How long to get Wife from China to USA

[John Huangdu 0]

What do I need to do to get my soon to be wife from China to live in USA. We will marry in China in March of 2009 and I want her to be able to move to the USA as soon as possible. How long does the process take?

[payxibka 10,047]

Probably March 2010... it is at best probably 1 year from petition filing... petition cannot be filed until after she is your spouse

[YuAndDan 153]

Spousal visa through Guangzhou can take up to a year or so to get.

Note CR-1 tends to take about 30 days longer to get than K-3 through that consulate.

I highly recommend that you Join and research that consulate on "A candle for Love" http://candleforlove.com

[sardes 0]

What do I need to do to get my soon to be wife from China to live in USA. We will marry in China in March of 2009 and I want her to be able to move to the USA as soon as possible. How long does the process take?

It takes more than a year if you go with CR1 (immigrant spouse visa) and 7-8 months K-3 (non-immigrant spouse visa).. or you can try K-1 Fiance Visa which takes less time i think..

[YuAndDan 153]

What do I need to do to get my soon to be wife from China to live in USA. We will marry in China in March of 2009 and I want her to be able to move to the USA as soon as possible. How long does the process take?

It takes more than a year if you go with CR1 (immigrant spouse visa) and 7-8 months K-3 (non-immigrant spouse visa).. or you can try K-1 Fiance Visa which takes less time i think..

Not for GUZ, on average CR-1 takes 13 months, and K-3 takes 12, K-1 takes 9-10 months.

The CR-1 is an IMMIGRANT visa, and is the least expensive, it gets a green-card upon entry to the USA. K-3 may be a bot quicket, but it has the added expence of adjustment of status, and is NOT work auth so has the added 90 days or so of limbo where cann do things like get SSN, apply for driver's license, bank accounts, etc..

For the most part CR-1 tends to take a bit longer than K-3 to get if you prepare for NVC when they request I-864 fee, and Visa fee, as well as documents requested by NVC. In many cases the CR-1 petition reaches the consulate just before K-3 interview, which causes K-3 to get dropped and the interview becomes a CR-1 visa interview.

K-3:

I-130: $355

I-129F: NONE

Consulate: $131

AOS: $1010

($1496)

CR-1

I-130: $355

NVC I-864: $70

NVC Visa fee: $400 ($355+$45)

($825)

I see many posts from K-3 holders stating, "Wow this sucks, I am stuck at home because I don't have EAD, DL, etc, or I am having hard time getting added to bank accounts because of NO SSN." K-3 has a 90 day or longer period of limbo while waiting for EAD or Green-card.

K-3 was developed at a time when CR-1 was taking much longer that today, NVC has greatly streamlined the CR-1 process to the point where K-3 becomes irrelevant.

[pushbrk 13,108]

What do I need to do to get my soon to be wife from China to live in USA. We will marry in China in March of 2009 and I want her to be able to move to the USA as soon as possible. How long does the process take?

It takes more than a year if you go with CR1 (immigrant spouse visa) and 7-8 months K-3 (non-immigrant spouse visa).. or you can try K-1 Fiance Visa which takes less time i think..

One year from filing (which occurs only after the marriage) is a good target based on current timeline data. 7-8 months for a K3 would be too fast for Guangzhou. It's possible but highly unlikely.

If you're smart, you'll use the next three months to learn the process so you can be prepared to hit the ground running once you're married. Actually, you want to have a plan to obtain the documents you'll need to marry in China before you book your tickets. There's more than one way to accomplish that and the easiest is to plan to stop at a US Consulate in China on your way to get married.

Edited December 8, 2008 by pushbrk