What happens if i marry an illegal immigrant

It is simply not a procedural option for them. Similarly, if the U. But if the U. If adjustment is not an option, the only possibility is to apply for the green card through a different procedure, called "consular processing.

As if U. For example, someone who comes to the United States as a student, meets and marries a U. That's true even if the immigrant turns in the adjustment of status application after a visa overstay, perhaps long after graduating. The key is that the person didn't even know the future spouse, and thus could not have been secretly planning the wedding and green card application when applying for the visa and entering the United States.

For example, many people use B-2 tourist visas to come to the United States to meet their U. If they aren't sure about whether they want to get married, but end up marrying and applying for a green card, that's ordinarily okay.

But if they already planned to marry and were just using the tourist visa to make the process faster and easier, that's not okay. In fact, it's considered visa fraud, and can not only destroy the immigrant's eligibility for a green card, but for future visas to the United States.

Again, the only hope would be to consult an attorney and apply for a waiver. Consular processing is the alternative procedural path to adjustment of status. It involves the immigrant attending an interview at a U. An immigrant who has lived in the United States unlawfully, whether after an illegal entry or a visa overstay, and who then leaves the country for consular processing risks being penalized for the illegal stay.

The penalty is three years if the period of unlawful presence was days or more, and ten years if the period of unlawful stay was one year or more. It might be possible to file for a waiver before leaving using Form IA , which would allow a return with no time bar.

However, this only works if you have no other grounds of inadmissibility affecting your case. If you do, you'd need to wait until you were overseas and had attended your consular interview to seek the waiver, and it obviously could be denied.

A lawful entry is a requirement for virtually all adjustment of status cases. In other words, the immigrant must have been admitted or paroled into the United States. Typically, the foreign national must have entered the U. Generally, this happens at a port of entry airports, border crossing, etc. If the foreign national overstays a visa, the individual becomes unlawfully present. However, he or she still had a lawful entry. On the other hand, departing the United States after certain periods of unlawful presence will generally trigger bars to reentry for:.

This is why marriage to an undocumented immigrant who has departed the United States can actually make things more difficult. The most straight forward path to legal status for an undocumented individual is generally through marriage to a U. If you are not a U. The spouses of U.

Immediate relatives are exempted from certain rules that would otherwise prevent many applicants from obtaining permanent resident status green card. Because of this, an undocumented spouse of a U. As long as the foreign national did not depart the United States, the overstay can be a few days or several years. No special waivers are necessary for the overstay, provided that the green card applicant has proof of the lawful entry.

Citizen After a Visa Overstay. The application process for the spouse of a U. The typical adjustment of status package typically includes the following forms:.

Before receiving a green card, your spouse may obtain employment authorization in the form of a work permit. As an adjustment of status applicant, he or she is eligible to request work authorization. Upon approval, he or she will receive an employment authorization document EAD to use as a government-issued photo identification with employers.

When filed as a part of the adjustment of status package or while still pending , there is no additional USCIS filing fee. Generally, adjustment of status applicants may also reenter the United States after travel abroad if they have an approved advance parole document. However, applicants with any accumulated unlawful presence in the U.

We recommend speaking to an immigration attorney to address the specific situation of the applicant. When filed as part of the adjustment of status package or while still pending there is no additional USCIS filing fee.

If your foreign national spouse has spent more than six months days in the U. As discussed earlier, this is where the 3- or year bar could become a legal obstacle for the application.

If you are marrying an undocumented immigrant who entered without inspection, an unlawful presence waiver may be available. You should definitely see an attorney about your hope to immigrate based on marriage to a U. Such would-be immigrants might be permanently " inadmissible " to the United States. It doesn't matter that they are married to a U.

The only thing they can do is to wait ten years since they last left the U. If you have entered the U. That's because of a combination of factors. Second, if you leave the U. To avoid being punished by the time bars, you need to act carefully and quickly. You have three options to consider:. See whether you fit into an exception and can, in fact, apply to adjust your status to green card holder in the United States.

Leave the U. Your unlawful time is short enough that you should not have a problem in being granted the visa. The visa processing could mean many months of separation from your spouse while you wait overseas, but months of separation now might be better than three or ten years of separation later. Make sure you can prove that your unlawful U. When its time to apply for your immigrant visa at a U.

Collect and keep all evidence, such as your plane tickets, store receipts, medical records, credit card statements, and anything else relevant to show your dates of stay and departure.

If you have been in the U. Under USCIS rules, you can apply for this so-called " provisional waiver " before leaving the United States, provided you have no separate grounds of inadmissibility that will also require a waiver. Unfortunately, only certain people can gain approval of such waivers.