I am thinking of bringing my fiancee into the U.S. on a visitor visa but marrying her once she gets here. Can I get her papers while she is here, or does she have to go back home while the bureaucracy extracts its 200 pounds of flesh to get a new spousal visa?

a very close friend of mine came here on a K-Visa, which is a finance visa...got married here and got green card three months after the marriage. So get your finance here, get married here. All this works if you are a US citizen.

ya might think about getting your legal advice from a LAWYER, instead of the whoremonger chatroom - but try this - does she already have the visa, or do you figure they'll just hand her one, like in blank?

Most of these fiancees are nubile maidens (or semi-maiden) from 3rd world countries, and are SHITTY prospects for a visitor visa.   Most consular officers were not indeed born yesterday.

But if she gets the visa (DON'T let her lie, and one of the questions is if she has a fiance, because the odds are good she'll get caught with a permanent bar subject to waiver) and gets past the airport, yes, you can marry her here and process her here.

GET A LAWYER, NUMBSKULL!  AND DON'T TELL HER YOU FOUND OUT HERE!

Sheesh.

yes, the K-1 is a better idea, but it wasn't what he asked.

A friend of mine found a filipina, and ended up marrying her, they had to wait about 7 months for her legal status... One other found a russian bride, and it only took 60 days.  I'm not sure if one provided better information than the other, or if the government is just prejudiced...

Just my thoughts.

IOW, we don't know when/what events they started and stopped counting, and what did they do in the meantime?  

Your stats are the usual lower end of the scales.  But you can't know, and I'm not saying, whether I'm a disinformation agent, a bot, or what.