Getting the girl and saving the house

[Just Call Me Rich 0]

I am new here - looking at the timelines is pretty confusing - form numbers and abbreviations and such. My head is spinning. I've been searching and reading FAQ's and looking at charts and reading posts now for hours and still don't seem to have a full grasp on all of this. Somebody please give me a sanity check here.

I am divorcing my wife and want to marry my Costa Rican girlfriend, have her move here and start working before my house is foreclosed. It sounds like the K1 visa is the fastest way to go. She has a tourist visa now, and can come and visit me again - but not work - which doesn't help much. It looks like the process would be about 7 months or so to get her here, and another two months for the work permit? Is that in the ballpark?

We have been together for about four years and making a long distance romance work as my long and slow divorce grinds away. But I am running out of time and money and could really use her help here financially as well as emotionally and with just daily life. For example I could save $400 a month in daycare with her watching my son, and could work some overtime which I can't do now because of daycare. So having her here would not only be great for our relationship, but would ease the financial burdens as well. I know things will be fine once we marry and we are both working.

Does anyone have any advice that would help get us by until we get my divorce finished and here here with me to start our new family? Sorry if this has been answered many times over, but I haven't been able to find what I am looking for - or it is clouded in a shroud of abbreviations and nomenclature I am not yet well versed in.

Thanks!

[pushbrk 12,569]

I am new here - looking at the timelines is pretty confusing - form numbers and abbreviations and such. My head is spinning. I've been searching and reading FAQ's and looking at charts and reading posts now for hours and still don't seem to have a full grasp on all of this. Somebody please give me a sanity check here.

I am divorcing my wife and want to marry my Costa Rican girlfriend, have her move here and start working before my house is foreclosed. It sounds like the K1 visa is the fastest way to go. She has a tourist visa now, and can come and visit me again - but not work - which doesn't help much. It looks like the process would be about 7 months or so to get her here, and another two months for the work permit? Is that in the ballpark?

We have been together for about four years and making a long distance romance work as my long and slow divorce grinds away. But I am running out of time and money and could really use her help here financially as well as emotionally and with just daily life. For example I could save $400 a month in daycare with her watching my son, and could work some overtime which I can't do now because of daycare. So having her here would not only be great for our relationship, but would ease the financial burdens as well. I know things will be fine once we marry and we are both working.

Does anyone have any advice that would help get us by until we get my divorce finished and here here with me to start our new family? Sorry if this has been answered many times over, but I haven't been able to find what I am looking for - or it is clouded in a shroud of abbreviations and nomenclature I am not yet well versed in.

Thanks!

I would say 5 to 7 months to get her here then to get work permit, first marry, then file AOS and EAD. Three months from the EAD filing, is when you can expect her to have work authorization.

[Audy_Rob 26]

I hope you are planning to bring your girlfriend/fiancee here to the US for the purpose of marriage and not any other purpose.

The time frame depends on the Service Center you file with (CSC or VSC) although I think they are VSC is speeding up, I am not sure if CSC is slowing down or not. Many people say petitions and interviews slow down in the summer.

Another factor in the time line is how quickly an interview appointment is granted by the US Embassy/Consulate following your sublission of checklist, packet 3, or whatever they call it where you will interview. Some Embassies/Consulates grant an appointment in 2 to 6 weeks, others (like Ghana) seem to be an automatic fixed SIX months. I know two people that have completed the I-129F petition and K-1 visa interview in LESS than 4 months. Most will be 6 to 7 months. Then she must come to the USA and marry with you.

Then you file for AOS, EAD (Employment Authorization) and AP (Advance Parole or permission to leave and re-enter the USA.) This can vary but is about 2 to 3 months.

In any event, DO NOT marry your fiancee unless you finally decide to go the CR-1 route, note the K-3 has been obsoleted.

[az110965 252]

First of all - Welcome to VJ. You'll find this forum an excellent source of information and an all around pretty good bunch of people.

As far as your current situation regarding the divorce: You can not even file your I-129F until your divorce becomes final due to the fact that you must both be free to marry upon submitting the I-129F petition, so don't even think about filing until you have a certified copy of your divorce decree in your hands.

Next, I hope you don't think this will be an inexpensive proposition. Upfront, you'll have $455 in filing fees for the I-129F, costs to have documents sent to your fiancee to sign and more costs to send them back to you so you can file (or costs associated with travel to see her and do the documents together).

Next is the physical, x-ray and blood work (currently about $150 in San Jose) and of course the visa fee (currently $131 in San Jose but is rumored to be increasing to $355 pretty soon).

Then of course, you'll have travel expenses for your fiancee to travel to San Jose for the interview if she doesn't live close to San Jose and expenses in getting her here to you (airfare, departure tax, luggage fees, etc)...

Then the HUGE expenses come with AOS ($1,010), the cost of planning a wedding, a car for her, etc, etc, etc...

My fiance and her daughter will arrive here on May 28 and so far with travel expenses to visit her, all my visa related costs, plus expenses in preparing for her arrival (furniture for her daughter, a car, etc...) I've spent about $15,000. Of course this doesn't include clothes that your fiancee will need once she arives and the additional expenses that will occur simply from feeding another person, providing health and dental insurance and everything else that comes with a new wife.

The good news about San Jose is that getting an interview date is REALLY quick after they receive your approved petition from NVC. In most cases, after you advise San Jose that you are ready with all they ask for in the packet 3, you'll have an interview date in 2-3 weeks. I recommedn you be there for the interview.

Good luck, and if you have any further questions about the experience (especially related to San Jose) feel free to ask me.

Alan

[baron555 934]

I am new here - looking at the timelines is pretty confusing - form numbers and abbreviations and such. My head is spinning. I've been searching and reading FAQ's and looking at charts and reading posts now for hours and still don't seem to have a full grasp on all of this. Somebody please give me a sanity check here.

I am divorcing my wife and want to marry my Costa Rican girlfriend, have her move here and start working before my house is foreclosed. It sounds like the K1 visa is the fastest way to go. She has a tourist visa now, and can come and visit me again - but not work - which doesn't help much. It looks like the process would be about 7 months or so to get her here, and another two months for the work permit? Is that in the ballpark?

We have been together for about four years and making a long distance romance work as my long and slow divorce grinds away. But I am running out of time and money and could really use her help here financially as well as emotionally and with just daily life. For example I could save $400 a month in daycare with her watching my son, and could work some overtime which I can't do now because of daycare. So having her here would not only be great for our relationship, but would ease the financial burdens as well. I know things will be fine once we marry and we are both working.

Does anyone have any advice that would help get us by until we get my divorce finished and here here with me to start our new family? Sorry if this has been answered many times over, but I haven't been able to find what I am looking for - or it is clouded in a shroud of abbreviations and nomenclature I am not yet well versed in.

Thanks!

You have to be free to marry when you first file for the K-1 petition. This means that the divorce must be final and you have the certified divorce decree in hand before you first file for the K-1 visa. And, you must have that in hand before you can go and marry this newer woman.

So first things first. Yes your CR girlfriend can come and visit you and maybe work illegally but finalizing the divorce seems to be your biggest hinderance.

[TBoneTX 44,674]

I recommend you be there for the interview.

If Alan recommends this, take heed -- avoid underestimating any Latin American consulate when it comes to visa interviews.

[ThaitoUSA 15]

To the OP, you must have your divorce finalized before filing the K-1 petition. You mentioned that it is occurring slowly, so it might be longer than the anticipated 5 to 7 months.

[Just Call Me Rich 0]

Thank you all for the kind words and replies. I just wanted to drop a follow-up note for a few things.

1) Yes, I am very aware that I have to get my divorce finalized first before we can file. That is a sticking point with me an her. I have finished everything I need to do for the divorce, but my ex has been lax and just as we were about to get close to a final court date for a "show up and finish or he wins by default" type judgement, she had an issue where her family and I agreed I needed to take emergency custody of my son, who she had at the time. This complicated and delayed things quite a bit - not to mention adding another 10K in lawyers fees to the process (hence my original concern about money).

2) NO - she is DEFIANTLY not just coming here to work as a personal slave. We are not newly in love - we have been together about 4 years (the divorce has been going on for about 5 years) and we met during her first tourist visa stay and eventually loved together for a few months before she had to return. Through the magic of the internet and yahoo messenger, we have been able to stay in nearly constant contact - which has been a lifesaver. She is a designer/artist by nature and trade and has training in an in demand field and can make a good living here and plans to work once she gets here anyway. It is all part of the overall plan. My 'wake up in the middle of the night" worries recently have been because a long talked about promotion at work was just offered to me this past week, then taken back due to a technicality. I basically had the rug pulled out from under me after 3 years of working on this promotion. It still may come one day - but the financial situation is starting to become critical as my mortgage resets July 1st and I am already paying $1000 more a month in bills than what I earn. Cashing in CD's, stocks, insurance policies, 401K's to keep going in this period before we can be together is stressful and she feels about as powerless as me to help. In other words: It's complicated. many angles to consider and each affects the next.

3) Expenses for a new wife - most of those are not too bad. She lived here with me before and so we already have some clothes and things of hers here. the expenses are not too bad, and with here even staying on a tourist visa, I can save $100 a week in daycare for my son - which should make up any extra costs she incurs. Plus she is working on her own and insists to use her own money for her own things as she understands the financial situation right now. We are a team in this, and each do our part to help. For me it means eating groceries from Dollar Tree and takings the leftovers for my work lunch the next day. For her it is working and saving at her end. She is offering to give ME money each month to help make ends meet - how sweet is that? I told her to keep it and save it for expenses in coming here and shipping things. But she is an excellent packer and can bring huge bags full of clothes and shoes to get her going - plus what she has here already since last time we had a feeling she would be back.

If I haven't said it, yes, we love each other. Maybe that is why I haven't said it here - it's just that obvious to anyone who sees us together that we are in love, that I sometimes forget that I have to explain that sometimes. It's weird. Little things happen all the time to keep us in each others minds - for example one of our songs just came on the radio as I am typing this. When one is sick, the other one can 'feel' it. We have woken each other up in the middle of the night thinking of each other - about a worry or nightmare or something - to the point of sending or getting a text at 3am asking what is wrong was not uncommon at one point. We are both more secure in our relationship now, so that happens less, but I still get a sense of her feelings - thousands of miles apart. Its weird, but true. Has that ever happened to any of you?

OK - rambling now - but thanks to you all for helping dial me into a time frame estimate to help with planning once the divorce papers get in my hands (next month, hopefully!) I am a little less worried about money as I applied for a few other positions online and updated my resume, plus found a place to post an ad for a roommate, and also got my bank statement that showed that my tax refund came in, and I can breathe a bit easier, but we are not out of the woods yet considering how much money is hemorrhaging from my accounts now for essential services stemming from me buying her out of the house....

Ok - rambling again - better save it for the memoirs.

Thanks!