Advice regarding my situation and visa options

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Hmm I see...so if we married in the US while she's here on her tourist visa and I begin the process for CR-1 this is perfectly ok? My worry here is about her entering with a tourist visa and we get married would somehow cause issues with the paperwork.

-JC

You don't need a special visa to marry in the US. Think of destination weddings. I think Harsh's timeline above is pretty nice.

[Session 0]

Entering after you file for CR1 on tourist visa could be tricky and CBP officer can deny entry.

Same time She can enter on tourist visa next week, you can marry within the time she has in US and file for CR1 from US... that is completely legal.

For you she could enter in May (assuming she would be granted 6 months on tourist visa) start your CR1 process, go back to Taiwan get married in October and she can finish off the remaining CR1 process in Taiwan, do her interview and medical in Taiwan and come back by end of December.

So this way ideally you guys would be away from each other only for 3-4 months.... not bad.

That was actually how we had wanted to do it but wasn't sure whether marrying while she's on a tourist visa would jeopardize paperwork/filing. Apparently this isn't the case so all the better

So right now it seems the best choice would be to marry my fiance when she visits later this year, I start filing for CR-1, she stays with me here in the US (she has a 6 month visa) until we take our trip to Taiwan to get married in October, then she waits out the CR-1 process in Taiwan. Thanks a lot, you guys have been a tremendous help.

-JC

[Operator 1,927]

That was actually how we had wanted to do it but wasn't sure whether marrying while she's on a tourist visa would jeopardize paperwork/filing. Apparently this isn't the case so all the better

So right now it seems the best choice would be to marry my fiance when she visits later this year, I start filing for CR-1, she stays with me here in the US (she has a 6 month visa) until we take our trip to Taiwan to get married in October, then she waits out the CR-1 process in Taiwan. Thanks a lot, you guys have been a tremendous help.

-JC

JC,

Just to reaffirm what you were told, If I was to do it again I would do it exactly the way they have advised you. My now wife had a tourist visa during our K-1 wait and she visited several times. Had I been a better student I would have married her first and then applied for a CR-1 and she would already have her green card.

Good luck and be sure to ask lots of questions!

Edited January 10, 2012 by Operator

[Laure&Colin 558]

Hi I'm hoping to get some ideas and advice from people here regarding my situation.

I am a US citizen and my fiance is a Taiwanese national. We have been together for over 4 years and recently got engaged. We have a set wedding date in Taiwan on October of this year. Our goal is that she will come here to the US to live with me. And right now we seem to have 3 options that I could use some advice as to which is better to approach.

1.) She has a valid tourist visa expiring 2014. Using the tourist visa, we get married here in the US before our October wedding, I apply for a K-3 visa in the mean time. She will be returning to Taiwan so this would technically be legal but would it cause issues later with USCIS since I hear using a tourist visa to marry is risky?

2.) Apply for the K-1 visa now and hope the process completes before October so she can arrive using the K-1 visa and we get married in the US prior to the Taiwan wedding date (so we don't go the tourist visa route and possibly cause issues with that). The risk here is the process doesn't complete in time and I have to start over with a K-3 visa. If it does complete in time, that means she would be able to legally live here with me sooner.

3.) Wait until after our Taiwan wedding and I apply for a K-3 visa.

We are pretty much ok with any of these options. If I go with option 3, would she not be allowed to visit me in the US until the K-3 completes? We would like to be together here in the US as much as it is possible. Also would she be denied entry at the POE if we are in the process of a K-1/K-3 visa and she tries to visits me in the U.S using her tourist visa?

I could use some help. Thanks in advance for any insight.

-JC

Option 1 is perfectly OK. It's legal to get married on a tourist visa as long as your spouse doesn't intend to stay afterwards. If you get married, and they she goes back home, there's no problem with it.

Option 2 won't work: even if the process for the K1 visa was over by October, I really doubt she would yet be able to travel back to Taïwan for the wedding. She will need to apply for travel authorization once in the US and it takes a while.

Option 3: well yes, but then she wouldn't be here before the summer of 2013, at least.

In 1 and 3, what you would apply for is a CR1, not a K3. K3 virtually doesn't exist any longer.