You may enter the U.S. on a travel visa, marry a U.S. citizen then return home before your visa expires. Where you run into trouble is if you enter on a travel visa with the intention of marrying and staying in the U.S.To successfully adjust status after marrying on a travel visa, the foreign spouse must show that they had originally intended to return home, and the marriage and desire to stay in the United States was not premeditated. Some couples find it difficult to satisfactorily prove intent but others are successful.

You can forget about exotic honeymoons or trips to the home country for a while. After the marriage takes place, the foreign spouse will not be able to leave the U.S. until they apply for and receive advance parole or a green card. If the foreign spouse leaves the country before securing one of these two documents, they would not be allowed re-entry.

If you have secretly secured a travel visa to marry your American sweetie to bypass the normal process of obtaining a fiance or spouse visa in order to enter and remain in the U.S., you should rethink your decision. You could be accused of committing visa fraud. If fraud is found, you could face serious consequences. At the very least, you will have to return to your home country. Even worse, you may incur a ban and be prevented from re-entering the U.S. indefinitely.