Applying for K1 Visa while Fiance is out of home country

[TheanneAndRicardo 1]

Hey All,

I have a kind of complicated question. My fiance and I are planning to apply for a K1 visa. He is from Chile and I am a US citizen. He will be traveling for work to China for about a year. He is self employed (small company owner) and will be living in China for business purposes. We would ideally like to start the K1 application process while he is still in China and time it so that when he is ready to return to Chile, he will have the consulate forms about to arrive and he will have little time to wait for the interview (so about 2 months or less before the interview.) Our problem is with filling out the I-129F form. It asks for a home address, and we were planning on putting his company address, since all his official mail is sent there anyway. But on the G-325A form (biographical info) we must list his residence within the last 5 years. At the time of our filing is current residence will be China. Would having his home address on the I-129f form be in Chile and his last current address be in china on the G-325A form cause us problems? If so, is there a way to have a home address be different from mailing address? I know this is a weird question so any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Theanne

[beejay 123]

Hi Theanne!

I just wanted to offer you another suggestion, if your fiance is going to have legal residency in China you can request for the interview to be there and then you don't have to worry about address discrepancies. You could look into the process for both embassies on here and see if one might be better for you than the other (Some embassies seem to have different requirements or tend to be tougher than others). My husband and I were living in a 3rd country when we went through our visa process. He was able to interview at the embassy in the country we were living rather than having to go back home for his interview. It was much easier for us to do it that way. You should decide what works best for you and your SO but know that he has the option to interview in China as long as he can prove legal residence there.

Good luck!

[TheanneAndRicardo 1]

Hi Theanne!

I just wanted to offer you another suggestion, if your fiance is going to have legal residency in China you can request for the interview to be there and then you don't have to worry about address discrepancies. You could look into the process for both embassies on here and see if one might be better for you than the other (Some embassies seem to have different requirements or tend to be tougher than others). My husband and I were living in a 3rd country when we went through our visa process. He was able to interview at the embassy in the country we were living rather than having to go back home for his interview. It was much easier for us to do it that way. You should decide what works best for you and your SO but know that he has the option to interview in China as long as he can prove legal residence there.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for the info! He will technically be there on a Student Visa. Do you know if this counts as legal residency or not? It will be a visa for a 1 year period. Again, thanks soooo much for the info I had no idea this was possible!

[TheanneAndRicardo 1]

Hi Theanne!

I just wanted to offer you another suggestion, if your fiance is going to have legal residency in China you can request for the interview to be there and then you don't have to worry about address discrepancies. You could look into the process for both embassies on here and see if one might be better for you than the other (Some embassies seem to have different requirements or tend to be tougher than others). My husband and I were living in a 3rd country when we went through our visa process. He was able to interview at the embassy in the country we were living rather than having to go back home for his interview. It was much easier for us to do it that way. You should decide what works best for you and your SO but know that he has the option to interview in China as long as he can prove legal residence there.

Good luck!

Oh and one last question, how do you go about requesting to have the interview be in the country of legal residence? Would we then put his home address as being in China and all the paperwork will be sent there (ie notification of interview date, etc) THANKS AGAIN!!!

[beejay 123]

Thank you so much for the info! He will technically be there on a Student Visa. Do you know if this counts as legal residency or not? It will be a visa for a 1 year period. Again, thanks soooo much for the info I had no idea this was possible!

Hopefully someone comes along that knows about China and can answer this. If not, I would post this question in the China forum on this website. We have quite a few informed members with spouses from that country. You could also google and check the Chilean or U.S. embassy's website in China for some more information... but I would assume (although you should not take my word for it) that if the student visa allows you to legally live in China that that can be used to request for the interview to be at the embassy in China.

Oh and one last question, how do you go about requesting to have the interview be in the country of legal residence? Would we then put his home address as being in China and all the paperwork will be sent there (ie notification of interview date, etc) THANKS AGAIN!!!

We included the request in the cover letter of our initial I-129f packet. We said something along the lines of "since the beneficiary is legally residing in the UAE, as evidenced by the copy of his residency permit included in this packet, we request that his interview be at the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi. That was all we said and his stuff was sent to Abu Dhabi and we had the interview there.

[TheanneAndRicardo 1]

Hopefully someone comes along that knows about China and can answer this. If not, I would post this question in the China forum on this website. We have quite a few informed members with spouses from that country. You could also google and check the Chilean or U.S. embassy's website in China for some more information... but I would assume (although you should not take my word for it) that if the student visa allows you to legally live in China that that can be used to request for the interview to be at the embassy in China.

We included the request in the cover letter of our initial I-129f packet. We said something along the lines of "since the beneficiary is legally residing in the UAE, as evidenced by the copy of his residency permit included in this packet, we request that his interview be at the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi. That was all we said and his stuff was sent to Abu Dhabi and we had the interview there.

Thanks again soo much for the info! I did find that the Student Visa in China will give him a residency permit and we can use this. Thanks again. You really don't know how much easier this will make things for us!

[beejay 123]

Glad I could help Hopefully you won't have to delay sending in your petition now.

Filing through a 3rd country (as I found out) is a relatively easy and not uncommon thing to do. I would also suggest doing a search on here to see if there are other non-Chinese nationals who filed through China to see what their process was like.