Me & Girlfriend want to move to US - unusual circumstanc

[MidnightPorscheRacer]

Hello all,
I'm new here and this is my first time on any immigration/emigration forum so please be nice!

I will try to be brief and hopefully you can point me in the right direction...

I'm 30 years old and my girlfriend is 25, and we have decided to head for the USA if possible, as we both like what we have seen there on our holidays and suchlike.
I'm a UK citizen with a British passport as I was born here to English parents, but her situation is a bit different: she was born in the US but moved here at a young age (her parents moved there to work for a company in the 1980's during which time she was born). She has 'grown up' in the UK to English parents, but she has an American birth certificate and an American passport, but it's well out of date and hasn't been renewed.

Now he question is.. How can we move there and have us both living/working legally indefinitely?

Firstly, will she be ok over there with no additional paperwork so to speak, and next, what will I need to do?

We have been together a number of years so if we have to get married over there then we will do! (I'll offer her a $39.95 drive through Vegas wedding!...)

We fortunately have enough cash/assets that we any need to work for a year or so, and could also buy a property there mortgage free. But we couldn't be there indefinitely without sorting out our residency issues.

Someone I know suggested moving there under the cover of 'tourists' and simply overstaying until we sort it out but I really don't fancy that!
My cousin, who lives in the US and is married to a US citizen told me that if I married my girlfriend in the US then I wouldn't become a US citizen, but because I was married to one, they couldn't kick me out. But I don't know how true his is?
Any advice greatfully appreciated and feel free to ask me any questions if it will help give an answer.

Thanks

[Marco 72]

The information/advice you have been given is wrong. Moving over there by going in as tourists and "sorting things out" later can create big problems, and you can certainly be deported even if you are married to a US citizen. It happens all the time.

Your girlfriend needs a valid US passport to travel to the US. If she was born in the US she is still a US citizen, unless either one of her parents was a diplomat at the time of her birth. In order to petition for you, she also needs to file her US tax returns, which she probably hasn't been doing all these years. She should contact a US tax consultant to get some guidance.

About the visa application process itself, I recommend you post in the following forum:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35

[MidnightPorscheRacer]

Thanks for the reply.

The person that gave me all that bad information was actually my cousin who lives in the US and has done for about 15 years! She moved there as a student and then simply stayed after her course... she lived and worked illegally for about 7 years, and in that time got issued a drivers licence and even a tax number by the local authorities in Colorado! She then got married to an American guy which, she says, instantly resolved any issues of getting kicked out of the country. 6 years on from that they have now a 5 year old child together and her status is as a permanent resident and has been since they got married apparently.
She travels freely back to the UK to visit every couple of years or so.

I will tell her off for giving me bad information!

Anyway, back to the point: My girlfriend has a US birth certificate and a lapsed US passport which I presume she can renew at the US embassy in London?

She was not born to Diplomatic parents or anything like that, just born whilst her parents were legally living and working there for many years.

Neither me nor her have ever even considered that she might have to pay US tax on her earnings over here as she has pretty much always been here and didn't really consider her status as a dual-citizen.

Filing and paying her back taxes in the USA wont really be an issue as she hasn't really worked much at all. Was a student for most of the time and the rest was a cross between a lady of leisure and a stable hand, which wont have earned her much at all...

So... assuming we sort out her tax and she renews her passport as a US citizen, there is nothing stopping her simply moving there and living/working, and I guess if we got married (even in this country?) I could then apply to live there with her as the partner of a legal US citizen?

[Marco 72]

Again, the information you have been given is wrong. Marrying a US citizen does not automatically allow you to stay in the US. Your cousin must have applied for Adjustment of Status (AOS) after she got married, otherwise she would never have become a permanent resident. If your AOS is approved your illegal stay is "forgiven", however you cannot enter the US as a tourist if your intention is to file for AOS.

[Bree]

I'd suggest your girlfriend should get her passport renewed asap, she's still a US-citizen after all so she should be able to re-enter the US without complications.
If you decide to get married you definitely have to fill out some paperwork before you'll be allowed to stay there as a permanent resident as well. I suggest you check the USCIS site for detailed information...