HELP some doctors!

[laybar 0]

Hey, everyone:

I love this forum b/c everyone seems so helpful!

My problem is basically this: I'm a U.S. Citizen and came to my parents country, Dominican Republic, to study Medicine. This is where I met my current fiancee, who is a Dominican national.

We are both interested in getting a position in U.S. hospitals in order to specialize in our careers. From what I've found out, hospitals are a lot more interested in candidates if they don't need visas (Dominican Republic is the 4th largest exporter of doctors to the U.S. for training); since we were planning to get married I thought it might be better to apply for a K1 before December 2006 when we'd have to get interviews in hospitals to get in in 2007.

We'd have to take one more exam in June/July INSIDE the U.S. (called Step2 CS) and we already payed for it (1,200 dollars/e). They've offered to send her a letter saying she needs to take that exam so that our U.S. Embassy in D.R. gives her a visa for those means. MY PROBLEM IS THIS: I'm afraid if I start filing for this K1 now the Embassy in D.R. would find out and deny her a visa for the exam, thinking she was somehow trying to get around the legal process

Would it be better to NOT file, get her a visa for the test and marry in the U.S. (sounds BAD), or would that be regarded as trying to change status illegaly?

Should I wait until we take the exam, come back to D.R. and THEN file for the visa? The only problem with this is that I was interested in her doing some rotations in U.S. hospitals BEFORE December interviews so that the experience lit up her resume.

Please help as I've seen you guys help so many more! ANY options I haven't mentioned, PLEASE add to mine!

[Kajikit 65]

It sounds like your situation is a bit complicated... you might have to sit down and carefully consider your options. To an outsider, it sounds like the simplest option is to delay filing the K1 visa until after she's done her exam in the US, since it's so vitally important to her career. Another option is to file now, and to try to get into the US for the exam bringing lots of proof that that's what she's going there for and that she's going right back home to the DR again afterwards...

If you do get her a K1 visa, I hope you realise that the process does not end as soon as she gets to the US - once she is married she will have to apply for AOS and there will be a period of three or four months when she is NOT ELIBLE TO WORK IN THE US... that could seriously bollux up hospital rotations!

Also, if she is eligible to come and work in the US presumably she'll need some kind of visa for that - it's perfectly allowable to come to the US on a work visa and to get married while you're there. It's not breaking any rules if you enter the US on a legal visa and you do what it is that your visa says you're going for (ie.study on a student visa, work on the work visa)...

[happyimmigrant 0]

From what I've read here from other D.R. K-1 applicants, the wait time for interviews at the D.R. consulate AFTER the entire petition process has been completed (anywhere from 3-12 months, depending on the service center) is at LEAST another year, so you're looking at somewhere between 15-24 months from start to finish. If you plan to have interviews/positions in December 2006, I suspect the K-1 is not the method you should be investigating.

[gcox457 0]

MY PROBLEM IS THIS: I'm afraid if I start filing for this K1 now the Embassy in D.R. would find out and deny her a visa for the exam, thinking she was somehow trying to get around the legal process

Would it be better to NOT file, get her a visa for the test and marry in the U.S. (sounds BAD), or would that be regarded as trying to change status illegaly?

Or option 3...file K-1 after she enters the U.S. to take her test, or (option 4) K-3 after you marry in the U.S. with the expectation that she will return to D.R. at the end of her test-taking visa period. That's the only "safe" way to go. To marry her while she is here on a non-immigration visa and subsequently attempt to adjust status, especially considering it is obviously pre-planned, is immigration fraud. If you are caught, she will be denied the ability to adjust status, deported, and probably will have a lot of difficulty in ever returning to the U.S. Are you sure you feel lucky enough to roll those dice? You are certainly welcome to get married..but she will have to return to D.R. before her visa has expired. However, you can begin the K3 process in the mean time.

Best of luck to you, whatever you decide...though you have been warned about the risks of trying to fraudently adjust status.

[laybar 0]

Thanks to all who have answered!

But, I would like to leave very clear that my intentions were/are/will never be to do this illegaly... I don't mean to 'try my luck' at anything of the sort as I want to do this as correctly as possible.

Thanks for your answers, again.

[Jaylen Brit 0]

Have you spoken to other doctors from DR who have gone to the US? Have any of them gone from working visas to getting married?

How about your professional assocaition - I dont know if as a doctor you belong to any? They might have some info..they also might have free legal advice and help for doctors coming from DR to the US. If so I'm sure they've run into this issue previously and can advise you of your legal options.

Just another idea for you to think on.