Immigration: My wifes visa ran out and she has a job. How can we make it all right?

my wife is from taiwan. she came to this country to be with me. we got married at a municipal court by a judge. since then, her visa ran out and we have been trying to catch up on monthly bills as we try to save up money to get her legal.
Here we are some years later, we got hit pretty hard financially and never could get up the money to begin the process. now she has a job.
She is working without legal permission to this country and we are both really nervous about it. What can we do about this at this point?

Misis ni KC

If the filing fee is the only problem you have in the filing of Adjustment of Status for your wife you may read on the Fee Waiver Program of the USCIS.If you are qualified to avail this they allow filing of application for free. However, she needs to have a work permit for her to be able to work legally.Thus there is an urgent need for your wife to Adjust Status and you also need to file I-130 for her.She can apply for EAD so she can work while waiting for her green card.Hope this link will help: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=6fbad59ae8a8e010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=fe529c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

George L

She would be able to adjust to immigrant status (assuming you're an American of course) if she came here originally under most visas, with 2 exceptions, a K-1 or a C1/D. Otherwise, since you've already married, you need to file an I-130 immigrant visa petition, an I-485 adjustment of status request and an I-793 work authorization request, along with some other odds and ends, which you need to file simultaneously. won't be cheap, over $1,300 altogether, but you need to do it as quickly as possible. Check out www.uscis.gov for more information and downloadable forms and be sure to read the instruction sheet for the I-485 as there's a lot of important information for you there.

JSmith

She is here illegally so she should be deported as soon as possible. Why do they always have to come here? You should go to Taiwan to live with her.

Iron Clad

I guess she is doing jobs that Americans want do.
How did she get a visa to begin with? Go back to the same place and try again.
Why didn't you or she apply for citizenship when she got married?

dancing_smurf

Once she is in the country illegally there is no magical way to make her legal while she is in the country. The only thing you can do is send her back to Taiwan and have her to apply to enter the country legally. Otherwise she will be deported and re-entry will become even more difficult if not impossible.

Ellie

Ouch! That's tough. You need to go to your embassy or talk to immigrations. You should have extended her visa a long time ago, they can deport her. Does she have enough time in to apply for citizenship? You maybe saved if she does. Actually talk to an immigration lawyer.

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