What happens if you find an American soul mate?

It is happening all the time. A man or woman comes to the United States for touristic purposes and falls in love with an American citizen. What is also happening is a man or woman decides to marry and comes to the U.S. with a tourist visa. Big difference!

It is illegal to come to the United States with tourist visa to get married

Here’s what happened: Gloria, a young attractive girl from Venezuela starts chatting with Paul, an intelligent new graduate American working for a Fortune 500 company in Chicago. Paul flies to Brazil for business and takes a few days of his annual leave to go to Venezuela to meet Gloria for the first time.

Paul proposes to Gloria on his last day in Venezuela. They decide to get married in July, two months later. Considering that getting a tourist visa would be easier and simpler, Gloria applies for a tourist visa from the consular section of the Embassy of the United States in Caracas.

Responding to custom officer’s question for her stay in the United States, Gloria tells that she will stay at Paul’s home and get married in few weeks. That’s the end of Gloria’s story! The U.S. Customs Officer asks her to go back to her country with the first flight. That was a nightmare for Gloria. What she didn’t know was the fact that one cannot use tourist visa for any other purpose, including for getting married in the United States. What a costly mistake!

Christina gets married an American citizen while on a tour to Las Vegas

In contrast to what happened to Gloria, Christina successfully gets married in Las Vegas without knowing anything about immigration laws. After getting back to Las Vegas from Grand Canyon trip, Christina meets David who was sitting next to her at Cirque du Soleil show. Accepting David’s offer to have dinner, they fall in love to each other. Two days later, Christina and David get married in Las Vegas.

Legitimate use of tourist visa

Christina stayed in the United States with no problem as she didn’t know that her touristic visit would result in a marriage. So, she did not face any legal problem. David requested certified translation of Christina’s birth certificate in order to apply for Green Card for her. Christina received her labor certification in 35 days, allowing her to legally work in the United States. Christina was invited to have her photograph and fingerprints taken at local immigration office. Now, they are waiting for an interview at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).