No Ruling Yet On Royal Marine Bride

A judge Monday refused to dismiss charges of illegally entering the United States against a princess from Bahrain who fled her county to marry a U.S. Marine.

The ruling by INS Judge Ignacio Fernandez prevents the princess, 19-year-old Meriam Al Khalifa, from applying for permanent residency in the United States without seeking political asylum.

Al Khalifa plans to apply for asylum on the grounds that she faces extreme persecution for marrying a non-Muslim if she returns to her country, said her attorney, Jan Joseph Behar.

"I can guarantee you it is not just, 'Daddy is mad at me,'" Behar told reporters.

She has up to year under U.S. law to apply for political asylum.

Back at home, Al Khalifa had her every need attended to by servants. That's quite a contrast from her current life as a marine wife. She lives with her husband, Lance Cpl. Jason Johnson, on Camp Pendleton, a Marine base 40 miles north of San Diego.

Johnson, 25, met his teenaged wife in a Bahraini shopping mall in January, 1999.

"She happened to be at the mall that day visiting with older Marines who had been in Bahrain. And since I was a new Marine, they were taking me out, showing me around."

”I thought she was good looking. I'm not gonna lie about it,” Johnson told CBS News Correspondent Hattie Kauffman.

According to the New York Post, Meriam is the daughter of Sheik Abdullah Khalifa, so she has the title of "sheika." Her father is the cousin of Emir Hamad bin Isa Khalifa, Bahrain's head of state, the Post reports.

Meriam's parents forbade her to date Johnson and Bahraini police followed her around, Johnson says. "I think they got upset when she kissed me."

At that point they worked out an elaborate plot to get Meriam out of Bahrain.

"We made a fake military I.D. and a set of fake military orders," said Johnson. "I.N.S. officials were on the phone with the State Department as we were arriving and walking into customs. And before we even got to the customs booth, we had already been stopped and they knew who she was."

The Bahraini embassy tells CBS news the ruling family would not harm the girl, they just want her back. But Johnson is concerned.

"If you know anything about Islamic tradition, she defiled the honor of her family name," said Johnson. "You'd think we've come to the point where we can accept -- hey, somebody loves somebody. Then marry them, be happy for them and hope for the best."

They didn't exactly have a royal wedding.

"Our wedding was spur-of-the-moment type of stuff. We ran off at 12:00 at night and got married," says Johnson. They tied the knot at the Candlelight Wedding chapel on the Las Vegas strip.

"We had a wedding dinner at Taco Bell."

And from a royal point-of-view, it might be seen as going downhill from there.

"She went from having three maids and two chauffeurs and someone to cook her inner to having to do all that. So that's quite a change," said Johnson's mother, Susan.

"I never ironed in Bahrain. I said it was so much fun and he told me-- believe me, it would get old," said Meriam. And by now, she agrees.

It has been no picnic for Jason, either. He was court-martialed and demoted from Lance Corporal to Private First Class for helping Meriam forge the papers she used to get out of Bahrain.

But Johnson said he has no regrets. "I wasn't willing to leave her there. I think she's worth more than what possibly could have happened to me."

And love made it all worth it, he added. "Yeah, I'd do it all over again if I had to."