To MARRY FIRST OR NOT? WHAT IS FASTER for Exit Visa??

[lasiren7174 4]

My Cuban fiance said that they told him at the embassy in Havana that it is easier and faster for him to obtain an exit visa if we marry first, has anyone heard this before??? We were about to file an I-129F and now he is telling me this and is very concerned that we are about to embark on a longer path than necessary. Has anyone heard this or know of anyone, especially dealing with Cuba, and think that they should have marrried first?

Thank you!

[Marco&Bettina 502]

If you marry first, it will take longer.

[sweet cakes 326]

My Cuban fiance said that they told him at the embassy in Havana that it is easier and faster for him to obtain an exit visa if we marry first, has anyone heard this before??? We were about to file an I-129F and now he is telling me this and is very concerned that we are about to embark on a longer path than necessary. Has anyone heard this or know of anyone, especially dealing with Cuba, and think that they should have marrried first?

Thank you!

Comparison between fiance and spousal visa: http://www.visajourn...content/compare

Just disregard the K-3 and DCF part. Lead times start from filing the petition to visa issuance.

Fiance to arrive in USA, faster with the K-1 visa route. For him to get a green card, faster with the IR-1/CR-1 route, that is, spousal visa will make him a Lawful Permanent Resident / green card holder once the spouse arrives in USA.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

***** Title changed to be more descriptive and moved to regional forum for Cuba specific answers *****

[MV & AG 1]

Marrying first will make the process shorter overall, but be prepared for sticker shock when you find out how much it is to marry in Cuba...they charge foreigners a considerable fee...so it will cost more.

[lasiren7174 4]

How will it make it shorter overall?

My fiance and I want to marry asap but he is in Cuba and I am in the US. I cannot get there until August which will make our "start" time in September for filling the I-130. Or we can proceed as we had planned as fiances and I will file the I-129F at the end of May (3 months earlier than if we were married). I thought that getting him here is more or less the same time frame/process married or unmarried. I understand that the process is slightly fast from the time he arrives to receives his green card if he arrives as my husband rather than my fiance but his biggest concern is getting him here.

[Peace&Love 26]

If your are getting married in Cuba be ready all the documents and fees you need to pay.

You have to take:

- Birth certificated
- passport
- divorce certificated (martial status showing your are single)

All these documents have to be translated to Spanish and legalized by the Cuban consulates In the US. I heard the one in DC closed temporally.

Costs:

For the instruction of the marriage file, formalization and delivery of two marriage certificated: 525 cuc.
For to be the notary in person outside the international juridic consolatory in labor hours: 100 cuc. Out labor hours: 150 cuc.
For protocol birth, single and divorce certificates: 100 cuc for each documents.
The rapidness: 75 cuc

There might be some additional costs here and there. That info I got was from my fiance, interestingly it is very expensive what you pay for officials to get marry in Cuba. I was thinking to get married in a third country if my fiance get visa to Brazil or Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean. Good luck!

[pepper44 18]

zetete is correct- to get married in cuba cost an arm and you are looking at at least $1000.00 just for the paper work and the marriage. This does not include your trip or the filing for the visa.. you have two things to consider here though.. do you want him here faster or do you want to be sure he gets here?

K-1 visa for fiancee they seem to be rejecting people in cuba lately

the CR- visa you are already married less paper work maybe more time apart but more of a chance for him to get here.

K-1 could be denied then you would have to turn around and start the process all over again (after getting married).

its your call.

I keep hearing on here the K-3 Visa is non existant.. for those that can answer this please explain to me why it is still on the USCIS site???

It states you can apply for the K-3 while you are waiting for the CR-130 to be processed for you to have your spouse with you while you wait.

[Peace&Love 26]

I'm not clear about k-3. The only option for me is CR-1. They just refused our k-1 for no reasons. You will be surprised if you see the amount of emails, texts, phone bills and photos we submitted as evidence and nothing was missing. I'm starting to believe it is a matter of luck and doesn't matter how much prove you can provide. It sucks, but love is powerful than the consulate decision and will try what it takes to be together. So, might be good for you to marry and try the CR-1 instead of the k-1.

I thought it will be a good experience for my fiance to get out of Cuba a bit, also instead of paying 1000CUC for the paper works, buying plain ticket to somewhere else make sense to me. Even if it cost us more to travel somewhere else, I wouldn't mind paying for the experience than paying for painful paper work process. At the end I will have to file the CR-1. Good luck!

[lasiren7174 4]

Everyone who I have spoken with has told me that marrying in Cuba is pointless unless we are planning to live there, which we are not. I only know a handful of people who have gotten married first but in the end it turned out to be a longer process for them to bring their wives/hisbands out of Cuba. My fiance has been approved 5 times to leave on artist visas and he has always returned. Wouldn't they take that into consideration as well as all of our evidence? He has had the opportunity twice to defect and stay with me but it is really important that we do this legally so that he maintains his Cuban rights, etc...so he always goes back home.

If I have to marry him to guarentee his exit I will in a second but it seems that he can get denied just as easily as my husband as he can as my fiance. Are there statistics on this? I am about to file our I-129F in May and I just want to be sure before we start....but I'm getting the feeling there is no "sure"

Thanks for everyone's input!

[Peace&Love 26]

Hmmm, I do not know if it is a pointless to get marry in Cuba. It doesn't matter where you get marry, but you will need the prove that you are married. Yes, there is no other way than doing legally if you guys want to live in the US. If your fiance has been in the US with artist visa in the past and returned back that is a good record. It is possible that they take that in to consideration. The fiance visa takes time almost as the CR-1 especially to get appointment for the interview in Havana (About 5 months ). My case was approved from USCIS with in 15 days and what drugged the process was the wait time for the interview and after the interview we didn't know the result for 52 days. Finally I had to involve the congressman and their answer was we denied the visa, still today we didn't get formal letter of denial. But I'm not going to wait till the petition gets back to USCIS 4-6months to reapply again for K-1 also by that time the petition will expire. The advantage for applying for spouse visa is that, the petition will not expire. If the spouse visa denied you can appeal and try it again. But for K-1 you have to start from the beginning again. Well, try your fiance visa as you said, there might be a good chance that you will be approved if not you will try other options .

For me both the fiance and spouse visa should be equally valid as long us you can proof true relationship. But there is not guarantee for that from my own experience, you just have to try your luck.

Good luck with everything!

[pepper44 18]

lasiren-

Who has told you it is pointless to marry in Cuba unless you plan to live there? I have never heard of this from my friends or other people on here. I know someone who married his girlfriend who is Cuban and he lives here.. he has applied for the spouse visa to bring her here. He said it was a pretty simple process for him.

As for your fiancee returning to Cuba each time because he doesn't want to lose his status.. What if he stayed here in the states for the year and one day and then received his greencard and become a perm resid.. Are you saying he is not allowed to go back to Cuba ever if he did do that?

[lasiren7174 4]

I just meant that it is about proving that the relationship is real and it seems that if we are married and I apply for the I-130 or as a fiance on the I-129F, they still are going to investigate the same, as if us being married wasn't an added incentive to the evidence part. I can't wait to marry my fiance but we are ready to file the I-129F in May. If I change that I cannot get to Cuba to marry until August which means delayign the process for the I-130 by 3 months, maybe even 4 months compared to if we started in May. I am just trying to make the best decision from the beginning so that I don't have to change part way and have to start over. If I can find enough eveidence that marrying him first would expidite his entereance into the US or make it more of a sure thing than I would do it but I haven't had enough feed back to puch me in that direction yet. The attorneys I talk to are aren't half as knowledgeable as everyone who is going through it first hand so I really appreciate all of your responses

Pepper44 - I'm cautious to answer your question about him returning to Cuba becuase there are different routes for them to come and stay and still return without getting into trouble/retaining his cuban rights but the wait time for them to be able to return is different and I'm not 100% on all the details. I know that if it is on a spouse/fiance visa they can return the fastest and becuase my fiance has lots of family in Cuba and I want his prohibited time of travel to be at the minimum.

[Sarah&Michel 6]

If time is your concern, go the K-1 route. The Cuban Interests Section (SICUW) in DC has suspended consular services and who knows when they will resume. As others have said, if you choose to marry in Cuba you will need to get certain documents notarized by SICUW, but for now, that is not possible.

Why are you waiting until May to file the I-129F? Why not file it now?

[lasiren7174 4]

I am sending the G-325A and letter of Intent to marry with a family memebr traveling in May, he will sign and she will bring back to me.