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Aire Tam Profile
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Registered: 02-2004
Location: Wildomar, California
Posts: 57
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posticon marrying a foreigner


Has anybody here marry someone outside of the US? I'm planning to marry a Korean in a few years and I'm just wondering if anybody has had experience with an international marriage?
5/6/2004, 11:29 pm Link to this post Send PM to Aire Tam
 
takumi68 Profile
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Registered: 11-2003
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 110
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Re: marrying a foreigner


I think most of us here are foreigners too. I know I am. emoticon

Seriously, let's check the board for the best advice. Are you going to be in an arranged marriage or are you going to wing it? To avoid a lot of heartache I'd check her background very carefully. Even if she's perfect her family might be something else and you could have done something wrong unintentionally. Finally, remember marriages are forever and you can't take them back.

If she has a sister who's cute let me know. It doesn't matter if she doesn't have a lot of time.

edited to be even more offensive


Last edited by takumi68, 5/7/2004, 7:36 pm
5/7/2004, 4:04 pm Link to this post Send Email to takumi68
 
Aire Tam Profile
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Registered: 02-2004
Location: Wildomar, California
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Re: marrying a foreigner


LOL that was a funny post emoticon

I've know her for quite awhile now and we're going to get married after she graduates college, which isn't until a few years. We both haven't told our parents yet so it's still in the planning stages.

Oh, and she doesn't have a cute younger sister, just a younger brother.
5/7/2004, 4:44 pm Link to this post Send PM to Aire Tam
 
Hiroshi66 Profile
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Registered: 02-2004
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Re: marrying a foreigner


Well, first off, uou have to get to know the parents. Especially in Homogenous Asia (in Japan and China/Taiwan mostly, no idea about how Korea feels about its foreigners) you have to get to know the family, now the language, and just pay attention to the family just as much, if not more, as the girl/guy.
5/10/2004, 8:47 am Link to this post Send Email to Hiroshi66   Send PM to Hiroshi66 AIM
 
merela Profile
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Registered: 04-2004
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Re: marrying a foreigner


US immigration and naturalization service (INS) is a hassle to deal with when it comes to marriage with a foreigner.

I'm not a lawyer, but I have encountered several incidences of marriages happening between US citizens and another person from China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. I did some research for them on-line and I've heard stories of people's experiences in this.

You can do all the INS filings yourself without hiring a lawyer. It's not that hard, but INS charges a lot for every kind of paper work and it takes a long time going from one step to another. This is particularly so after the 9-11 tragedy.

If this is a real marriage, you have nothing to fear. INS will eventually give your spouse a green card which will allow her to stay on indefinitely.

If you are a US citizen, you have two ways of doing this from a legal/INS point of view--to bring your fiancee/wife into this country.

You can either:

1. Get engaged first, then apply for a fiancee visa for your fiancee, then have her enter the country and then you can get married in this country. Once you are married, you can sponsor her adjustment of status from a fiancee visa status to a wife status by having her apply for her green card as the spouse of a US citizen. This will take the longest time, depending on where you submit your application. But if you two are serious and the marriage is for real, the wait shouldn't be so obvious. By the time the green card interview happens, you may have children already. So it can take up to 3 years before she gets her green card. However, she did enter the country legally, so she will have no problems staying on in this country. The trouble with fiancee visa is that it maybe difficult to obtain. Please check the INS website for more information about the fiancee visas.


2. This will take the least amount of time for her to get the green card. Get married in Korea, then have your spouse go to the US embassy in Korea and ask for the appropriate forms to obtain a visa which will enable her to enter the US as your wife. I think the US embassy in Korea will issue her a temporary green card for her to enter the country (don't quote me on this, but she can call the embassy and ask them about the procedure involved in getting her into the US after you two get married in Korea). This may require some wait (2 weeks to 2-3 months), so if you have a job, you may not be able to hang around in Korea that long while waiting for your new bride to get her visa into the US. So the downside is that you may have to separate from your spouse for a while right after the wedding.

----------
Another way is for her to enter the US as a tourist using the tourist visa or a student using the student visa. Then you can get married in Las Vegas and then apply for an adjustment of visa status (as described in #1). The key is that you can't let the INS think that when she entered the country, she already had the intention to marry you. If the intention is there, the assumption is that she should have entered the US using the fiancee visa. That's why a impromptu wedding at Las Vegas gives the impression that the idea of marriage just happened because you got married in Vegas.

Personally, I would go with option #2.

---------------

Do you see now that it's not that easy marrying someone from another country these days and bringing her legally into this country. So make sure her family approves of you first before you consider all these options.

Good luck.

Last edited by merela, 7/5/2004, 1:13 am
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Hiroshi66 Profile
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Re: marrying a foreigner


But what would happen if I moved to Japan, got married with a girl there. Let's say I was a citizen and legally there. Would everything be the same?
7/5/2004, 9:28 am Link to this post Send Email to Hiroshi66   Send PM to Hiroshi66 AIM
 
merela Profile
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Re: marrying a foreigner


If you moved to Japan and got married to a Japanese girl there, it all depends on the Japanese foreigners' laws whether you can continue to work and live in Japan.

The only hassle you will have with the INS is if the two of you want to move back to the US. With a foreign bride, you need to go to the local US Embassy (or in the case of Taiwan (American Institute in Taipei) and ask for the necessary forms and file accordingly.

I know in Taiwan, even if a "foreigner" marries a local Taiwanese girl/boy, unless he already has a job that sponsors his entry into the country (i.e. a work permit), the fact that you are married to a local girl/boy does not guarantee your "legal" status to stay in that country. Check local laws just to be sure. If you ask around the Expat communities in each of those Asian countries, you'll bound to find someone who has experiences in this area.

If the marriage is for real and the foreign spouse you married didn't marry you just to get the green card/US citizenship, if you do everything by the book, it shouldn't be a problem at all. Just a reminder that the INS charges a lot of fees these days (the fee schedule can be found on their website).

HTH.
7/5/2004, 9:54 am Link to this post Send Email to merela   Send PM to merela
 
nchristi Profile
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Registered: 03-2004
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Re: marrying a foreigner


引用 (quote):

Hiroshi66 wrote:

But what would happen if I moved to Japan, got married with a girl there. Let's say I was a citizen and legally there. Would everything be the same?



Hiroshi, an aside, but I read in the past that genetically non-Japanese are not permitted to become Japanese citizens. I wonder if it's still true?

merela, thanks for sharing your knowledge on this immigration subject. I love your comprehensive answers. Very helpful.

7/5/2004, 10:28 am Link to this post Send Email to nchristi   Send PM to nchristi AIM
 
merela Profile
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Re: marrying a foreigner


"....genetically non-Japanese are not permitted to become Japanese citizens. I wonder if it's still true? "

I can answer this one too. My dad's oldest brother immigrated to Okinawa, and then to Tokyo in the 60s. In order for him to become a Japanese citizen (i.e. holding a Japanese passport), he had to give up his Chinese surname and changed to a Japanese surname. Basically, you have to give up your "birth" identity. I don't know what else he had to give up (or what else he had to do) to become a Japanese citizen though.

But the fact is that a non-genetically Japanese person can still become a Japanese citizen.

7/5/2004, 9:16 pm Link to this post Send Email to merela   Send PM to merela
 
Takara Profile
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Registered: 01-2004
Location: No. California
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Re: marrying a foreigner


^wow. That is really surprising. So, if a forigner goes back to their home land, will they have to drop the japanese surname to get their real name back, or do they still have their real name?

---

7/11/2004, 9:07 pm Link to this post Send Email to Takara   Send PM to Takara AIM MSN Yahoo
 


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