Looking for another point of view on my options

[starspace1 2]

Hi all, I'm looking for an outside opinion on the options I've come up with, to see if anyone has any other ideas or comments (you can only look at this stuff for so long on your own before you start to go crazy, heh).

Here's the situation: I (US citizen by birth) recently got engaged to a Colombian citizen. We want to have our wedding ceremony in Colombia in January 2015 and return to live and work in the United States together as soon as possible afterward. However, I realize that if I file for an IR-1 / CR-1 in January 2015, we would not be able to live and work together in the US until near the end of 2015 as the IR-1 / CR-1 process takes almost 11 months. I have accepted the fact that in order to avoid that waiting period, we will need to get *legally* married and start the visa paperwork before our wedding *ceremony*.

Right now I am in the process of determining the best course of action. I am under the impression that getting legally married in the United States while my fiance is visiting on the B1/B2 visa could be considered fraudulent. Is this true, even if he returns to Colombia while I file an IR-1 / CR-1 visa for him to move here permanently?

I have considered filing for a K-1 fiance visa and getting legally married in the US immediately after it's granted, but this presents a timeline problem. If he applied for AOS immediately after our legal marriage, he would not be able to leave and re-enter the US until it is granted without AP, and this does not fit with the January 2015 timeline (If we file at beginning of March, K-1 would arrive approximately in November and both AOS and AP seem to take on the order of 3 months to process, which would already put us in February, and I wouldn't want to plan a wedding ceremony with no buffer).

I have also considered getting legally married in Colombia as soon as possible, returning to the US, and filing for an IR-1 / CR-1 visa immediately. However, I believe this option makes it so that he will not be able to visit me in the US while the IR-1 / CR-1 is being processed. But it would still allow us to have our wedding ceremony in January 2015 in Colombia and allow him to return to the US with me to live and work following the ceremony. Right now I think this is the best option.

Any thoughts, comments, or ideas? What would you do?

[nightingalejules 678]

Hi all, I'm looking for an outside opinion on the options I've come up with, to see if anyone has any other ideas or comments (you can only look at this stuff for so long on your own before you start to go crazy, heh).

Here's the situation: I (US citizen by birth) recently got engaged to a Colombian citizen. We want to have our wedding ceremony in Colombia in January 2015 and return to live and work in the United States together as soon as possible afterward. However, I realize that if I file for an IR-1 / CR-1 in January 2015, we would not be able to live and work together in the US until near the end of 2015 as the IR-1 / CR-1 process takes almost 11 months. I have accepted the fact that in order to avoid that waiting period, we will need to get *legally* married and start the visa paperwork before our wedding *ceremony*.

Right now I am in the process of determining the best course of action. I am under the impression that getting legally married in the United States while my fiance is visiting on the B1/B2 visa could be considered fraudulent. Is this true, even if he returns to Colombia while I file an IR-1 / CR-1 visa for him to move here permanently?

I have considered filing for a K-1 fiance visa and getting legally married in the US immediately after it's granted, but this presents a timeline problem. If he applied for AOS immediately after our legal marriage, he would not be able to leave and re-enter the US until it is granted without AP, and this does not fit with the January 2015 timeline (If we file at beginning of March, K-1 would arrive approximately in November and both AOS and AP seem to take on the order of 3 months to process, which would already put us in February, and I wouldn't want to plan a wedding ceremony with no buffer).

I have also considered getting legally married in Colombia as soon as possible, returning to the US, and filing for an IR-1 / CR-1 visa immediately. However, I believe this option makes it so that he will not be able to visit me in the US while the IR-1 / CR-1 is being processed. But it would still allow us to have our wedding ceremony in January 2015 in Colombia and allow him to return to the US with me to live and work following the ceremony. Right now I think this is the best option.

Any thoughts, comments, or ideas? What would you do?

There is no fraud in the idea of a destination wedding. Otherwise why would there be so many wedding chapels in Vegas? Anyway, if you choose to have him come and get legally married in the US and then return to Columbia to wait.

The only thing that's fraudulent is to come to the US on a tourist visa while secretly planning to get married and then stay and adjust status.

It is unlikely (but possible) that he will qualify for a tourist visa once the process is underway, so count on him not being able to come and visit or come back to the US with you after the wedding ceremony until after he has his visa in hand (which may or may not be by January 2015 - the process is still taking a LONG time, and you won't be able to guarantee that he will be all through with the process by the time you have your ceremony)

That said, I think that's probably the best way to go, given all your circumstances.

[kaelabelle 10]

Is it more important for you to have a marriage ceremony in colombia or in the us? i got married in Brazil, and am here with my husband while we wait for his visa....but i also wanted to live here for a while.....if you dont mind staying in colombia for a while it will allow you to stay with your husband the whole time i would agree with your last option being best....especially since it seems like the i 130 approvals are speeding up slowly but surely (looking at recent approvals). we have to stay positive and after you get married even if he cant visit you in the states you will be able to visit him no problem....and you can avoid any potential hassels with him trying to go the usa on a tourist visa.

good luck!

if you decide to get married in colombia it is a good idea to start establishing domicile in the us even if you are planning to stay in colombia.....get a us drivers license, voters registration, bank account, po box and the like

[Terry J 50]

It is perfectly legal for your fiancé to enter the US, get married to you and then RETURN to her home country. The fraud occurs when the person intentionally enters the US with the plan to get married, not return to their home country and instead file for AOS...

We had planned our wedding in NYC for months. I entered the US as a visitor a couple of months prior to the wedding day and got married two days before Hurricane Sandy hit. I was stuck in the US for two unplanned weeks due to flooding and cancelled flights. But I made it a point to get on the first available flight back to Canada.

So you can either get married in the US or Columbia and then file for the I-130 and go through the consular process. Her ability to get a tourist visa while the process is pending is definitely not guaranteed so be prepared to have your wife wait out the entire process in Columbia.

[starspace1 2]

There is no fraud in the idea of a destination wedding. Otherwise why would there be so many wedding chapels in Vegas? Anyway, if you choose to have him come and get legally married in the US and then return to Columbia to wait.

The only thing that's fraudulent is to come to the US on a tourist visa while secretly planning to get married and then stay and adjust status.

It is unlikely (but possible) that he will qualify for a tourist visa once the process is underway, so count on him not being able to come and visit or come back to the US with you after the wedding ceremony until after he has his visa in hand (which may or may not be by January 2015 - the process is still taking a LONG time, and you won't be able to guarantee that he will be all through with the process by the time you have your ceremony)

That said, I think that's probably the best way to go, given all your circumstances.

Haha, fair, I didn't even think about it in the context of destination weddings a la Vegas! Thanks for the clarification and good info. I appreciate it! And congrats on your recent wedding

[starspace1 2]

Is it more important for you to have a marriage ceremony in colombia or in the us? i got married in Brazil, and am here with my husband while we wait for his visa....but i also wanted to live here for a while.....if you dont mind staying in colombia for a while it will allow you to stay with your husband the whole time i would agree with your last option being best....especially since it seems like the i 130 approvals are speeding up slowly but surely (looking at recent approvals). we have to stay positive and after you get married even if he cant visit you in the states you will be able to visit him no problem....and you can avoid any potential hassels with him trying to go the usa on a tourist visa.

good luck!

if you decide to get married in colombia it is a good idea to start establishing domicile in the us even if you are planning to stay in colombia.....get a us drivers license, voters registration, bank account, po box and the like

It is important for us to have the ceremony in Colombia, because we want his family to be able to attend (they'd all have to go through the process of getting tourist visas, while my family can visit Colombia from the US with no problem).

I definitely wouldn't mind staying in Colombia for a while. My only concern would be the affidavit of support, specifically, finding out how to somehow maintain my job (and a secondary residence) in the US while I'm in Colombia. I suppose this is just a matter of good financial planning and good negotiation skills with my employer!

Thanks for the advice

[kaelabelle 10]

yeah....i am planning on having a joint sponsor.....because my income here in brasil is definitely not enough....good luck with everything again

[ppihtr123 68]

File for a K1 and after it is approved but before you leave for the US have your ceremony...Just don't make it legal with paperwork. Remember that the ceremony does not legally wed you in most religions/countries, only the signing of papers which usually happens after the ceremony does! Then move to the US and have a legal wedding.

[Abby&Mario 100]

We had a similar dilemma! I moved here in August 2013, we got engaged in October and got married last month here in Bogotá. It was just a civil ceremony with no one but our roommate, who acted as photographer. We're planning a destination renewal of vows in Cartagena for next March because yeah, due to tourist visa/financial reasons most if not all of his family possibly wouldn't be able to come to a celebration in the U.S.

I've been living abroad for four years so it's not like I'm new at this, but my now husband and I also want to get back to the U.S. as soon as possible. It's where we've decided we'd like to settle down, but also, work has dried up for him here (he's a contractor and they're sending the contracts to Portugal) and despite getting my Colombian residency after just a day of waiting in lines, I've been applying to jobs like crazy and haven't even gotten an interview. Even if I do get a job, I'm looking at a 48-hour work week (the law here, and we thought Americans worked too much), a crappy salary in the third-most expensive city in Latin America after Rio and Sao Paulo and three hours in rush hour traffic every day commuting. I could always go back to teaching English, but that will do absolutely nothing for my CV or my career. Not really the lifestyle we want. Also, he's not from Bogotá and only moved here about six months before I did, so all of his Colombian family and friends are a plane ride away. It's pretty lonely sometimes.

So why didn't we do the K-1, which is faster? Colombia is extremely strict with immigration and I would have had to return to the U.S. before it got approved. We had already done a year and a half of long distance before I moved here and it was hell, so we decided to get married so that I could stay here with him. We already knew we wanted to be together for ever, and marriage tends to facilitate that for an international couple. We are currently finalizing the I-130 packet for our CR-1 and crossing our fingers that my husband's company gives him a contract that starts in March so we won't have to blow through all our savings while we wait for the visa to process. It would also be nice if someone hired me for something, anything. Fortunately, my parents have already agreed to joint sponsor my husband later on.

We plan to fly to Houston for my best friend's wedding in September. That's allowed; you just have to show your ties and that you have a petition processing. He already had the tourist visa before we got married--that's really important.

I always read about couples on here who have picked a wedding date for a huge celebration and are trying to plan the K-1 visa application process around it. I just think that's a bad idea. Sounds stressful as hell and you never know what could happen. If you're open to living in Colombia for a while, I'd say come get married here and do the CR-1, the plan the big wedding for later. You'll get your residency almost immediately and can at the very least teach English. Good luck with everything!