[nationalvelvet]

I have a friend who went to America to marry a guy.....

They married a few months ago and are very happy. We are friends on Facebook.
But she has now returned to Australia and says that she cannot go back to America.
I've asked her if everything is ok and she said she is still happilly married but cannot go back to America

She says she can't talk about it right now as she is too upset.
I guess I am baffled and concerned.

I am wondering if she has overstayed her visa.

I will find out in time, I guess but I am just curious.

***UPDATE***

Thanks for your replies. I have since learnt that she left her husband. Hasn't overstayed her visa.
She has had suspicions he is after her money. but not 100percent sure.yet, she misses him and wants to make the marriage work. She returns in a few days.

This post has been edited by lindenen: 24/12/2012, 10:15 PM

[greengoddess]

There are pretty harsh consequences depending on how long you overstay the visa. If it's more than six months and less than a year it can be a three year bar on returning to the US, if it's over a year, it's a ten year bar.

If it's under six months, you will probably still find it pretty tough to get a tourist visa, because they won't believe that you will only go there temporarily, particularly if she is married to a US citizen.

But if she's married the guy, then she could have applied for a spouse visa, so there would have been no need to overstay her visa.

Doubtless you'll get the full story in time!

[countrymel]

Don't know about the US but I know my friend and his partner had to stay in Australia while she waited for her spouse visa.

She had a massive bout of homesickness and they returned to her home country before the visa was approved and so she was banned from returning for several years.

They are married now and have children with Australian passports so she doesn't have any issues these days.

[~ky~]

Sounds right ... my stepbrother overstayed his visa by a good 20 years and when he decided to go home to NZ with his 3yo daughter in tow, he ended up having to fight for 18 months to be allowed back "home".

This was despite the fact that he had married, had a child, had a successful business, was claimed as an american because he was good at his sport. He was travelling on an NZ passport.

He is now back there and all I can say is good luck to the americans - he's not someone I want to hang out with.

[RobotFerretOfDoo...]

Yeah, sounds quite possible - my DH overstayed his visa (when he was on a business visa, before we were married) and had to go home to the UK and wait there until we sorted it out. It was very stressful as we'd been told there was a chance he'd be barred from returning for 3-5 years. In the end he was there for 4 months until we were able to arrange a spouse visa for him.


ETA - this was Australia, not the US, but I understand their system is even more of a nightmare than ours.

This post has been edited by WootFerretOfDoom: 21/12/2012, 10:35 AM

[FiveAus]

We had to deal with the Australian immigration system when my husband moved here from the US (before he was my husband). It's not for the faint hearted, that's for sure. So much paperwork, so complicated, so expensive.
We looked at doing it the other way.....the kids and me going to the US......and that made the Aussie system look like a walk in the park!

[follies]

America is funny when it comes to immigration. My DP has two sisters, both married to Americans they met online. One married a doctor and had no trouble gaining citizenship, the other married a guy who does something with computer games, she was denied and he had to move here.

[countrymel]

~ky~ my Mum got grilled by a particularly zealous immigration official one time when she was returning to Australia after a visit to her family OS.

Despite being a legal resident, taxpayer and voter for over 40 years this chap decided to grill her for over an hour on the 'purpose of her visit to Australia'!

Poor little Mum - who was exhausted after the near 24 hour flight - just kept repeating "To go home to my house, my husband, my garden, my cat? What more do i need to tell you?"

[amabanana]

After my experience with immigration control in The States all I can say is, 'Good luck with that one!'
Poor thing.

[secret~sammy]

Obviously I don't know all the details of their situation but last time I looked into it you need to have a specific fiancé/fiancée visa to go to the US with the intent of marrying and there were consequences for not having that visa.