Bring my fiance from Thailand. Should I mary her first

[PERRYPIM 0]

Hi.

I am about to get my US citizenship (after 5 years of GC) very soon.

My fiance is in Thailand (we are together for almost 3 years now and I visited her over 10 times).

Once I am a citizen, what is the fastest way of getting her to the US?

should I take the fiance visa option or fly there, get married and apply for a green card for her.

The issue is time, we have been waiting for such a long time to be together and now that I can soon start the process I have a hard time choosing what is the fastest way of getting her here.

Thanks

[Bobby+Umit 161]

K-1 may be a bit faster, but the CR-1 is a good visa to get (insta-greencard)

[amykathleen2005 441]

The fiance visa is the quickest but not by much.

[thongd4me 69]

I also vote for the fiancée visa; my wife and I knew each other for around 7

years before I did the K-1 petition; length of relationship has no bearing

on which route you take; where to get married is a personal decision.

However if you get married and the petition is denied, it may be a lot

more tricky to unwind if you decide (yes it does happen) that ultimately

you are not for each other. The fiancée visa lets the prospective spouse

see if they really want to live in the US before finally deciding to marry.

If you do get mary-ed, it may be hard to find a Catholic-Buddhist church

Hail Mary!

Edited August 26, 2010 by thongd4me

[PERRYPIM 0]

If you do get mary-ed, it may be hard to find a Catholic-Buddhist church

Hail Mary!

In my case a Jewish -Buddhist Temple

[PERRYPIM 0]

I see from your timeline that it was very quick process in Thaniland.

Did you do it yourself or used local attorney to file the papers / help with the documentations?

Any recomendations

[thongd4me 69]

I see from your timeline that it was very quick process in Thaniland.

Did you do it yourself or used local attorney to file the papers / help with the documentations?

Any recomendations

You'll have to ask our friend Daboyz about attorneys, but I did it all myself,

with no help from friends* or relatives. If your case doesn't have any red

flags (violation of immigration regulations in the past) there should be

no reason to use an attorney. With or without an attorney, you have to

double-check everything and then triple-check it. When I thought I was

finished with the paperwork for one step, I usually took at least a day

to review it and think about everything I entered, because when you put

it in writing it can come back to bite you in the bum.

Our K-1 process was done in record time and to take it for what it's worth,

I front-loaded it with about 80 pages of chats & emails, because

we've known each other for more than 7 years now.

With the AOS, we filed that in under the 3-month limit so there were

no world records there, but that process went smoothly as well.

*Except my VJ friends!

Edited August 27, 2010 by thongd4me

[Kang Lang 7]

agree w/ td4me on the lawyers...if your case is simple and without any redflags you can absolutely do it yourself just be detail oriented and meticulous. i used an attorney for the k-1 and it was a complete waste of time and $$ i ended up doing most of the work myself. i usually notified him when there was action taken on our case. i successfully did the aos on my own and will prepare the roc paperwork on my own pretty soon here.

good luck!

[thongd4me 69]

agree w/ td4me on the lawyers...if your case is simple and without any redflags you can absolutely do it yourself just be detail oriented and meticulous. i used an attorney for the k-1 and it was a complete waste of time and $$ i ended up doing most of the work myself. i usually notified him when there was action taken on our case. i successfully did the aos on my own and will prepare the roc paperwork on my own pretty soon here.

good luck!

Yes, even if you use a lawyer you have to check their work; the actual paperwork is done by clerks

and the law firm gets paid even if they screw up - they are paid by the hour, not by results; in fact

their standard contract forms say they can't guarantee results.