Mountain View, CA Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

You had better leave immediately. Once you overstay for more than 180 days you will be barred from returning for 3 years. If you overstay for more than a year you will be barred for 10 years. Leave the US and file a petition through your new spouse. Speak to an attorney for more details.

If you are a U. S. citizen, and assuming that you have met within the past 2 years, your choice is either to petition for your fiancée under a K-1 visa or marry her and petition for her immigrant visa under an I-130 petition for alien relative. I-130 petition processing is usually longer than K-1 visa processing by at least a few months, but marrying and petitioning for an immigrant visa simplifies matters when the spouse enters the U. S. Under K-1 entry, the spouse must still put in papers to adjust status to permanent residence. Under entry with an immigrant visa, the spouse already has green card status when he or she enters the country. If you are not a U. S. citizen, you are not given the choice, and must marry and petition for your spouse under the I-130 petition. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.  

It would be a mistake to regard the Obama Administration's new focus on "high priority cases" to be an "administrative amnesty" or to foretell a future "administrative amnesty." The new process simply allocates limited immigration enforcement resources to focus on criminal aliens and repeat immigration violators, and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion through this process does not provide anyone with permanent lawful status. It is up to Congress to pass much-needed Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and if it is wise enough to do so, CIR will include a pathway for violators to pay some penalty, get "in line" and eventually be able to "fix" their immigration status. And even that would not constitute "amnesty," since it principally would change the penalty from removal/deportation to a financial payment and a significant wait.