K-1 and studying versus F-1 and marriage

[intx13 5]

Hello folks, this is my first post here; nice to meet everyone.

I am a US citizen and graduate student. My girlfriend is a Malaysian citizen and holds a US tourist visa. Relationship-wise we consider ourselves engaged but I'll refrain from saying so here to avoid confusion about status.

We intend to marry and she intends to study at the same university. There is a possibility that she could receive funding from the Malaysian government for studying, pending acceptance by the university and approval of an F-1 student visa. If she is not accepted, her student visa application is denied, or she does not receive funding, we intend to bring her to the US on a K-1 fiancee visa and marry (studying can wait a bit).

My questions are:

1. The F-1 student visa application can only be started in the spring of 2010, after the university and local government makes their decisions. Can we begin the application process for the K-1 fiancee visa prior to this, and simply abandon it if she is accepted, approved, and funded? I understand she cannot hold two non-immigrant visas at once.

2. If the answer to #1 is "yes", would it cause problems with her F-1 student visa application for her to have a K-1 fiancee visa partially on the books? In other words, would that evidence of a relationship and intent to marry hurt her chances of receiving a purely-student visa?

3. If she is accepted, approved, and funded and we proceed with an F-1 student visa and not a K-1 fiancee visa, can we marry? Or would this be a status violation and land us in hot water? In other words, can we convert directly from F-1 to K-3?

4. Suppose we apply for a K-1 visa and then she is accepted by the university (regardless of her local government's approval of study leave or funding). Suppose further that we move her to the US and within 90 days we are married and apply for conversion to conditional immigrant. Is she still eligible to accept the university's offer? In other words, can you attend a school on a different visa than that with which you applied, so long as you are eligible to be a student (in general)?

5. If you've gone through the K-1, K-3 process succesfully, was it as hard as you imagined prior to beginning?

Whew, ok. Answers to any, all, or just random thoughts are greatly appreciated

- Nate

[payxibka 10,045]

Hello folks, this is my first post here; nice to meet everyone.

I am a US citizen and graduate student. My girlfriend is a Malaysian citizen and holds a US tourist visa. Relationship-wise we consider ourselves engaged but I'll refrain from saying so here to avoid confusion about status.

We intend to marry and she intends to study at the same university. There is a possibility that she could receive funding from the Malaysian government for studying, pending acceptance by the university and approval of an F-1 student visa. If she is not accepted, her student visa application is denied, or she does not receive funding, we intend to bring her to the US on a K-1 fiancee visa and marry (studying can wait a bit).

My questions are:

1. The F-1 student visa application can only be started in the spring of 2010, after the university and local government makes their decisions. Can we begin the application process for the K-1 fiancee visa prior to this, and simply abandon it if she is accepted, approved, and funded? I understand she cannot hold two non-immigrant visas at once.

2. If the answer to #1 is "yes", would it cause problems with her F-1 student visa application for her to have a K-1 fiancee visa partially on the books? In other words, would that evidence of a relationship and intent to marry hurt her chances of receiving a purely-student visa?

3. If she is accepted, approved, and funded and we proceed with an F-1 student visa and not a K-1 fiancee visa, can we marry? Or would this be a status violation and land us in hot water? In other words, can we convert directly from F-1 to K-3?

4. Suppose we apply for a K-1 visa and then she is accepted by the university (regardless of her local government's approval of study leave or funding). Suppose further that we move her to the US and within 90 days we are married and apply for conversion to conditional immigrant. Is she still eligible to accept the university's offer? In other words, can you attend a school on a different visa than that with which you applied, so long as you are eligible to be a student (in general)?

5. If you've gone through the K-1, K-3 process succesfully, was it as hard as you imagined prior to beginning?

Whew, ok. Answers to any, all, or just random thoughts are greatly appreciated

- Nate

2) a visa is not "partially" on the books.... it is either on the books or not....

3) you can marry but the F-1 likely has a home residency requirement considering it is possibly partially funded by the government... No such thing as a conversion from F-1 to K-3. They are very different processes.

4) A conditional immigrant is a RESIDENT... a resident can go to school. Likely her funding is gone

5) A long process... but not terribly difficult for us...

[intx13 5]

Hi payxibka, thanks for the responses.

2) a visa is not "partially" on the books.... it is either on the books or not....

So I take that to imply that if we heard positive news from school/government there would be no penalty for abandoning the K-1 attempt in favor of an F-1; but if the K-1 was finished and the visa issued then it might appear disingenous to be suddenly trying to an F-1. Does that sound about right?

3) you can marry but the F-1 likely has a home residency requirement considering it is possibly partially funded by the government... No such thing as a conversion from F-1 to K-3. They are very different processes.

Gotcha.

4) A conditional immigrant is a RESIDENT... a resident can go to school. Likely her funding is gone

Ah ok, that I didn't know. I guess for further details I would need to talk to the university themselves.

5) A long process... but not terribly difficult for us...

That's encouraging

Anybody else have any input on #1, #2?

[bora bora 1]

I would say apply for one or the other, but not both. You may want to wait to find out if your fiancee will receive the student visa and study here. If not, then she can apply for the K1 and eventually go back to school (it won't take THAT long).

I don't think you'd want to apply for the K1 to cancel it and then reapply (if applicable) later on.

[Mloda88 0]

Hello,

the answer I am looking for might have been posted in this topic but my English isn't good enough to find it here. Therefore SORRY FOR THAT.

My fiance-to-be and I will be trying to get the K-1 visa for me. Say we got through the whole process and I got to the US and we got married and everything went just fine. Could I start studying after we got married? Or after we're going to start trying to get a GC for me (I mean send the documents to USCIS etc)? At first I would want to study at some Community College. WOuld it even matter if that were a Community College not University?

Thank you so much and again I am sorry if the answer has already been posted in this topic.

[intx13 5]

Hi Mloda88,

Yes, what payxibka was saying is that once you are married and do the status conversion, you are a resident, which is a status with a lot of "power". You can study as a resident.

I do not think that community college vs. university would have any difference - the only difference is in the degrees offered and the standing of the school, so there shouldn't be any problem.

[jcg303 1]

5. If you've gone through the K-1, K-3 process succesfully, was it as hard as you imagined prior to beginning?

Whew, ok. Answers to any, all, or just random thoughts are greatly appreciated

- Nate

i posted a similar question a couple of weeks ago, and it got a lot of discussion - you might check it out on my profile.

anyway, my fiancee was recently accepted to a university, and the school issued her an I-20. however, we filed an I-129F last march, so we decided to cancel the I-20 and continue with the K-1 process. with the K-1 visa, she will be able to move here and go to school. actually, i'm not sure you can attend school solely on a K-1 visa, but we'll file an AOS (I-485) asap, which is the petition for a green card. according to her chosen university, she will have resident status immediately after filing the AOS. your school might have a different policy, so check that out.

i don't think there's anything illegal about canceling the K-1 and filing for an F-1, but i imagine it would look fishy to USCIS, and i think the law allows USCIS to use their discretion when making decisions, so it's best to be honest about your intent. no doubt they keep extensive records and will see that you canceled the K-1.

that said, it's perfectly reasonable for foreign students to meet, fall in love, and marry US citizens while here in the States. if your SO came here on an F-1 and you married, say, 9 months after her arrival, USCIS would likely not question you. if you waited only 2 weeks, they would probably raise some eyebrows.

if she can't file for a student visa until next spring, when is she planning on enrolling? the K-1 process is long, but most likely not THAT long. as far as going from the F-1 to green card, i'm not sure how that process goes.

i'm sure everyone will agree with me that we want our SO's here asap and that the process can be consuming and anxiety-ridden. but i would advise against unnecessary risks. a few extra weeks apart is not much the big picture. GOOD LUCK!!!

[Mloda88 0]

Hi Mloda88,

Yes, what payxibka was saying is that once you are married and do the status conversion, you are a resident, which is a status with a lot of "power". You can study as a resident.

I do not think that community college vs. university would have any difference - the only difference is in the degrees offered and the standing of the school, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Thank you so much