K-1 Employment Elligibility to be Eliminated?

[misa 2]

Technically, the K3 should have it before the K1, since the K1 is the 'non-immigrant' visa and iirc, the K-3 is.

Bottom line, many that come in on a K-1 do not actually work out, and they wind up going home anyways. If one is worried about the lack of a job, one can either save up more, come on a K-1 or K-3, or take the time, and pursue CR-1.

We're all wanting everything so tailored to our wants.....K-1 is (supposedly) faster, but there are drawbacks, this being one of them. None of us are calling the shots, so we can't pick and choose what we want to deal with and what we don't. I suppose the best bit of advice is to pursue the visa with the benefits that are most important to you as a couple.

The K3 is a non-immigrant visa as well. It's to reunite spouses faster and AOS after the foreign spouse enters on a K3. Slightly different, but still non-immigrant.

I agree with pursuing the visa with the benefits most important to us. We're going K3 versus CR-1 because we want to be reunited faster. We know that I won't be able to work right away and we have budgetted for that.

[misa 2]

Re: State laws for marriage licenses:

http://marriage.about.com/cs/marriagelicen...a/usmarlaws.htm

[Florence and Tim 0]

I'm hoping that they don't eliminate employment elligibility. I do have one question first though - if they do eliminate it, how long does it take for my now fiance to be able to work once we're married (I mean, how long till she will get a green card)? I know the timelines are meant to tell us this, but I don't know which of all of these acronyms stands for green card.

I don't see why people can apply just to come to U.S. to work on visas specifically working, but those who are coming to marry and spend their lives with U.S. citizens can appeal to work as part of their application. Sure the purpose of the visa is to get married or to bring your spouse (in the case of K-1 and K-3), but for anyone who isn't marrying a non-U.S. citizen, getting married doesn't mean one of them has to stop working for some extended period of time. One of the things you have to face when moving to a foreign country is that it may take you some time to find a job that you can do well and that you enjoy while adjusting to living in another place.

In my case, I met my fiance while studying at the University of Hong Kong for a year. I personally am going to have something like 80 grand of student loan debt when I graduate with a BSc (yes, public state school, and the year I spent in HK was free on top of that), which I'm not too worried about because a couple years salary can knock it off without much problem. But at the same time, when my fiance comes and we get married, I'm still going to have a semester left, and so things are a bit tight while I'm studying (but I can provide housing, half of my food spoils because its difficult to buy single person portions if you don't want to eat frozen food every day so food is taken care of, and I do work while in school to get extra money to use for things that are not related to school - I keep my loan money school only - strict about this). With co-sponsors, I think our application should be okay, but having a bit of extra money to get by couldn't hurt.

More importantly, what is my spouse supposed to do for months while she waits to be able to work? She just graduated now too long ago, and she's been working for months now in Hong Kong. I know from experience that suddenly not having a job (or studying to do) is not a good thing - I spent 2 months "studying" in Beijing away from her once (it was more like a useless boring vacation) and I nearly drove her crazy because I had nothing to do all day except live in an internet cafe. Of course, she can have internet at home, I already pay for it, but what is she going to do all day? I guess she could run an online business and not pay taxes. Somehow though, I think that sort of backfires on the idea of the government allowing people to be employed.

I think some people say, if you don't have money, don't get married. That's easy when you live within a 12 hour drive from your girlfriend/fiance/whatever. To me, I start to imagine those black and white movies where some guy is shining shoes in the morning, building chairs during lunch, painting houses until dinner, washing horses until the sun goes down, and working at his uncle's shop overnight so that he can afford to marry his girlfriend who's family wants him to be doing well. It's worse than that though. At least they can see each other while they're not married. And besides, those sort of movies are old. Its the past. Even when they came out they were talking about the past.

I don't know. I wish my fiance wasn't from Hong Kong. I don't like her in any way because she's from Hong Kong. The whole situation sucks. But there's not much I can do about that. I love her. We're getting married because nothing in my life is worth more than that. I filed the papers recently and now we're waiting like everyone else. We're both working - I'm still studying hard too. I was crazy enough to spend some of the bits of change I had on an engagement ring that she loves to wear and a plane ticket to see her during the Christmas break. We can't make anymore visits. It just isn't financially possible. And we've known that we wanted to marry each other for some time. We could wait until I graduate and until she can save more, but life isn't that long. Heh, I'd give up any chance I'd ever have to be rich in a second if I could see her for one day longer in my life than I would otherwise. On earth, there's no greater reward for me than being with her.

That said about my own feelings, hers are similar except that she has something more painful to face. She has to leave her country, her friends, and her job behind, and go somewhere completely different. Hell, I miss Hong Kong the three times I've left there alone, so I can't imagine what it is going to be like for her (to note, I never felt bad about leaving here - I have no idea why - I don't consider myself anti-American at all, but in all honesty I never missed my home yet - I've only missed people). When she gets here, we both want her to be able to meet people and make friends. We don't have the resources to have her start studying something. She's already put a lot of years into that and she never liked it much anyway. So what should she do? Working is one of the only ways people meet other people to develop friendships after they get done with school in America - its the same with most places actually.

It isn't that we really need my fiance to work. It is just that I want her to be happy. Not bored. I don't want her to feel trapped around my apartment because she has nothing to do. Especially when it gets to be winter here (Illinois). Its cold. It sucks not to do anything. So I don't see what the point in letting foreign fiances and spouses have at least a temporary work permit until things get settled and they end up adjusting to LPRs. Especially, for those talking about "fairness" between visa types, when we let people petition for the sole purpose of coming here to work. I think working should be a trivial part of family based immigration. If it means that 129 worker petitions have to be put off a few years, I don't see the problem - IMO family/marriage takes priority.

I don't know that much about how it works after my fiance gets here. I'm still reading up on that. Originally I thought she'd have to wait around three months to work. I don't know if that's true or not anymore. If it is two years or so, it might be tough for us, but we'll figure it out. Whether the K-1 and K-3 are non-immigrant or not, the beneficiary is immigrating. Its simple. Hong Kong has some thing about needing to live there seven years before you can work legally. That's why we didn't file a petition with HKSAR for me. I don't even know if they accept fiance petitions actually - realizing that I'd have to sit around and default on all the money I owe the government for seven years sort of put that out of the question before we could check.

The frustrating part is that the laws still allow a lot of people the opportunity to come here and work without any ties to anyone in the states. I've always tried to go about things the right way. And I have to be put through the hardest thing in my life anyway just to see the person I love. Knowing that she doesn't get the same opportunity others get just sort of puts the icing on the whole thing. For anyone who's here in Illinois, we know well that you don't need to be a U.S. citizen with any sort of visa to earn a fine tax free living in which you can drive cars more expensive than the average tax paying worker plans on affording. But my future wife can't get a job for a couple months till I graduate just to keep her from going nuts. It is strange.

Regardless of what the laws are and how visas compare to each other, for my own peice of mind I have to think a lot about what actually makes sense. What seems right and what doesn't? What seems fair and what doesn't? In the end it doesn't matter what I decide. I've called and politely asked for help from USCIS and I've filed my papers just like everyone else. I sit and wait for the process to go through. It has only been a couple days, but even so, my fiance and I try to talk about other things when we talk on the webcam every morning. We've been apart for extended time (2 months and then 4 months) before. This will be the longest. My friends ask when they're going to get to meet her. I used to say hopefully a couple months after Christmas. I didn't know this process took so long. Most of them never will meet her - they graduate and move across the country. There's nothing I can do about my situation except wait and try the best to care for my fiance at a distance. Most of the people here have either been in that situation, or are in it now.

So I hope that one more thing to worry about in the months after I marry my fiance doesn't get added with changes in the law not allowing her to work. But if they do, there's nothing I can do about it (senators don't really listen to anything, heh, but you know, I would still encourage people to write to their senators). When it comes to law and logic - it is probably true - fiance's and spouses should not be allowed to work until they have a green card. But I hope they at least make an exception for us. It doesn't seem a bit unfair to me to do so. There's jobs where we'll live that need to be filled.

Not too sure what I was trying to say. The only thing I want is for her to be happy. She wants to be with me and she says it makes her happy. If I didn't believe her, I wouldn't spend time on the papers. But I want to be sure she's happy even when we get to live together again. I want her to be able to have choices available for things to do. I want her to be excited about doing things. I want her to enjoy her life. I promised her that I'd do everything in my life to try to make her as happy as I can, and so regardless of what is right or wrong, I'll always want her to have the choice to work. What I want to say is this: I'm her fiance before anything else. If she wants to work, that's the way the laws should be. I don't accept any argument, heh. But the most I can do is hope that things don't change (and also, find out the way things are now, because I have no idea).

[eric_drewry 0]

I'm hoping that they don't eliminate employment elligibility. I do have one question first though - if they do eliminate it, how long does it take for my now fiance to be able to work once we're married (I mean, how long till she will get a green card)? I know the timelines are meant to tell us this, but I don't know which of all of these acronyms stands for green card.

I don't see why people can apply just to come to U.S. to work on visas specifically working, but those who are coming to marry and spend their lives with U.S. citizens can appeal to work as part of their application. Sure the purpose of the visa is to get married or to bring your spouse (in the case of K-1 and K-3), but for anyone who isn't marrying a non-U.S. citizen, getting married doesn't mean one of them has to stop working for some extended period of time. One of the things you have to face when moving to a foreign country is that it may take you some time to find a job that you can do well and that you enjoy while adjusting to living in another place.

In my case, I met my fiance while studying at the University of Hong Kong for a year. I personally am going to have something like 80 grand of student loan debt when I graduate with a BSc (yes, public state school, and the year I spent in HK was free on top of that), which I'm not too worried about because a couple years salary can knock it off without much problem. But at the same time, when my fiance comes and we get married, I'm still going to have a semester left, and so things are a bit tight while I'm studying (but I can provide housing, half of my food spoils because its difficult to buy single person portions if you don't want to eat frozen food every day so food is taken care of, and I do work while in school to get extra money to use for things that are not related to school - I keep my loan money school only - strict about this). With co-sponsors, I think our application should be okay, but having a bit of extra money to get by couldn't hurt.

More importantly, what is my spouse supposed to do for months while she waits to be able to work? She just graduated now too long ago, and she's been working for months now in Hong Kong. I know from experience that suddenly not having a job (or studying to do) is not a good thing - I spent 2 months "studying" in Beijing away from her once (it was more like a useless boring vacation) and I nearly drove her crazy because I had nothing to do all day except live in an internet cafe. Of course, she can have internet at home, I already pay for it, but what is she going to do all day? I guess she could run an online business and not pay taxes. Somehow though, I think that sort of backfires on the idea of the government allowing people to be employed.

I think some people say, if you don't have money, don't get married. That's easy when you live within a 12 hour drive from your girlfriend/fiance/whatever. To me, I start to imagine those black and white movies where some guy is shining shoes in the morning, building chairs during lunch, painting houses until dinner, washing horses until the sun goes down, and working at his uncle's shop overnight so that he can afford to marry his girlfriend who's family wants him to be doing well. It's worse than that though. At least they can see each other while they're not married. And besides, those sort of movies are old. Its the past. Even when they came out they were talking about the past.

I don't know. I wish my fiance wasn't from Hong Kong. I don't like her in any way because she's from Hong Kong. The whole situation sucks. But there's not much I can do about that. I love her. We're getting married because nothing in my life is worth more than that. I filed the papers recently and now we're waiting like everyone else. We're both working - I'm still studying hard too. I was crazy enough to spend some of the bits of change I had on an engagement ring that she loves to wear and a plane ticket to see her during the Christmas break. We can't make anymore visits. It just isn't financially possible. And we've known that we wanted to marry each other for some time. We could wait until I graduate and until she can save more, but life isn't that long. Heh, I'd give up any chance I'd ever have to be rich in a second if I could see her for one day longer in my life than I would otherwise. On earth, there's no greater reward for me than being with her.

That said about my own feelings, hers are similar except that she has something more painful to face. She has to leave her country, her friends, and her job behind, and go somewhere completely different. Hell, I miss Hong Kong the three times I've left there alone, so I can't imagine what it is going to be like for her (to note, I never felt bad about leaving here - I have no idea why - I don't consider myself anti-American at all, but in all honesty I never missed my home yet - I've only missed people). When she gets here, we both want her to be able to meet people and make friends. We don't have the resources to have her start studying something. She's already put a lot of years into that and she never liked it much anyway. So what should she do? Working is one of the only ways people meet other people to develop friendships after they get done with school in America - its the same with most places actually.

It isn't that we really need my fiance to work. It is just that I want her to be happy. Not bored. I don't want her to feel trapped around my apartment because she has nothing to do. Especially when it gets to be winter here (Illinois). Its cold. It sucks not to do anything. So I don't see what the point in letting foreign fiances and spouses have at least a temporary work permit until things get settled and they end up adjusting to LPRs. Especially, for those talking about "fairness" between visa types, when we let people petition for the sole purpose of coming here to work. I think working should be a trivial part of family based immigration. If it means that 129 worker petitions have to be put off a few years, I don't see the problem - IMO family/marriage takes priority.

I don't know that much about how it works after my fiance gets here. I'm still reading up on that. Originally I thought she'd have to wait around three months to work. I don't know if that's true or not anymore. If it is two years or so, it might be tough for us, but we'll figure it out. Whether the K-1 and K-3 are non-immigrant or not, the beneficiary is immigrating. Its simple. Hong Kong has some thing about needing to live there seven years before you can work legally. That's why we didn't file a petition with HKSAR for me. I don't even know if they accept fiance petitions actually - realizing that I'd have to sit around and default on all the money I owe the government for seven years sort of put that out of the question before we could check.

The frustrating part is that the laws still allow a lot of people the opportunity to come here and work without any ties to anyone in the states. I've always tried to go about things the right way. And I have to be put through the hardest thing in my life anyway just to see the person I love. Knowing that she doesn't get the same opportunity others get just sort of puts the icing on the whole thing. For anyone who's here in Illinois, we know well that you don't need to be a U.S. citizen with any sort of visa to earn a fine tax free living in which you can drive cars more expensive than the average tax paying worker plans on affording. But my future wife can't get a job for a couple months till I graduate just to keep her from going nuts. It is strange.

Regardless of what the laws are and how visas compare to each other, for my own peice of mind I have to think a lot about what actually makes sense. What seems right and what doesn't? What seems fair and what doesn't? In the end it doesn't matter what I decide. I've called and politely asked for help from USCIS and I've filed my papers just like everyone else. I sit and wait for the process to go through. It has only been a couple days, but even so, my fiance and I try to talk about other things when we talk on the webcam every morning. We've been apart for extended time (2 months and then 4 months) before. This will be the longest. My friends ask when they're going to get to meet her. I used to say hopefully a couple months after Christmas. I didn't know this process took so long. Most of them never will meet her - they graduate and move across the country. There's nothing I can do about my situation except wait and try the best to care for my fiance at a distance. Most of the people here have either been in that situation, or are in it now.

So I hope that one more thing to worry about in the months after I marry my fiance doesn't get added with changes in the law not allowing her to work. But if they do, there's nothing I can do about it (senators don't really listen to anything, heh, but you know, I would still encourage people to write to their senators). When it comes to law and logic - it is probably true - fiance's and spouses should not be allowed to work until they have a green card. But I hope they at least make an exception for us. It doesn't seem a bit unfair to me to do so. There's jobs where we'll live that need to be filled.

Not too sure what I was trying to say. The only thing I want is for her to be happy. She wants to be with me and she says it makes her happy. If I didn't believe her, I wouldn't spend time on the papers. But I want to be sure she's happy even when we get to live together again. I want her to be able to have choices available for things to do. I want her to be excited about doing things. I want her to enjoy her life. I promised her that I'd do everything in my life to try to make her as happy as I can, and so regardless of what is right or wrong, I'll always want her to have the choice to work. What I want to say is this: I'm her fiance before anything else. If she wants to work, that's the way the laws should be. I don't accept any argument, heh. But the most I can do is hope that things don't change (and also, find out the way things are now, because I have no idea).

Well said.

I have an additional comment to make about some comments in this thread. That one should delay the process and work at their foriegn job to save to counteract this change. This may have some benifit in a few countries, but for most it makes no sense. In my case, my wife is from Jamaica, and I wouldn't have my wife waste her time working in that country for the measly $50-$100 she might get paid.

[John & Annie 0]

I know this is an old post, but i feel i have a little to contribute.

The fact that they might change this does not affect you once you apply to adjust status, therefore it really does not change much.

The fact that most POE's do not issue the stamp anymore is proof positive.

If you enter on a K1, get married, and apply for adjustment; you may apply for any interim benefit (AP,EAD) as a result of a pending application, not the original visa you entered on.

[homesick_american 1]

I personally don't think this is a good idea at all!! While I realize that the purpose of the K1 Visa is for an individual to come to the US to be married to a US citizen, I think its short-sighted to believe that these people don't need to be able to work ASAP. This process and AOS are expensive and most of us need our new spouse to be able to contribute financially sooner rather than later. Of course, just my 2 cents....

I think it's a good idea. Fiance visas in the UK already work this way, i.e. you can't work on them. I arrived in the UK in April 2001, got married in June, got the LLR visa in August, was offered a job the morning of September 11th 2001, then began work in early October. I saved for a year in order to fund those few months of unemployment. It takes planning.

Then again, the UK processes immigrant visas more quickly than the US does.