From Canada to the US

[Jaidyn]

Hello. I just had a few questions. My fiance (who is a legal Canadian Citizen) wants to come here to be with me and get married. I'm a legal US citizen (born here). I've been with him for a year and I tried to move to Canada, was there for a month, before I had to leave because my Vistor Visa was up.

Due to family issues, he has to move here in 2 months. I was wondering what the best way to handle his green card would be. I read that he should come here, we should get married, and I should apply to sponser him so he can get his green card.

Is this true?
If so, will he be able to legally stay here with me while waiting for his green card?
Will he be able to work in this time? If not, will he be able to apply for a work permit while waiting on his green card?
And finally, how much does a green card cost and how long will the wait generally be?

I greatly appreciate any answers and thank you for your time.

[cartaverde]

Hi,

Either K1 .. which takes a long time.

Or .. he gets over to see you, for OTHER purpose than getting married if asked anywhere, and then you get married, and file for adjustment of status. And wait. So if he flies, he should have a return ticket, possibly show proof that he will return to Canada (work, family ties, rent or accommodation proof etc to show that he intends to return there).

[Jaidyn]

But won't it still look like he came with the intention to marry me even if he comes without that intention and we did anyway?

[cartaverde]

The thing is at the border .. if they ask why he is coming to the states, if his official purpose of visit does not mention words like 'marriage, married, wedding, spouse, fiancee, stay' but explains how is is going to do some shopping, go to a conference, do a 2 week holiday with his friends or by himself, that is for them an entirely different mindset.
If he says that he is coming to get married with you, then they may kick him out if he comes without K1 visa. That can take a long time to get, so it should be faster to just do the visit for other reasons and get it done on the same. So still do some work conference, do whatever shopping and holiday needed to be done, and then get married. That way he doesn't have to lie to them if they ask, so the purpose will still be conference/shopping/visiting friends/holiday etc.

[Marco 72]

There are two problems with this: first, once he comes over and gets married, he won't be able to leave the country until his adjustment of status is finalised without creating a big mess (possibly being banned for overstaying). Second, when he adjusts status they may ask him to provide proof that he did not intend to stay when he came over. Up to you if you want to risk it... You may want to ask for advice here as well. It's a forum on marriage based visas to the US. Good luck.

[Jaidyn]

Well he doesn't plan on going back to Canada for a good long time. And when he does it would be both of us going there to see some of his family.

I don't know how he would prove to them that he didn't intend on staying. Since his work would never take him to the states for any reason, I suppose he should just say that he's visiting a friend (me) for awhile?

I had a horrible time crossing into Canada when I did because I didn't have a return ticket. But due to the holidays I suppose they took pity on me and let me stay for Christmas. I don't want him to have to go through the same horror I did.

[Marco 72]

I don't know how he would prove to them that he didn't intend on staying.

The usual way is to show that when he travelled to the US he had a job to go back to (letter of employment, pay slips) and a place to go back to (e.g. rental agreement). If he quit his job just before going to the US, that's a sign he lied to immigration about coming over for a visit, and he could get into trouble for that.