[freedumb2003]

"I've got a friend from Britain who came over here and married his internet girlfriend, has now been here for several years, and the mountains of paperwork and costs are ridiculous..."

Then he did it wrong... I married a woman from Mexico (the rules are the same for all LEGAL immigration issues) and it wasn't that bad. There are 3 sets of forms and it's a few hundred bucks... IF you get married here. Bringing an alien spouse over is a big can of worms, yes.

[visualops]

He married an American woman (here in the U.S.) he'd met online and came over here to see. They've since had a child as well.
My thinking was he should have applied before they got married,but, in theory that really shouldn't matter.
Since 9/11 the usual peanut butter avalanche of bureaucratic paperwork takes even longer, and according to him, costs more too.