Which visa is best and fastest?

[CrystalDream 0]

I am sooooooooooooo confused!!

What visa would be fastest and best?

The fiance visa, the K-3 spousal or the IR1/CR1???????? My fiance lives in the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, the Direct Counsular Spousal visa is probably not an option for us.

So from my understanding, we could either be married religiously and then apply for the fiance visa, or get married over there, and apply for one of the others. I read some info on each one on this site, but am still very confused. I would very much appreciate some opinons. Thank you so much!!

[aussiewench 9]

There can be many variables eg which service center you would be filing through. I-129F for fiance was usually the quickest way but I'm not so sure of that anymore as a result of IMBRA (lots of threads on this at the moment) plus I-129F petitions for spouse (filed through NBC after submission of I-130) for K-3 had closed the gap considerably and in many cases were beign approved earlier then a fiance petiton was. I-130's for CR-1 have been moving relatively fast for a while now making this visa very good option as it gives you the green card on entry with no adjusting status etc once in the US. Have a read of the guide HERE for further comparisons.

Beneficiarys/applicants from certain countries also have to undergo extra security checks which can add considerable time to your journey. Based on what I have read it seems to be a better option to file as a spouse when from these countries. If someone could confirm or refute that, I would appreciate.

Don't forget to have a good read of all the guides here on VJ in the tabs at the top of each page. The entire site is a great source of information and support on this journey. Welcome aboard.

Lorelle

[john_and_marlene 162]

"Best" and "Fastest" may not be the same visa.

I've seen many posts here where couples have extreme hardship because they chose what they thought was the fastest visa, but then the foreign spouse was unable to work without work authorization. Consider your personal circumstances carefully. If you choose to get married first and then file for IR1/CR1 and you wait for that to be complete, then your spouse will have the ability to get a drivers license and work immediately on arrival. If you choose to possibly go faster with a K3 or K1, the wait for work authorization can take months and in many states they won't even be able to get a drivers license without it.

We chose K1 because it was supposedly faster and we didn't have any plans for Marlene to work.

I'm not even sure that K1 will be any faster now with the new requirements for the USC checks imposed by the recent new requirements.

Edited May 23, 2006 by john_and_marlene