Immigration Question
 

Not sure if I've posted this in the correct area, couldn't find the immigration area...but my son who is in the Army recently married a young girl who is not legal, I believe she has her green card, but not sure....we will be traveling from California to Texas to see my son off to Iraq, and we will be bringing my new daughter in law back with us, would anyone happen to know if there are any checkpoints along the way from Texas to California? Thanks!

Huh?
 

Texas to California? That is like going from your bed room to the living room. NO check points. As far immigrations are concerned, try this site (just click below).

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/usc...0045f3d6a1RCRD

I would imagine no checkpoints as well. You will be crossing from state to state. Not country to country.

If she has her Green-card she may be legal.
If illegal she should not leave the country until she adjusts her status.

Ramius said it best

Where is your son stationed in Texas? In some border towns, there can be border patrols at the security checkpoints in the airports.

I was stopped once in BRO when I was flying BRO-SAV. They asked if I was American when I was carrying work permit at the time.

It would be good to check what is the status of your in-law. Good luck.

drew

Ah, but there are plenty of examples of interior immigration checkpoints, especially along interstate highways within 100 miles of the border.

There are checkpoints inside the country away from the border. In Texas all major highways coming North have them 30-40 miles inland usually.

There is a checkpoint on IH-10 before El Paso but it is only in one direction and I don't recall now if it is East or West bound.

There are state Agriculture inspection stations in Arizona and California but they do not ask immigration status and are not 24/7.

Ciao,
FH

If she has a green-card there is no reason to be concerned. She should just bring her passport and green-card along.

Don't take serious mode on:

Check-Points between states. I think the DHS should think about such a great security feature. Think of all the bad terrorists you could catch.

Don't take serious mode off.

I'm sure they have thought about it.

Thanks!
 

Yeah, I'm not sure if she has her green card, or not...from what my son told me, she is not supposed to leave Texas, for whatever reason, but since she is married to my son, shouldn't she now be considered an American citizen, by the way, I've told my son to please take care of her marital status prior to us coming out there....so I'm hoping he will...he can be be quite the procrastinator, unfortunately! But thanks again for all our feedback, I really do appreciate it, and if anyone else has any further info that might be helpful, please chime in! ^

i think marriage makes her legal, it certainly does not make her a citizen. one must take a test, and pledge alliagance to george bush and dick chaney. immigration is a country thing. texas is a state thing. does not compute. if for some reason ins wanted to contain her, they would say "do not leave houston" or do not leave harlan county. texas is really big.

if her status is questionable, spend the money and talk to an attorney. don't ask me. there should be an attorney within the army that he can ask, no charge. even texas attorneys can give decent advice (on occasion).

Nothing is automatic. While it's much easier to become a US Citizen once you married an American, it's not something that just automatically happens in some computer somewhere within the depths of government.

Also, it shouldn't be hard to answer the question of her having a green card or not. It's a lengthy process to get a green card and she would def. know whether she has one or not.

How does she come to be in the US to begin with? When a foreigner gets married with an American, he/she can apply for a status change (into greencard). After 5 yrs with greencard, your in-law can apply for citizenship.

Depending on how far she is on her greencard application, she may need to rely on her status before getting married. First thing to do is to check what status she has right now.

She certainly does not want to travel into a border state without a legal status.

rgds,
drew

Marrying a US citizen does not grant you anything not even residence.

One can apply for a K-1/2 Visa, enter the country, then file for status, and wait in the States (locked in) for several months for processing. You can file for work status at that same time.
But as I noted above, there are checkpoints internally, from the border, and there is one on IH-10. I just don't recall if it is east or westbound.

Ciao,
FH

Marriage does *NOT* make her a citizen! IIRC it was 5 years from when I married a foreigner until she had citizenship.

If she already has a green card there's nothing they need to do, if she doesn't there's a lot of paperwork.

I haven't done immigration law in more than 20 years, but the only reason I can think of that a person can't leave a state has to do with the legal system (ie, it would be a parole violation). I never practiced criminal law, so I could be dead wrong.

This sounds like someone who doesn't understand what is going on talking to someone else who doesn't know what is going on.

As others have said, if she has a green card, she is legal. She is a permanent resident and after five years and meeting legal requirements, she can apply for citizenship.

If she has overstayed a visa or is in the country illegally, she should consult an immigration lawyer to determine the best way to regularize her status.

This is good advice: unless she's a permanent resident, if she's ever been in the country illegally for six months or longer she will need to take extra steps to gain legal status. It's quite complicated even with marriage to a citizen, and a lawyer is definitely recommended to avoid a 3- or 10- year ban on entering the US.

Once she has a "green" card, assuming it's obtained through marriage to a citizen, she may apply to naturalize after 3 years, not the 5 years that most other permanent residents have to wait.

From experience, I know that the immigration inspection station in Texas on I-10 is definitely on the east bound side of the highway. I'm not sure if they check the west bound direction as well as I have never driven in that direction on that stretch of highway.

There are definitely checkpoints between Texas and California. But if she has a green card it is a moot point and is irrelevant. If she is here illegally but is married to your son who is a citizen she would be wise to return to her home country immediately and do the paperwork properly before she gets caught breaking the law here and screws up what should otherwise be a fairly strait forward process. Getting a spousal visa can get a whole lot more complicated if you are caught in the country illegally. Why risk it if it takes 6 months to do it without breaking the law.

that's ABSOLUTELY wrong advice. if you are married to US citizen and are inside the country, you apply for "adjustment of status" while staying in the country. as soon as you file you are granted the right to continue staying in the country (legally) while your file is processed. then decision is made to give you permanent residency (green card) or not. absolutely no need to leave the country. if you do, you will not come back for 10 yrs, married to US citizen or not.

I am married to a (former) non-US person. Marriage did not give him automatic anything as far as the US government was concerned. Marriage to a citizen does not automatically grant citizenship, lawful residence, any right to live in US or any legal status. You can apply for legal status but there is paperwork that must be done. She can be denied residence status and certainly citizenship. Being married to an American is not a guarantee of anything. Get a lawyer if she has no status or questionable status, and the quicker the better.

Has your son notified the military that he is now married with a new dependent? Aren't there rules about getting married while on active duty? Your new daughter-in-law will be eligible for certain perks as a military wife. Make sure and find out what they are and how to access them. This will probably include health care and PX privileges at a minimum and probably housing allowance etc.

Is this post for real? Your son got married and you don't know anything about the girl? You'd best talk to your son about this. Also, posting on an immigration forum/talking to a lawyer would be much better.

If she has her green card, she's very legal and will be able to stay in the US forever on that provided she renews it and doesn't give up residency.

Getting married to a USC (citizen) means that all her past immigration ills are forgiven. Her spousal status will help her stay in the country, but she still needs to get some sort of status. To be able to work would, well, take a bit of work. Pick up the phone and get more details from him. Then talk to an immigration lawyer. People on here might be well informed, but unless they're an attorney who knows US immigration law then their opinion (and mine obviously) should be considered heresy. Talk to a lawyer, get real advice and get things sorted before you have to start sending forms back and forth to Iraq.

No, there are no checkpoints between states in the USA unless you are driving to Alaska.

Again for the third time, there are checkpoints away from the border. They are not for "between" states, as it were, but as I and others have noted IH-10 has one east of El Paso, and there are some on IH-35 north of Laredo before San Antonio, and so on. The status of those in the vehicles is checked at these points, even though they are not at the border.

I can, and have, not left the USA driving IH-35 from Laredo to San Antonio and been stoped at the checkpoint, with non-US citizens in the vehicle, who had documents checked. DEA checks at some as well.

And as a side note there are ag check stations (not related to the OP however) entering AZ and CA. TX checks some commercial vehicles even dealer plates, and the list goes on and on.

Ciao,
FH

There are a couple of checkpoints on I-10 near El Paso, but if she has her green card she has nothing to worry about

This is absolutely not true either--if she's here illegally she will have to petition to have her illegal presence forgiven. And a google search will find numerous examples of spouses of citizens being deported, usually because of felonies, but also sometimes for illegal presence/refusing deportation orders. As you say, without a green card, she should get a good lawyer and petition immediately.

There can be a reason why she is not allowed to leave Texas or the United States. If you are married to a US-citizen and apply for your greencard you are not allowed to leave the United States until the greencard application process is complete. There is only one exemption from this rule. In case of special circumstances you can file for an exemption of this rule. There was a story about a German woman who got married to a US-citizen. They got a baby and she was flying home with the new born to see her parents while she was waiting for her green card. She even got the exemption of not leaving the United States. She did everything by the book. Still when she tried to return to the USA she was denied at the border, detained for 24hours with the baby and finally after she agreed to immediately fly back to Germany she was released.

Amazing. So the American immigration officials forced her to abduct a child from the United States without the consent of the father?

HTB.

Correct, getting a lawyer is best.

I had a co-worker who married an illegal immigrant and they waited 6 years to come forward and they hired a lawyer. It took a while but once they came forward it would have prevented any sort of attempts to remove her at that point.

It's not really an "exemption" - it's called Advance Parole (AP) and is a legal "fiction" where you are physically admitted into the US but legally are considered to be outside of the US. But that's beside the point. It's actually very common for those waiting for AOS (adjustment of status) to apply for AP as it is the ONLY way to travel during that time. Having AP is still not guarantee that you will be admitted back into the US, and if you have any sort of illegal entry or other fraud you have committed with regards to immigration, you would be advised not to travel even with AP as USCIS is still well within its rights not to admit you back into the states (eg if you have overstayed a visa by a year or longer and are then liable to a 10 year ban). I suspect this woman had something of the sort in her record to have justified being denied re-entry into the US. She should have got legal advice before leaving the US.

She can apply for adjustment of status while she is here.

[Edited to add:] Sorry, I missed lerasp's post.

I dont know if this is the case... but isnt it a bit risky to apply for anything officially when you are either a) illegal or b) on an excessively overstayed visa (ergo illegal as well) ?

If let's say she would be in the US under an I-94 Visitors visa and then marries it should be ok and she could apply for status change without a problem.

However, it sounds in this case that your in-law has either some sort of immigration status in the making or is for whatever reason in contact with an authority that denies her leaving a state/county.

A lawyer might be a good investment into a safe future (especially with the OP's son leaving to Iraq).

Yes, that's true. I can't remember exactly where it was, but it was somewhere in Arizona, my brother was stopped and asked to prove his legal status. Fortunately, he had is papers with him, he was on H1. Not sure what would have happened, had he been driving without the proof.