Bonjour,
J'ai redige mon message en Anglais mais n'hesitez pas a me repondre en Francais. merci d''avance.
I'm a French citizen who came to the US in August 2011 to do a Masters degree in Washington DC and I decided to extend my F1 student visa through OPT (Student visa extension) at the end of my Masters (summer 2012). I met my future wife at about the same time. She is American, lives and works in Washington DC. We got engaged in July of this year and my OPT visa expired the next month. I left the country for a few weeks and came back to Washington DC about a month ago under the visa waiver program.
We recently decided to get married in the US in June 2014 with our friends and families but we want to do a civil marriage as soon as possible. Indeed, my current immigration status here is a precarious (only 90 days allowed in US under visa waiver) and a big impediment to securing a job in the future. Apparently, getting married within the current settings (in US while me being under Visa waiver) seems possible if we do that within the last 30 days of my visa waiver time period. We are aware that applying for a Fiance visa (K1) would be safer but from what we've heard it can be a long process and it would require of me to be outside of the US.
Finally, let me precise to precise that our story is serious - my first motivation is not to get a green card so that I can stay in the US. Now, since my future wife lives in DC, has a job in DC, and that we're planning a wedding here, it makes sense for us to get civilly married in the US and start our life together here.
We would appreciate thoughts and advices from legal experts or French-American (or bi-national) couples who have already dealt with a similar situation. Any tips on how to play it safe regarding US immigrations are especially welcome.
Thank you.
Xavier