Green Card - Initial process as an immigrant - Choosing a way

There are basically 2 main ways to enter the United States (US) legally even if there are many ways within those two types.

JOB RELATED
The first main way is you can enter the country through a job. For information on how to get a job in the USA without being a resident or citizen check this website. If the job is for a time period long enough, you can start paperwork to obtain a Green Card (which would be somewhat similar to what I will be addressing later on in more detail) or you could come as an immigrant based on your job skills.

MARRIAGE RELATED
The second way would be through marriage, which is the focus of this post. There are several ways to come through marriage.
You can enter the USA with a visa for fiancé and to get married within 90 days from the arrival date.
It goes without saying that there is paperwork involved and that some requirements have to be met. However, first there is paperwork to request the visa, then, once in the US, there is paperwork to get married, and finally there is paperwork to be legalized. Add to that all the fees, which are not cheap.
You can also enter with the immediate relative visa, effective for spouses, parents, or unmarried children. There are two ways to start this process, one while inside of the US (can take about 5 months or more), or while outside of the US (can take about 8 months or even over a year). Both methods have many parts in common, paperwork, doctor's visit, biometrics, interview... and if you have all the documents needed and no mistakes, it sure helps with speeding it all up. Regarding doing it from abroad, there seems to be a common loophole when US citizens send paperwork from a foreign address, which is a way to expedite the process (so it seems to be faster to collect and send all documents from the foreign country rather than collect and send everything from the US). However, there doesn't seem to be any official reason for this.

With the first immediate relative visa process - which is the option we will be following up in the following posts - you can be in the country as a tourist and then do the paperwork requesting a change of status from tourist to immigrant as the paperwork is filed to request the Green Card. But this can be problematic if you intentionally try to come to the US as a tourist for the real purpose of getting married. The tourist visa (or visa waiver program) is for tourists, not for coming to get married, so you'd be in violation of that tourist program if you did that intentionally. However, if you are marrying a citizen after already coming to the US, such as making the decision after being in the country, then you can opt for this method.