Kaleem

I have a very basic question.Probably somebody will answer it. If a person entered into USA legally on tourist visa but later on becomes out of staus for more than 6 months. If he now marries a US citizen. Can he change his status to permanent resident without leaving the country?

Andy Platt

"Kaleem" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I have a very basic question.Probably somebody will answer it. If a person entered
    > into USA legally on tourist visa but later on becomes out of staus for more than 6
    > months. If he now marries a US citizen. Can he change his status to permanent
    > resident without leaving the country?

Technically it's "adjust" status - change of status is from one non-immigrant
category to another. However, yes a person who entered legally may adjust status
based on marriage to a US citizen, so long as other factors (medical, criminal,
etc) are not an issue. Since he's been out of status for more than six months he
will be stuck in the US during the processing because to leave the US would trigger
a ban of three years on re-entering (this goes up to ten years when out of status
for a year or more). However, he would be eligible to get employment authorization
during this time.

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination.

Kaleem

Thank you any for the detailed and easy to understand answer.