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Hello everyone!
My girlfriend and I are hoping to get married sometime in the next year or so, and I've just started looking into the immigration nightmare that we are going to have to go through. I have a bazillion questions, but my biggest problem right now is figuring out 1) when we should get married, and 2) what path we need to take to stay together (fiancé visa or green card? apply in the U.S. or outside? etc.)
Can you help?
Here's our situation: (I'm gonna try to keep it as simple, but complete as possible)
I'm American (citizen by birth) and my girlfriend is Brazilian. We are both 29 years old, both girls, never married before, no children, no problems with the law, decent finances, etc.
We both live and work in South Korea. I am a professor, she is an engineer. I have been in Korea for 6.5 years, my gf has been in Korea for 3.5 years.
We have been dating for about 1.5 years.
We cannot get married in Korea (Korea doesn't recognize same-sex marriage).
I'm confused about whether or not I have a "permanent residence" in the U.S. I consider my dad's house in IL to be my permanent residence, but I do not pay rent or any utilities. My voter registration and driver's license both list my dad's house as my address. (but I don't know if this counts since I have been living in Korea for so long)
We have a little bit of a problem.
My girlfriend's company is going to transfer her back to Brazil in the fall of 2015. She doesn't want to go back to Brazil, and from what I can see, there aren't many job opportunities for me in Brazil. As a result, we have been looking for jobs all over the place, and we've come to the conclusion that the U.S. might be the best place for us to go. A lot of jobs in her field won't sponsor her for a work visa, and so we've started looking into marriage (just to prevent any confusion- we want to get married anyway, but we might do so a little sooner than expected because of the work/immigration problem).
We are currently in Brazil on vacation. We will be here for two weeks, and then we're going to the U.S. for two weeks (meeting her family in Brazil, and then meeting my family in the U.S.).
From what I can see, these are our options:
1) Getting married in two weeks in the U.S. Then either apply for a green card in the U.S. (though I'm not sure if this is possible since we will only be there for two weeks) OR when we get back to Korea (but it seems like this could also be a problem since I don't live in the U.S./may not have a permanent residence). It's also worth pointing out that if we return to the U.S. next fall, we won't return to my dad's house in IL. We'll probably go to Texas (where most of the jobs in my gf's field are). I also worry about our job situation... because we both have jobs now, but both are outside of the U.S. and we will both be looking for new jobs.
2) Not get married yet and instead apply for a fiancé visa when we get back to Korea. From what I understand, this would allow us to both come to the U.S. next fall and work (although she would have to apply for a separate permission to work), and then we would have to get married within 90 days of arriving in the U.S. With this however, I'm worried that some of the jobs/companies won't hire her because of a somewhat "uncertain" immigration status.
All we want to do is stay together, find good jobs, and move to the U.S. Is this really impossible?
Can anyone give us some advice?
Thank you so much!
Dee and Em
My girlfriend and I are hoping to get married sometime in the next year or so, and I've just started looking into the immigration nightmare that we are going to have to go through. I have a bazillion questions, but my biggest problem right now is figuring out 1) when we should get married, and 2) what path we need to take to stay together (fiancé visa or green card? apply in the U.S. or outside? etc.)
Can you help?
Here's our situation: (I'm gonna try to keep it as simple, but complete as possible)
I'm American (citizen by birth) and my girlfriend is Brazilian. We are both 29 years old, both girls, never married before, no children, no problems with the law, decent finances, etc.
We both live and work in South Korea. I am a professor, she is an engineer. I have been in Korea for 6.5 years, my gf has been in Korea for 3.5 years.
We have been dating for about 1.5 years.
We cannot get married in Korea (Korea doesn't recognize same-sex marriage).
I'm confused about whether or not I have a "permanent residence" in the U.S. I consider my dad's house in IL to be my permanent residence, but I do not pay rent or any utilities. My voter registration and driver's license both list my dad's house as my address. (but I don't know if this counts since I have been living in Korea for so long)
We have a little bit of a problem.
My girlfriend's company is going to transfer her back to Brazil in the fall of 2015. She doesn't want to go back to Brazil, and from what I can see, there aren't many job opportunities for me in Brazil. As a result, we have been looking for jobs all over the place, and we've come to the conclusion that the U.S. might be the best place for us to go. A lot of jobs in her field won't sponsor her for a work visa, and so we've started looking into marriage (just to prevent any confusion- we want to get married anyway, but we might do so a little sooner than expected because of the work/immigration problem).
We are currently in Brazil on vacation. We will be here for two weeks, and then we're going to the U.S. for two weeks (meeting her family in Brazil, and then meeting my family in the U.S.).
From what I can see, these are our options:
1) Getting married in two weeks in the U.S. Then either apply for a green card in the U.S. (though I'm not sure if this is possible since we will only be there for two weeks) OR when we get back to Korea (but it seems like this could also be a problem since I don't live in the U.S./may not have a permanent residence). It's also worth pointing out that if we return to the U.S. next fall, we won't return to my dad's house in IL. We'll probably go to Texas (where most of the jobs in my gf's field are). I also worry about our job situation... because we both have jobs now, but both are outside of the U.S. and we will both be looking for new jobs.
2) Not get married yet and instead apply for a fiancé visa when we get back to Korea. From what I understand, this would allow us to both come to the U.S. next fall and work (although she would have to apply for a separate permission to work), and then we would have to get married within 90 days of arriving in the U.S. With this however, I'm worried that some of the jobs/companies won't hire her because of a somewhat "uncertain" immigration status.
All we want to do is stay together, find good jobs, and move to the U.S. Is this really impossible?
Can anyone give us some advice?
Thank you so much!
Dee and Em
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