Fiance expired visa and honeymoon travel

[LancePowers]

Ok, here's the whole situation. I'm a natural born US citizen, and I'm marrying my long-time girlfriend from Estonia who has been living in the US for about 7 years on an expired visa. The rest of her family now have their green cards since her mom got married to a citizen, but she got screwed out of the deal since she was 18 when they were married, and her younger brothers were able to get their green cards. Some luck being the firstborn, huh? She has applied for a green card through her mom now, but they still haven't got around to her app in over a year.

So, we're getting married in a few months. We were hoping she would already have her green card by now, but obviously it won't happen. So we're applying ASAP as soon as we get married.

So finally, here's the question. Is there any way we can fly to Hawaii without getting her into trouble? I know the TSA is checking foreign passports for visa stamps now, which she doesn't have with her renewed estonian passport anyway. But I've heard the horror stories of illegals getting secondaried and arrested by customs after the TSA agent checks up on their immigration status. Is there any kind of fiance visa or otherwise we can get for her just so we can fly somewhere for our honeymoon? And please don't tell me to just fly anyway, because I'm not going to risk her getting caught and jeopardizing her naturalization. If there is any legal remedy out there, please let me know! Otherwise, it's a train ride to key west for us...

[darko]

Lancepowers,

Obviously no one is going to tell you to "fly anyway", because if there is immigration check your will not just have 'problems' she will simply be denied entry. Why do you even think she will be let in if she is illegal immigrant?

The best thing for you to do is to apply for permanent residence based on marriage and then she should get work authorization and travel permit within about 3 months while her application is pending. Even then she should not travel before she receives green card I think as she will trigger 10 year ban once she leaves US border.

[LancePowers]

I'm flying domestically, not international. Yeah, we're applying for residency for her as soon as we get married, so I was wondering if there was anything I could do so she could at least fly domestically without trouble while the application is being submitted.

[darko]

I'm flying domestically, not international. Yeah, we're applying for residency for her as soon as we get married, so I was wondering if there was anything I could do so she could at least fly domestically without trouble while the application is being submitted.

I am not sure about Hawaii, but for regular domestic flights there are no immigration checks... I personally do not know what happens if you use foreign passport and whether they will look at your immigration status since I use Drivers license, but I seriously doubt that airline employees have anything to do with checking your immigration status in domestic flights...

I bet someone in this forum may tell you though.

[LancePowers]

I've heard horror stories about it happening, and read articles saying TSA is going to be cracking down on looking at foreign passports even on a domestic flight. 9/11 changed everything...but I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here. I feel bad for the people who have tried to emigrate legally and are held up by all of this red tape.