Help!!! Working with tourist Visa in Egypt lead to trouble in future?

Want to get Tourist Visa USA HELP?

• As the title says I want to get a Tourist Visa to get into the US. I currently am residing in Mexico. I am a student in 11th grade going into my last year of high school and turning 18 this October. I used to live in the US from ages 6-14 with my family on a Tourist Visa. (Sadly we were there illegally for 6 years but I had NO IDEA) Am I going to get penalized? My parents are divorced, I am currently living with my mother in Mexico while my Father is living in the USA as a resident alongside with his American citizen wife and three legal Children. I have a brother whom is 21 years old and is a resident as well, soon to be a USA citizen this summer but living in Utah. I really wish to visit the US so I could look into all the opportunities to go in as an exchange student, visit some friends before they leave off to college and turn 18.... Plus Id really like to visit my family :( What options would be good for me? Would I be eligible to get a tourist visa or do I have to wait until I get my citizenship? I don't want to stay living there yet as I know you can't do anything a tourist visa.... I speak pretty good English and Spanish (Sorry that my english is really sloppy... as of right now I'm lacking practice) I forgot to mention that my Girlfriend of 17 years of age is a US citizen currently living in the US so Id be gooing to visit her too. What sort of proof would I need for a visa that I'm NOT staying? If any more information is needed I'll update with that info.

• Answer:

  CPG covers most of the immigrant options pretty well. however, he didn't mention one other very real and much faster possibility. Your American citizen stepmother could file for you as well, assuming she would be willing to, of course. Since you are under 18, if she does file an I-130 immigrant petition for you, that would fall under the IR-2 immigrant category and it would be valid for use as soon as it was processed and approved by USCIS. it would take anywhere from 8-12 months to process, approve and schedule for interivew, but that's a great deal faster than a petition filed by your father. as for the tourist visa, while it's a possibility, I doubt you stand much chance of getting one at this point, considering that you did live there illegally for some time, even if it wasn't your fault, and the fact that your father lives there now as well. a student visa might be more likely, but it's still hard to predict what the answer to that would be either. there really isn't any physical proof that you could give to the interviewing officer, beyond your word, that you would indeed come back. clearly, it is your intention to emigrate legally at some point, so it will be difficult to simply accept your word, but it is at least possible. you would not be eligible for consideration for follow to join benefits from your father, if he was in fact petitioned by his American wife. his petition, an IR/CR-1 does not cover children, it only covers him. for the moment, in my opinion, your best bet is to see if your stepmother would file for you.