Visa options for a U.S. citizen marrying a German

So it looks like I have a couple options, but I need some advice.
I am an American and I have been living in Germany with my German fiancee on an extended 6 month temporary visa.
I was offered a job here several months ago and have been waiting for my work permit. After about 4 months of waiting, (and reassurance from te office of work that it was "in the mail...")i came to find out that my permit was declined. We're still trying to figure out why, since I was offered employment and we thought all the paperwork was completed and submitted and all the i's dotted and t's crossed, but regardless, it still boils down to me having one month left to stay. Not to mention, i'm broke since I have not been legally able to work for 4 months. I should also add that she is pregnant and due in May, so it also adds a couple more layers of complexity to my story. The ultimate goal was for us both to move back to the States after the baby is born and old enough to travel, then apply for her US visa.

As I see it, currently our options are:

1. Hop off to Denmark and get married and hope there is enough time to be eligible for residency before I am required to leave, so I can stay and be with her during the pregnancy.
Once you are married, is residency automatically granted, even if no work visa is granted?
Does this residency require a long paperwork wait time?

2. Marry in Denmark then Return to the states to apply for her visa, then bring her over after the baby is born.
Seems logical, but then I am away from my pregnant wife and that would suck...

3. We both go to the States now, marry in the US and apply for the visa immediately.
I'm having a hard time finding out if a US citizen can marry a non US citizen in the US.

Thoughts? Advice?

That works. My sister did a quickie marriage in Reno with no problems. Shes Irish and her fella is Californian. It took a while then for the green card (in order to work!) to come through but in the end that was only a little bureauracry.

A coworker of mine did this to avoid the red tape here. She is American and he is German. She suggested this to me, so yes you can do it. She said she did it all in about a week. This was about 3 years ago.

Yes, you can marry in the US. We almost did this last year to avoid red tape (my husband is German). It's much, much easier.

"Automatically," no, you have to apply. But there's then little in your way. I think it took me a few weeks, but I took breaks and ate and slept and stuff.
The work visa, not sure how it works now, but there shouldn't be a further waiting period. I had to go to the Arbeitsamt, show them my residency, and get them to fill out a form saying I was ok. Now it's printed in my permit.


I'm not seeing the logic in that approach to paperwork.
Further - and more crucial to your sanity - a woman in the later stages of pregnancy is generally not amused when the man toddles off. Even if it's all for a good reason. Just trust me on this one.


See, you =can=. But then you're asking her to give birth in a U.S. hospital. Unless you're dead-set on your kid becoming president, why not have the kid here?

You do know that you can start her paperwork here, right? It can be LOTS faster, more efficient etc than doing it in the U.S.

Why not marry (in Denmark I guess, to avoid flying during pregnancy - Fribble is right, it's easier in the U.S.), get your paperwork, start her paperwork (you'll need to prove you can sponsor her in the U.S.) and take it from there?

www.elvischapel.com
I married my second wife there. It was much cheaper then but now it can cost maybe $150.

From having gone through somethimng similar, I would advise you to fly to the US while she is not showing (or at least has her belly well-covered by winter clothing), then get married there within 90 days of arrival, and then apply for an Adjustment of Status, i.e., apply for permanent residence. She is more likely to get rejected by US immigration at the airport if she shows up alone with a baby and unmarried, especially if she says she is coming to the US to get married. I also suggest consulting an immigration attorney in the US to be sure, as your experience may be somewhat different than mine. You should have no problems whatsoever getting married in the US.

According to what the INS told me, they'd want a fiancee visa application from you guys for her to marry you in the states, at least if you're planning on living there.

You don't need the fiancee visa thing if you don't intend to live there. At least that's what NYC told us when we looked into it.

I don't get this point of view at all. I didn't personally give birth in a US hospital, but I've heard it's not any worse than giving birth in a German one.

Anyway, he didn't say that they'd stay in the US after getting married. They could come right back and have the baby in Germany while his German visa's being processed. If he is forced to leave Germany and then she comes over to the US with the baby, they'll already be married and she should have no trouble with US immigration authorities.

Yes, but the OP said they were planning on living in the US:




By the way, the INS told me (in 2006) that it was at least a three month wait on the fiance/e visa. And they'd want proof that you'd seen each other in the last six months (not much of a problem for you guys, I'm guessing).

(I didn't need it, it turns out, although it took hours on the phone with them to convince them that just because we were getting married in the US didn't mean that we were going to stay there to live.)

Having gone through this (albeit just prior to 9/11), I would suggest avoiding the fiancee visa. It is an extra expense, and you will already be paying steeply for her green card, plus the three-month wait sounds very unrealistic to me. As mentioned earlier, I would think that the OP and his bride-to-be could do a petition for Adjustment of Status after you marry in the US, with her coming over via visa waiver. The fiancee visa is typically only used by people who would require a visa to enter the US in the first place. i.e., those from non-Visa Waiver countries.

BTW, since you mentioned being broke, you may want to look into whether or not you will be able to bring your bride-to-be to the US without a joint sponsor for her since it doesn't sound like you will be able to support her if you go the fiancee visa route (this is a prerequisite for approval). Of course, if memory serves me correctly, you will have to prove income for the past three years as well as part of your application for her green card. At any rate, check on all this with an immigration attorney in the US before you make any grand plans. I think if you get married to her in Denmark you will still end up having to apply for a relative visa for her, once again proving you and your joint sponsor can support her.

YOU CANNOT CHANGE YOUR STATUS on a tourist visa after you get married to a US Citizen in the US. You can get married to a US Citizen and and stay for 90 day's but you have to leave the country and apply for the proper Visa before the foreign spouse can stay. If you apply for the fiance visa and you enter the US on the Fiance Visa then you can apply for adjustment of status and legally stay in the US.

If you get married out of the US and you file the I130 - petition for alien relative - then they can also have the right to work included in this.

Don't listen to these people telling you to go the US and get married and change her status - the immigration folks will not think its funny and may in fact deport your wife and your child because you didn't follow the laws. SO don't do it unless you want her to be an illegal.

Oh - nothing to do with quality or service. Just ... not every woman is pioneer and okay with giving birth in a foreign-and-new-to-her hospital.

She won't have a tourist visa because she is a German citizen, and thus can enter on a Visa Waiver. She wouldn't be illegal unless she applied for permanent residence via Adjustment of Status more than 90 days after entering the US. From my own experience, I find it very unlikely she would be deported, but since there is theoretically that chance, I suggested speaking with an immigration attorney. If someone knows the details of an instance where a spouse of a US citizen was deported for this very reason, let's hear it. Till then, I'll go by what my own experience was and what I read and researched on the subject prior to doing the Adjustment of Status.