Colombian Spousal Visa??

[lmalagon90 0]

My husband and I are considering the best route to pursue for our visa. We are not yet married! I understand the fiance visa takes roughly 9 months and prior to the TLC agreement the spousal visa took 1.5-2 years. But with the new TLC agreement I have heard the spousal visa is much quicker. I am looking for some honest opinions of the best visa process to pursue. Thank you ...LM

[florida4life 29]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

You can look here to compare the difference

[The Mean Lady 604]

PS- if you aren't married, he isn't your husband yet.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

The K-1 on average will take one to two months less time, it costs a bit more overall, and has one more set of paperwork on the tail end than the I-130 route.

You could file the K-1 today but you can't file the I-130 (for a married couple) until you are married.

The actual act of getting married in Colombia involves more paperwork than would be needed in the US but much of that paperwork is also useful for the paperwork for a visa anyway. Having a nice wedding in Colombia will be less expensive than a nice wedding in the US.

We chose to get married first in Colombia and then took 8 months to complete the I-130 process - had all the paperwork ready to go before the wedding and then once we had the marriage paperwork I filed. Married in mid February, she arrived in the US in mid November.

Good luck on your journey.

Edited July 19, 2013 by OnMyWayID

[NikLR 13,227]

***moved to general immigration as OP Is looking for information on multiple visa processes***

[NickD 203]

In my first visit to Colombia as a natural born US citizen with a US passport, no visa, was welcomed with open arms. Ha, welcome to Colombia, spend lots of your US dollars. For my mother-in-law, a very sweet woman, owning two properties, family ties in Colombia, took her over a year to get a tourist visa to come to the US. Upon entering into the US, they did a strip search on this very sweet old woman to check her for drugs.

For her, that was a very embarrassing and tedious welcome to the USA, her first comment was, I never want to come to the USA again, you come and visit me from now on.

I can't even recall all the details for my wife and I to get married in Colombia, just remember it was long and tedious. Then another setback living in Wisconsin, according to their law, not mine, we had to get our marriage certificate in my county or would be subject to a $10,000 fine, both my wife to be and me had to show up in person to apply with all of our documents then had a two week waiting period to check them out before we received our license. Wife already had a tourist visa.

To keep the USCIS happy, elected for us to get married by a federal judge, he was so honored I selected him, he refused to take any money or even a donation to a charity. But it did cost us $5.00 to get that married certificate. I got $40.00 worth as already knew all the people we had to give that to. Also against the law in Wisconsin to make any copies of that certificate.

We had a reception here in a very nice hall with just my family and friends with a good meal for $25.00 a plate. Later we flew down to Colombia and invited my wife's family and friends to what I would call, not quite the hall we had here, but was $50.00 a plate. So much for Colombia being cheaper if that is your goal.

According to the USCIS, petitioning for your spouse is number one priority, I would sure hat to be in that number 2 position. With us, they took 13 months, I also had to take on a second job to pay all of their fees, was over twice as much as my wife does have a daughter. We would never let three months go by without a visit, but we stuck it out. Would think that would carry some weight in our AOS interview and all that evidence we could provide. One thing they did understand, couldn't even share my bank accounts with my own wife due to that crazy APA. But what they put us through, still only gave my wife and stepdaughter a conditional green card because we were only married 13 months. But after that, we finally could live together.

The ROC was the worse phase of our journey due to extremely long delays and having to explain to other governmental agencies what in the heck is a one year extension notice. Then having to make yet another long journey so my wife and stepdaughter could get I-551 stamps in their foreign passports

Then to have our marriage evaluated by a kid on much older than my stepdaughter. As a veteran of a foreign war, the worse part for me was to remain clam, cool. collective, and friendly, when I never had a more powerful urge to kill. But was expected to do that to defend the freedom of people I never even heard of, what about my own freedom and my own family?

Another consideration was to find a country that would accept us both so we could be together. Cost Rica is such a place. But we stuck it out.

If you can find a better route, let the rest of us know, I couldn't, but all this should be history for us. Those days went by very slowly for us, but they did go by.