Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington:

I recently came to America to spend a vacation with my fiancé who is a United States citizen.

We got engaged in February and were expected to get married later this year. We were planning a private ceremony to cut cost and the reception later at one of our anniversaries. However, we were undecided where we would get married because I have a 10-year visa. We eventually got married on August 21 at the City Hall in Orlando.

My children are not his and are with family members. My son will be 16 in October and my daughter is 13 years of age.

My problem being here is that my aunt was suggesting I should have got married in a wedding dress and have taken pictures. But to tell the truth, I was not interested in that. I did not even get a ring. I only wore my engagement ring because we were cutting back on unnecessary costs.

She said she heard on the radio that if we came into the country and decided to get married we should have waited 60 days before doing it. She is saying because of this immigration may give me a hard time.

It is really driving me nuts with all these different "sayings" of what immigration will or will not do.

Dear Ma'am:

Once a person is in the United States pursuant to lawful entry, i.e. they were inspected by an immigration officer at the port of entry and they entered with their own documents, they are allowed to adjust their status from a non-immigrant to that of an immigrant — if they are an immediate relative of a citizen.

Immediate relatives are spouses, parents and children under 21 of US citizens. Upon your marriage to your US citizen husband you became an immediate relative for immigration purposes and eligible to remain in the country and apply to change your status to that of a permanent resident — if immigration approves your husband's petition for alien relative.

Non-immigrant status

When a person enters the US as a non-immigrant, the stay is supposed to be temporary. If you make any outward indications that you intend to make your stay permanent within 30 days of arrival you are presumed to have intended to stay permanently when you first arrived, and therefore misused the non-immigrant visa. This presumption by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can lead to the denial of your request for adjustment of status.

However, after arriving in the United States as a non-immigrant, you are allowed to change your mind and try to stay permanently by filing to change your status under the appropriate category — after 30 days.

You did not indicate when you arrived in the US in relation to when you got married. Please make sure that you do not file to change your status within 30 days of arrival into the US.

As far as the type of wedding ceremony that you had, you are not required to have a wedding gown and tuxedo with all the trimmings.

Weddings that are performed at a courthouse are totally acceptable. What you must make sure of is that you document what you did on the day of your wedding as that is a favourite question by the USCIS officers during the marriage interview. Your wedding day should be memorable even if you did not have an elaborate event.

Status interview

At your adjustment of status interview at the local USCIS office, you will be required to provide proof to the USCIS officer that you are living with your spouse, that you know each other well, that you have co-mingled your assets and your liabilities and provide photographs to show you interacting with each other and with other friends and relatives.

Proof of all your visits to each other will also be helpful to prove the validity of your courtship and subsequent marriage.

You mentioned that you have a 15 and 13-year-old child. Your husband can petition for these children since they were under 18 years of age at the time of your marriage. Separate petitions must be filed for all three of you and the children who are outside of the US will do consular processing and go the US Embassy for their interviews.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, is a Jamaican-American attorney who practices law in Florida in the areas of immigration, family, corporate and personal injury law. She is a mediator, arbitrator and special magistrate in Broward County, Florida. Email: info@walkerhuntington.com