Meaning of "Timeline" and other questions

[gumpy 0]

I have had an unbelievable amount of trouble getting any accurate information for the K1 process, so I was hoping I could post my questions here. First question - what is the timeline from sending in the paperwork to getting the K1 Visa? I can't seem to figure out what all of these charts mean.

To make it easier, I am a US citizen, she is Japanese, location Honolulu.

Next questions:

1. can getting a lawyer to assist make things appreciably faster? Easier?

2. Which is easier/faster/more doable: Get a K1 visa, come to the USA, and get married, OR come to the USA, get married, go home, and apply for the Spousal Visa? (We want to get married sooner and not necessarily live together in the USA right away, so a spousal visa later on is just as reasonable, but I am unsure of the difference or implications).

3. If we were to file K1 paperwork, but then decide to get married but not immediately immigrate, could we just cancel the process and do a spousal visa later?

4. Since she comes to the USA often, and you aren't allowed to "plan" to marry, is it an option to "decide" to marry rather than travel back and forth? Or is this just plain not doable? A close friend of mine SWEARS that his wife came on a tourist visa 3 years ago, they went to immigration, filed for an extension, and got married, as easy as that. Is this an option?

5. In general, how useful is a lawyer for any of this? My fiance is VERY nervous about the whole thing, and I'm not thinking it is all peaches and cream. Not to mention, we don't want the process from sending off the paperwork to her getting her visa to take more than, say 4-5 months at the most if we go the K1 route.

I really, really appreciate any feedback. I'm pretty much scared to death of the whole process and impact on the both of us.

THANKS!

[shiri 0]

I have had an unbelievable amount of trouble getting any accurate information for the K1 process, so I was hoping I could post my questions here. First question - what is the timeline from sending in the paperwork to getting the K1 Visa? I can't seem to figure out what all of these charts mean.

To make it easier, I am a US citizen, she is Japanese, location Honolulu.

Next questions:

1. can getting a lawyer to assist make things appreciably faster? Easier?

2. Which is easier/faster/more doable: Get a K1 visa, come to the USA, and get married, OR come to the USA, get married, go home, and apply for the Spousal Visa? (We want to get married sooner and not necessarily live together in the USA right away, so a spousal visa later on is just as reasonable, but I am unsure of the difference or implications).

3. If we were to file K1 paperwork, but then decide to get married but not immediately immigrate, could we just cancel the process and do a spousal visa later?

4. Since she comes to the USA often, and you aren't allowed to "plan" to marry, is it an option to "decide" to marry rather than travel back and forth? Or is this just plain not doable? A close friend of mine SWEARS that his wife came on a tourist visa 3 years ago, they went to immigration, filed for an extension, and got married, as easy as that. Is this an option?

5. In general, how useful is a lawyer for any of this? My fiance is VERY nervous about the whole thing, and I'm not thinking it is all peaches and cream. Not to mention, we don't want the process from sending off the paperwork to her getting her visa to take more than, say 4-5 months at the most if we go the K1 route.

I really, really appreciate any feedback. I'm pretty much scared to death of the whole process and impact on the both of us.

THANKS!

Hi,

I am glad you are educated about this before you are married. My husband and I weren't. If we knew what we know now, we would have done the K1 thing. However, he came to visit and we did the justice of the peace thing and decided to keep him here almost as long as we could. Anyways... We have been married since March of '07 and didn't fully learn the depth of our options between living in his country or mine until the end of March of '08. (long story) However because we didn't know, I spent over half of my pregnancy alone. He came here for the birth, stayed 6 weeks and we have been apart again almost two months. We are still looking at 2-3 more months til the interview and visa.

Here is what I suggest, if you want to be together during this whole process... get the K1. You are looking at a few months before you get the visa, but when you come, you have to get married within 90 days and then apply for an AOS (adjustment of status). If you get married first, then you are already married and have to wait that much longer after the marriage before you can be together. I think I could have waited a few months to get married then stay together rather than get married, be together for a bit and then be forced to be separated until everything is done. That is just my opinion, but look through some of the K1 threads and hopefully some people that did it the K1 way can give you their take on it all.

Now as far as a lawyer, I was scared when I found out what we had to do to live here. (US) I didn't want to do anything wrong, so I called a lawyer for advice. He gave me his opinion and suggested that I do it myself. He said, "If you can do your own taxes, you can do this and you are saving quite a bit of money." If you do it on your own read through the threads for advice, or post questions. We all are going through it and know the "ropes" so to speak.

I know I didn't answer all your questions, but I hope my opinion helps at least a little!

Good luck!

[gumpy 0]

Hi,

I am glad you are educated about this before you are married. My husband and I weren't. If we knew what we know now, we would have done the K1 thing. However, he came to visit and we did the justice of the peace thing and decided to keep him here almost as long as we could. Anyways... We have been married since March of '07 and didn't fully learn the depth of our options between living in his country or mine until the end of March of '08. (long story) However because we didn't know, I spent over half of my pregnancy alone. He came here for the birth, stayed 6 weeks and we have been apart again almost two months. We are still looking at 2-3 more months til the interview and visa.

Here is what I suggest, if you want to be together during this whole process... get the K1. You are looking at a few months before you get the visa, but when you come, you have to get married within 90 days and then apply for an AOS (adjustment of status). If you get married first, then you are already married and have to wait that much longer after the marriage before you can be together. I think I could have waited a few months to get married then stay together rather than get married, be together for a bit and then be forced to be separated until everything is done. That is just my opinion, but look through some of the K1 threads and hopefully some people that did it the K1 way can give you their take on it all.

Now as far as a lawyer, I was scared when I found out what we had to do to live here. (US) I didn't want to do anything wrong, so I called a lawyer for advice. He gave me his opinion and suggested that I do it myself. He said, "If you can do your own taxes, you can do this and you are saving quite a bit of money." If you do it on your own read through the threads for advice, or post questions. We all are going through it and know the "ropes" so to speak.

I know I didn't answer all your questions, but I hope my opinion helps at least a little!

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback. Reading through other threads, yet another possible problem - she comes to the US for between 5-8 months of the year (2-3 times) now an additional question - I read that you will get sent home if you try to come during the K1 process - that is absolutely ridiculous and extremely financially crippling - not to mention her not being able to come here while we wait - is there any way around this? And, I still think things would be easier with a lawyer - is that just not the case?

Thanks again!

Edited November 9, 2008 by gumpy

[shiri 0]

Thanks for the feedback. Reading through other threads, yet another possible problem - she comes to the US for between 5-8 months of the year (2-3 times) now an additional question - I read that you will get sent home if you try to come during the K1 process - that is absolutely ridiculous and extremely financially crippling - not to mention her not being able to come here while we wait - is there any way around this? And, I still think things would be easier with a lawyer - is that just not the case?

Thanks again!

In your situation you are probably right about the lawyer. I don't know about the traveling thing. I am sorry. My husband has visited here... they also have something called advance parol, another form you can file that grants permission to leave, but I don't know too much about that. I don't know if it applies to both the petitioner and applicant or just the applicant. You could check into it though.

[Sinergy 3]

1. can getting a lawyer to assist make things appreciably faster? Easier? No, a lawyer will not make the process any faster, what will make it faster is doing it yourself, less mistakes made.

2. Which is easier/faster/more doable: Get a K1 visa, come to the USA, and get married, OR come to the USA, get married, go home, and apply for the Spousal Visa? (We want to get married sooner and not necessarily live together in the USA right away, so a spousal visa later on is just as reasonable, but I am unsure of the difference or implications). Right now the K-1 seems to be the least amount of waiting. But will also be determined by your case situation

3. If we were to file K1 paperwork, but then decide to get married but not immediately immigrate, could we just cancel the process and do a spousal visa later? To keep from backlogging the USCIS, pick one process and dont cancel it in midstream to start another one. Be sure which you wanna do.

4. Since she comes to the USA often, and you aren't allowed to "plan" to marry, is it an option to "decide" to marry rather than travel back and forth? Or is this just plain not doable? A close friend of mine SWEARS that his wife came on a tourist visa 3 years ago, they went to immigration, filed for an extension, and got married, as easy as that. Is this an option? If you come to the USA with the intent to marry on a visitors visa, it is fraud, and is bannable up to life.

5. In general, how useful is a lawyer for any of this? My fiance is VERY nervous about the whole thing, and I'm not thinking it is all peaches and cream. Not to mention, we don't want the process from sending off the paperwork to her getting her visa to take more than, say 4-5 months at the most if we go the K1 route. You will wait far more than 4-5 months wheather you get the K1 or K3, alot of us waited or are still waiting anywhere from 6 months to longer, depending on the case situation.

Your fiance can come here and stay up to 3 months at a time while the K1 is processing however your fiance needs to prove strong ties to their country upon entry. Once or if the petition is approved, your fiance would need to go back to their country to await the interview.

You will be wise to read this : http://www.visajourney.com/faq/k1k2visa-ap...4.6

I hope i was able to help

Good Luck with everything

Edited November 9, 2008 by Sinergy

[gumpy 0]

I REALLY appreciate the information everyone has posted here. I actually have one final question for now that I'd really appreciate an opinion/answer on. One other option we are looking at is having her come here, get married in the USA, and then she returns home on her tourist visa. She is tied to her country for the short term (3 years or so) so her moving here is an option, but not a requirement, so we are wondering that if she comes here on a tourist visa, and we get married, then she leaves, is that OK? And can she come and visit the US at will on a tourist visa while we are married, or could she get turned back?

Thanks again!

Edited November 10, 2008 by gumpy

[KimandRuss 0]

She can get turned back at any point. It is always up to the officer at the POE. The best one can do is bring plenty of ties to his/her home Country. Starting in January visitors using the VWP will need to apply for travel authorization which may or may not help when it comes to this. See ESTA for more information.

One thing you must consider, because of your situation, is that if she does come into the US on a K1 visa you will need to marry within 90 days and then apply for adjustment of status. If she leaves the Country before approval of the adjustment of status (3 months or so) she will need AP (advanced parole, also filed for with AOS) to re-enter the U.S. So, without AP or approved adjustment she will not be able to re-enter the U.S. and you will need to begin the process again with a spousal visa if you wish to reside in the U.S. This link will explain it more.

In regards to legal assistance, I think you'll find many here would suggest filing yourself unless you have special circumstances. If you do choose to use a lawyer, understand that they are not all created equally and it is just important that you understand the process as well to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

good luck

[gumpy 0]

She can get turned back at any point. It is always up to the officer at the POE. The best one can do is bring plenty of ties to his/her home Country. Starting in January visitors using the VWP will need to apply for travel authorization which may or may not help when it comes to this. See ESTA for more information.

One thing you must consider, because of your situation, is that if she does come into the US on a K1 visa you will need to marry within 90 days and then apply for adjustment of status. If she leaves the Country before approval of the adjustment of status (3 months or so) she will need AP (advanced parole, also filed for with AOS) to re-enter the U.S. So, without AP or approved adjustment she will not be able to re-enter the U.S. and you will need to begin the process again with a spousal visa if you wish to reside in the U.S. This link will explain it more.

In regards to legal assistance, I think you'll find many here would suggest filing yourself unless you have special circumstances. If you do choose to use a lawyer, understand that they are not all created equally and it is just important that you understand the process as well to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

good luck

Thanks for the further information - really appreciated. We've talked this over at length over the past few weeks, and we are very likely going to get married here on her tourist visa, and then she'll return home, as she has responsibilities for another year or two, so I guess my question is, is it OK to marry and then leave? Is getting married here grounds for being barred from the country, or is it OK? She isn't going to immigrate this time around, in a year or two we'll do the spousal visa route - I just want to make sure we can get married in the USA with no problems on a tourist visa if she has no intention to stay or immigrate. That worries me, but it doesn't seem like it would be illegal to get married if you aren't trying to subvert the system and have every intention of leaving without attempting to immigrate. Furthermore, is being married to a US citizen grounds for being banned from entering the country on a tourist visa? I plan on a consult with a lawyer, of course, but any information would go a long way to at least easing my mind in the meantime. Obviously she wouldn't announce her intention to marry at the gate, but regardless, the honest intention is to get married here, and then she leaves in a visa-consistent and legal manner.

Edited November 11, 2008 by gumpy