The Love Boat - Cruise Ship Employee wanting to reside in the US.

[Trixter09 0]

I am hoping someone can help with my very particular and rare situation. My boyfriend and I currently work at sea. I say 'my boyfriend' as we are neither engaged nor married. That being said, together for 4 years, we're both happy to get married tomorrow and have been house-hunting, doing a lot of research and have found many great answers on this site. He is from Boston, myself, from Montreal. What we would like to continue working on ships until the visa is processed and, hopefully, approved. This means being away for 4 months at a time, but together. In order to do this, I need to visit the US on a B2, with a letter of employment from my cruise line. Basically - I'm not working in the US. I have no intent to work in the US. I am a seafarer but my home port is a US city - somewhere between Seattle and New Orleans most of the time. Is it possible to do either of the following: Apply for a K1. Once approved (hopefully!) enter the US within 6 months and marry within 90 days. Then, apply for residency and, while we wait, return for another contract - 4 months in length. OR could we get married and apply for a IR-1/CR-1 and do the same, take another contract while we wait. This would allow us to be together while we wait, but neither one of us being out of our home countries for more than 6 months. If they do call for an interview, how much time do they give you? If we're at sea somewhere, it's hard to drop and go on a dime, especially with the jobs we have. I've been at sea 10 years and finally want to hang up my lifejacket and trade it in for a mortgage..and we've chosen the US to do it, but I want to make sure I don't break the rules and, if possible, avoid being separated for up to a year. We're in our late 20s/early 30s, financially stable, in good health, no prior marriages and seem like we would qualify... I'd like to simply continue on with our employment until we receive an answer. Any ideas?! Any help - and I really mean ANY help at all - is immensely appreciated.

[milimelo 4,481]

Get married and file for CR-1. Look through the guides to see what sorts of documents and evidence they need and get those ready. Same with tax returns. You can postpone the interview for a later date that works for you (*true in most cases - don't know your home country).

One thing - do you have someone to check on your mail when you're at sea? Online tracking helps on uscis.gov but it's far from accurate.

[Trixter09 0]

thanks for that. seems from reading other threads i can visit the us without a problem while i wait so if my job takes me through there, should be ok. I'm Canadian. My brother does check my mail while I'm away so great point, I'd have to ask him to go to the mailbox more than once every other week. If I want to postpone the interview for whatever reason, do I lose priority or can I choose a date? I don't want to be picky and I'd probably just drop everything and go.. but at sea, it can get difficult. tax returns? Do you mean his or mine?

[milimelo 4,481]

thanks for that. seems from reading other threads i can visit the us without a problem while i wait so if my job takes me through there, should be ok. I'm Canadian. My brother does check my mail while I'm away so great point, I'd have to ask him to go to the mailbox more than once every other week. If I want to postpone the interview for whatever reason, do I lose priority or can I choose a date? I don't want to be picky and I'd probably just drop everything and go.. but at sea, it can get difficult. tax returns? Do you mean his or mine?

USC will have to have someone watch his mail for, NOA1 - paper saying they received his petition, any RFE (request for evidence) and to receive approval notice of the petition.

You as beneficiary would have to see how Canada handles interview appointments at the embassy/consulate. Venture over to Canada forum to get more details on what paperwork to get where and when.

[NikLR 13,227]

*** moved to General immigration as OP is discussing available visa paths ***

[aaron2020 11,651]

Get marry and go for the CR-1. Upon entering the US, you automatically get a green card. The green card allows you to work in the US as well as to leave and renter the US immediately.

With the K-1, your plan to leave for 4 months while it is processing will be difficult to do. First, you need AP to leave and reenter the US without abandoning the process. AP takes 2-3 months after you get marry and file to adjust. Second, if you leave after entering on the K-1 and without AP, you cannot use your cruise visa to enter the US with the intent to immigrate. Third, what happens if you are called to a meeting while you are out at sea? Will you be able to leave your ship and go to the meeting?

Get marry and do the CR-1 and save yourself a bunch of problems.

Edited June 18, 2013 by aaron2020

[christeen 966]

I too married cruise ship guy... We were married for 7 years before he filed for a green card, traveling only on VWP and the C1D the whole time...

Basically, My advice would be the following... File for the CR1. The Canadian citizen is working from the c1d visa ? Visiting the U.S. on the VWP ( no b2 needed unless they already have it)... I would get married and file for the CR1... While between contracts, Get all your documents ready for the process (follow the guides)... Then you can take another contract for 4 months (make sure you have a way to get mail)... This will put you at about the 5-6 month mark into the process, from there the Canadian citizen should be available to do all the stuff in Canada (but can come visit showing ties to Canada but many times with the c1d they are less stringent since you have shown a consistent record of not violating immigration rules) or you can visit in Canada...

The process is generally around 10 months but check with the Canadian forum to see what the processing times are specific to Canada...

[Jawaree 717]

I say get marry, go for it but make sure U have the correspondence

going to a reliable address, and someone U both keep in touch with weekly.

[Trixter09 0]

can't say how much we appreciate the advice. As Canadians, we don't have C1D's to work on ships.. we can just enter the US and join the ship. We're headed back to the ship next week so I think we're going to get everything ready while we're away and submit once we get back. This way we can leave again for 6 months and be ready for when the interview is scheduled. So long as they give me 2 weeks notice, i'll be fine. I really hope they give me 2 weeks notice. Thanks again everyone for your advice - truly appreciated.

[christeen 966]

You should have the 2 weeks notice... Sounds like you have a plan! Congratulations and good luck. Follow the guides on this site and you should be fine! Adjusting to life on land (and the short amount of vacation) will be an adjustment!

[Trixter09 0]

tell me about it. he's been at seat for nearly 5 years - i've been out for 10. working a 9-5 with 2 weeks vacation is probably one of the main reasons i don't mind staying on board while everything gets processed..

[christeen 966]

Mine was 17 years at sea (14 cruise line) he still works on ships, but just for a few days each week to repair them... But it is a different life... So when he found out 3 weeks vacation ( which I told him here in America that is a GOOD amount of time) he was like " what the heck " ? Gone are Those 4 months with 2 off or the 100 days/100 days contracts! It took some adjustments so be patient with each other. Mostly miss the crew family feeling...