[nikcub]

you didn't mention the most important aspect of this story: your country of origin. things are very different for those from, for eg. australia vs being from, for eg. columbia

sounds like you need to either pay somebody to marry you, or sneak out of the country and go to a third-nation, live there for a while and apply for residence via your parents from there

could be possible that they don't know you were in the USA. SFO is one of the only airports where they don't check internationals on the way out.

[wolfrom]

Maybe it's because I'm Canadian, but I've never been checked on my way out of the US. My first thought on this was to enter Canada and go home from there (detouring around the US on your return flight).

I've actually called US Customs and Immigration before to discuss visas and status. As you're not identifying yourself in the call, you might be able to get a feel for whether or not you would have trouble leaving the country and then getting sponsored.

[lutorm]

Being Swedish, I've always had to surrender my I-94 upon leaving, though that's always been by air (including at SFO). (And there's always a warning on it that says essentially that "if you fail to surrender the I-94 we will think that you've remained illegally".)

[abhijitr]

AFAIK, they don't take your I-94 if you're traveling to Canada or Mexico for under 30 days.

[petervandijck]

It's Colombia, with an O :)

[nikcub]

I always get that one wrong, oh and Sweeeeeden