US Citizen Marrying a Polish Citizen

I have a question, my fiancee is a polish citizen that has been here the last 3 summers working on Student J-1 visa. I proposed to her this last summer and she accepted. She will be returning to the US for the summer program again next year and we would like to know what our options are for marriage. She has expressed the desire to get married while she is here and then see what we would have to do for her visa. I cannot find alot of information available and hope someone can get us started on what to do or where to look. Any help would be appreciated. Have a great day.

dhs.gov/index.shtm

I was wondering what effect we may have to deal with if we marry while she is here on her J-1 Visa. Has anyone gone through this?

have you looked on that website.. i bet all the answers to all you questions are there somewhere.

Yes I did, no specific things about being in US on a J-1 visa. And what effect it would be on her change of staus. Sorry, I will continue to search. Thanks for the link, I needed that. I was hoping to hear from others that may have experienced the same situation and what they dealt with.

Her current status is not important.

I would get a good immigration attorney. He/she can tell you what you need to know.

Here is some more info

travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1315.html

We had this topic and you can find some good information here too.

https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/usa-canada/getting-fiance-10953/

Thank you all for your info. I am on the right track. Your help is appreciated.

I married my wife like that while she was visiting me. You
most likely to need to hire an immigration lawyer. This is what you should do.
Call up and make an appointment for consultation with lawyer. They probably charge you around $200/hr or so. Initial consultation should not take
more than an hour. You go in and tell your situation ,then basically lawyer
would tell you the possibility of the case (possible or not), total fee of processing
your case, length of your case etc. To make this possible, first you need to marry her.(not right after she comes, timing is key) Secondly, she did not

know that you were going to ask to marry her.(Purpose of her coming from Poland was not to marry you) Good luck ,we were visiting beautiful Poland

few month ago and hopefully to move there soon.

I was in the same situation. I got married to the US citizen last year. I also had J-1 visa. We went through real hell.The most important thing is to check what kind of J-1 it is. there are two.

If it says she is not subject to a 2-year home residency requirement u r all set- no problems at all.
If it says she is subject (which i was subject to) it means that after her summer program is over she HAS TO return home for 2 years- no matter what- married or with kids- she has to go home unless u get a waiver (which is extremely hard to get).

so the most important is to check if she is or has ever been subject to this requirement.
if she is on her visa form it will say what makes her subject. it can be:
1. her summer program is sponsored by us government - then u can try getting waiver based on hardship to US citizen (u need to have good reasons cuz sometimes marriages with kids were denied) if u have some medical conditions it could save u (like it saved me and my husband)

2.she is subject to because of skills list and if there was no gov funding involved u can apply for waiver based on no- objection letter from polish embassy or again try hardship (which can take u even 10 months)

3 if she comes here as a physician- u can forget it. she has to go home.

it is a complicated process. First u have to apply to Dep. of State- cuz they issued the visa. they give a recommendation (favourable or not) which is sent to Immigration. Immigration makes the final decision.

if Dep of state agrees and Immig doesn't u can appeal
if dap of state disagrees and Immigr doesn't u cannot appeal

if u need more info contact me, please
pierniczek

Thank you all, we have discussed and at this point we are going to wait to apply for fiancee visa after she completes her work/travel program and returns to Poland. Then she can finish her studies by the time the visa is completed. We hope to have less issues this way and we can prove the validity of the relationship. So possibly the best way for our needs.

good idea ALMcCoy... good luck :)

Thank you, your wishes are welcomed.

My advice is to make an illigal entry and hide. This summer (2007) I was deported
from the US for studying there. I was jailed in Florence Arizona for 2 months.
I am really German, but there was a Polish guy with me bed next to me.
He told me INS found him becouse he filled the petition for PR on marriage
with US citizen. He later divorced but they had his address and in July
arrested him at home and brought to me.

Before may deportation my visa sequence was F1-H1B-B1-H1B-B1 for about
15 years. The marriage
visa (fiancee) is K. This guy was pretty heavy. The bads have matresses only 3 inches
and are hard. Also we slept on the floor sometimes.
He developed skin bleeding becouse of it.

Did you talk to a lawyer? This is the best course of action in my opinion. That way, no lies are necessary at the border. She can happily declare that she is coming to marry you. No twisted explanations of "spur of the moment" plans during your interview.

After you get married, file the necessary immigration forms (e.g. Form I-485) to switch her status from J-1 to Pending. While she is in the Pending status, she is allowed to stay in the country until her application is either denied or approved. However, she cannot leave the country during this waiting period unless you file an emergency leave form or until she gets her conditional green card.

NOTE: I am not a lawyer, so don't take what I'm saying as legal advice.