OP here. An update. She left for home this week despite her boyfriend urging her to stay. Good for her. We will miss her terribly.

Op, the 2 year rule applies to if you want to come back to the US as an au pair.

Anonymous wrote:She won't be able to stay and just get married and have everything be ok. That part isn't correct. She would need to leave the country and be re-admitted on a "fiancee visa" or something else like that. Her having overstayed her visa will count against her here and make life much more difficult.

Nah that’s not true. If she stays illegal and get married later on she will be just fine. Know at least few girls who have done it within the last few years.

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't someone just come on a travel visa and get married, instead of waiting for the fiancée visa?

Because you run into the same problem as with getting married while still legally in country on the J1 - you cannot (are not supposed to) get married on a non-immigrant visa.
Yes, they can get married but officially she'd then have to leave again, apply for a spousal visa and wait until that is granted before she could move back to the US.

Also four options -
a) she doesn't get questioned about why she is coming to the US when entering on her tourist visa
b) she gets asked why she is coming to the US when entering, tells the truth, shows return flight home & binding ties, and gets admitted
c) she gets asked why she is coming to the US when entering, tells the truth (can or cannot show return flight & binding ties), and does not get admitted
d) she gets asked why she is coming to the US when entering, lies and may or may not get admitted

To get married in the US and stay immediately you need a K1. My understanding is that the smartes move is to get married (in the US or abroad) and then apply for a CR1 because she'd be allowed to work right on arrival (while K1 takes time after arriving in the US and after getting married).

Getting married is not the problem, staying is. They could try to adjust her status if she came to the US legally (J visa, F visa, B visa, ESTA/VWP) but they will most likely run into the problem of possibly having entered the US with immigrant intent on a non-immigrant visa. If they didn't know each other before she came to the US on her J1 they would at least be able to argue that she didn't enter the US with immigrant intent. Coming on a tourist visa and getting married opens different problems. If AOS when married to a citizen when in the country illegally is now problematic (which it didn't used to be) getting married on a non-immigrant visa (and staying!) will most likely also be. If he doesn't want to marry her now and they want to go the 'correct' way it simply does take time (months to years, depending on route they take).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't someone just come on a travel visa and get married, instead of waiting for the fiancée visa?

Because you nerd a marriage license THIS I'd required:

When applying for a marriage license in US current photo identification such as a driver’s license or passport; proof of citizenship and/or residence;

Times have changed folks. The fiance visa is required.

PP is wrong. Fiancee visa is for 3 mos and you cant work. Only advantage is you can leave and come back in that 3 months.
3 month tourist waiver actually makes more sense.

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't someone just come on a travel visa and get married, instead of waiting for the fiancée visa?

Because you nerd a marriage license THIS I'd required:

When applying for a marriage license in US current photo identification such as a driver’s license or passport; proof of citizenship and/or residence;

Times have changed folks. The fiance visa is required.

Anonymous wrote: Thanks for the info. Although I am not sure I want to tell her it!

I don't think it is right that she will have a problem if she gets married. Illegal immigrants get married to US citizens all the time. Pretty sure it makes them legal (after the paperwork) with no consequences.

And I don't think the fiancée visa option is a good one these days. It could take many months to get back here. I am not sure though. Anyone have experience? Also, once she goes home, doesn't she have to wait at least 1-2 years to apply for another visa of some kind?

You shouldn't be giving her advice. You are wrong on all counts.

My former AP returned on a 3 month tourist visa 1 month after returning home.

Anonymous wrote:She won't be able to stay and just get married and have everything be ok. That part isn't correct. She would need to leave the country and be re-admitted on a "fiancee visa" or something else like that. Her having overstayed her visa will count against her here and make life much more difficult.

This this this.

She need to apply for the fiance visa IN HER COUNTRY.

If she overstays she won't be allowed back in. Ever. Is she completely ignorant to the news and our immigration issues?

I was an au pair and did this. I actually went home after my year but came back 6 weeks later.
I also managed to find live in Nanny jobs fairly easily, I had a social sec number so could pay taxes which I did.
When I got married years later it did not count against me that I had been here illegally.
I got my Citizenship a few years later.


If she doesnt a fiancee visa she is still not allowed to work, it makes more sense to stay. Or she could go home and come back. She would just need to buy a roundtrip ticket to show that she is not staying here.

Well you could do that, but it’s against the law if you do that deliberately. I was afraid to break the law or be sent back if I told
Them I was coming to visit my fiancé. The USA embassy could not guarantee I would be able to get in,
So I waited. I’m sure if one were to say they were just visiting and not mention fiancé at all it could work.

Why wouldn't someone just come on a travel visa and get married, instead of waiting for the fiancée visa?

Anonymous wrote:Fiance visa Could take up to 2 years to get.

Even better! Time to get to know each other better. Depending on where she is in life she could start or continue her education, qualify herself for her future career in the US, work, save some money for when she arrives in the US and needs to start job hunting. So many options!

Anonymous wrote:BTW about 80 percent of them come here to find a husband in order to stay in the United States (not to provide childcare or to "learn English."

Uhm. No. While many US Americans seem to think that the only reason for foreigners to come to the US is to stay... 80% of APs from first world countries (think western / central / northern / southern Europe, Japan, OZ, SA, Canada, Korea) do definitely not come to find a husband. Not for childcare and learning English either but to travel, find new friends, take a gap year between school / university and adult responsibilites, because it looks good on their CV, because it's so much cheaper than year at a US high school or studying abroad for a year or to figure out what they want from life. Not saying that some don't find partners and decide to stay but definitely not 80%.

17,586 were placed in US families in 2015. Do you really think that 14,000 stayed or intended to stay at the end of the year? Every year? If that was the case the US would have closed the program down years ago. And rightly so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's my understanding that overstays are usually forgiven after marriage to a US citizen.

Read this if you want to scare your AP. https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-19/americans-immigration-emergency-their-spouses-could-be-deported-or-exiled-if-they

Nancy Sanchez has happily sponsored two of her husband’s children in El Salvador, so they could come to live as legal permanent residents with the couple in Herndon, Virginia. Legally, for immigration purposes, she’s considered their mother. A third child is also coming.

But if Sanchez were to sponsor her undocumented husband of six years for legal status, the US immigration system would require that he first be punished—severely. Under a 1996 law, he’d have to endure a minimum 10-year exile from the United States. So even though Sanchez could sponsor the kids, she doesn’t dare come forward to try to also get a green card for her husband.

This happened to an online friend of mine. Her husband is still illegal

Fiance visa Could take up to 2 years to get. When I was waiting for mine my fiancé got his senator’s office involved and we waited only 10 months. I wouldn’t stay illegally. With this administration things are only getting harder for illegal immigrants.