit. I was just trying to give a little helpful advice so you don't shoot yourself in the foot. If you don't want to listen or think it's untrue that's fine.

Johnny5isAlive

didn't mean to offend, Heard so many bad things and the lawyer made it sound a lot easier than we thought. At first the stress was getting so bad cause we thought it was impossible.

ian-mstm

No, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express either. What's your point?

I'm willing to bet good money that your lawyer has only ever pushed paper, and has never actually been through the immigration process. I have. So have countless others here. We have practical, working knowledge of the system... your lawyer has only theory about how things are supposed to work. We know how they actually do work.


Do you know why adjusting status from the VWP is a bad idea? It's because if something goes wrong and your adjustment is denied, there is *no* appeal process whatsoever. You signed away *all* your rights when you signed the green I-94W. To be fair, things usually work out okay... but when they go wrong, they go very horribly wrong and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Ian

Duncan Roberts

It's not impossible but it has risk, much more than any other marriage based greencard application. Plus you have the fact that if it does go wrong you will be hit with an overstay on the VWP which depending on how long it takes you to submit the application and how long the application takes could give you a very lengthy ban from the US. It's not easy, you will be questioned a lot about everything and you will have to prove that you had no intent to get married when you came over. That is a hard thing to do (how do you intend to prove you had no intent?) and where a lawyer who has successful experience (you need to ask for cases that he has done that have been approved) with this kind of application will be invaluable. And to re-iterate. You have already signed away all your rights to an appeal process and there is nothing you can do to get them back other than leave and file an application for an immigrant visa.

Johnny5isAlive

thanks for the advice I will talk to my other half, Me personally would prefer to go through a lawyer but its a case of not having the money.

Thanks for all the help and info..

Duncan Roberts

In this kind of situation, it's money well spent because it will cost far more in the long run if it goes wrong.

TracyTN

The OP doesn't sound overly concerned about the outcome - he said they'd just go back to the UK if he is denied (I think it was phrased more as 'my wife will follow me'). Hopefully that is a feasible option for his wife.

crosscountryrider

Hey
I did the same route in PR like many others in this forum. I would definitely retain your lawyer. Maybe you can work out something out regarding a payment plan.

Also attorneys got hit by the recession and are willing to negotiate.

Also I would check his references and make sure that he is specialized in Immigration law.

The lawyer will help to file the paperwork properly and avoiding RFE's which will delay your AOS process.

If you choose to file by yourself make absolutely sure that file before your

90 day VWP stay period will expire.

Any overstay without filing AOS will add risks to your application.

You also have a plan B - you will be just fine.

Kind Regards
CCR