Met a woman, but 90 days isn't enough

[UK_Fan 192]

It's both. No one is obligated to get marry on a K-1. A person can come on a K-1, not get marry, and go home.

You're right.. No one is obligated to.. Yet when a person is at the interview, they're asking for a visa so that they can come and marry their s/o, not come and spend time with them.

Edited April 1, 2015 by UK_Fan

[Eric & Idalia 56]

If she makes $300 a month, there is very little to none chance that she can get that visa. There needs to be proof of money in the bank for that.

For a student visa, you need a sponsor. That sponsor could live or not in the USA.

[Sandra G. 5,048]

Man date her or any woman AT LEAST 12 months and then think about becoming engaged.

She has a son that she saw long time ago,for me a big red flag.Is she considering to leave the child behind? (HUGE RED FLAG) .

[Pennycat 880]

It's both. No one is obligated to get marry on a K-1. A person can come on a K-1, not get marry, and go home.

Not really. I mean kind of but that's not the intent. One of the requirements to get the visa is to affirm that you are free to and intend to marry within 90 days. You're free to change your mind of course, but the intention is part of the petition and it's generally not advised to lie on the petitons.

[Eric & Idalia 56]

I can easily pay for the tuition, I was just wondering what the chances of denial for F-1 or B-1 tourist were. Ideally we could live 6 months in America and 6 months in Bogota, or maybe 3 months in The Bahamas and 3 months in Bogota. I mean, I can work anywhere and am relatively well off (6 figure salary).

Please please take it easy. I don't know you, but try to know her better first. You just met her.

Spend some time together, you can live in Colombia for 6 months as a tourist. You wouldn't need a work visa or residence because your work is outside Colombia as you said you have your business and could work from any place.

Read some stories in this website, check that some people have had bad stories because they hurried up.

As some had said, the language and time are red flags for a K1 visa. I think you actually need to have met for 2 years and have proofs of it.

She going to USA with a student visa? She could get a sponsor and try, but probably you being the sponsor and being a couple can be a red flag as well. Do not invest money. Take it easy. Take your time to know the person.

Think that if everything goes well, you some day can marry her and save $ and bad memories!

[Avery Cates 1,141]

I think you actually need to have met for 2 years a

To clarify, you don't have to have met or known the person for 2 years, the requirement is that you have physically met each other within the 2 year preceding the petition filing.

With that out of the way, I would really slow your roll about worrying about marriage. Since it seems you can afford to live elsewhere for a while, that I think would be your best bet with her, either have an extended stay where she lives or like you said find a 3rd country where it's simple to reside for a while for the both of you.

[Eric & Idalia 56]

To clarify, you don't have to have met or known the person for 2 years, the requirement is that you have physically met each other within the 2 year preceding the petition filing.

With that out of the way, I would really slow your roll about worrying about marriage. Since it seems you can afford to live elsewhere for a while, that I think would be your best bet with her, either have an extended stay where she lives or like you said find a 3rd country where it's simple to reside for a while for the both of you.

Thanks for the clarification!

[Adrian-Gloria 43]

You guys should check out the Duolingo App, it's free and you can easily learn spanish and she can learn english without spending time and money on college courses!

And you could go stay with her. Just saying.

[Jawaree 717]

OK,

I met a wonderful woman while I was in Bogota, Colombia last week. I am going back to Bogota in a month to spend 2 weeks with her.

There are two major problems we have at the moment: 1) I speak very little Spanish and she speaks even less English. We use Google Translate and it has been mostly fine. We communicate many times a day, even now that I'm back in the U.S. and 2) she doesn't have a tourist visa and makes only ~$300/month. She does have a teenage son, but he is on the other side of Colombia and she hasn't seen him in months and doesn't believe she will be able to see him for a long time more, anyway.

I rent a room in NYC with two awesome roommates and I really don't want to give it up just yet, but then I hear that K-1 visas take forever and a day to process (12+ months) and I am NOT about to go even 2 or 3 months without being with her. I run my own online web business, and so I am trying to figure out if relocating to Bogota is something I could do relatively soon... But it would be incredibly nice if she could come to NYC under, say, a F-1 student visa and go take language courses at a local institute in Manhattan. We've also discussed living in different countries neither of us need visas to get into for 2-3 months at a time until all this can get squared away.

I would really like your advice. Should I spend thousands on an attorney? How hard is it for me to get a long-term visa in Bogota?

Dude man to man...(no judgment) after one week meeting a person you want to marry?

May I ask your age, whats her age & is this your first g/friend.?

please read some of the threads here before changing your whole life, I think you should

go be with her , get to know her & her son eventually and if you feel the same way after

being with her then you propose.

Vacation romance have a way of fizzling out, many times its after a beneficiary gets here,

make your decisions on the side of caution. That petition would have too many red-flags

when you can wait fine-tune this thing by being with her....a student visa requires her to

pass an English test, since schools here teaches in English

Edited April 2, 2015 by Jawaree

[raven52 233]

Wasted money on attorney fees. Do it your self, everything you need is here.

A visa for her to come here, 99% impossible, in my opinion.

[ricnally 258]

By the time it got approved (if approved), they should know whether they wanna marry or not. Then the 90 days is just fine.

Meanwhile, they add to the backlog and push people who KNOW they want to get married further back in the line. Nice attitude.

[Aleks&Hajji 1]

I can't give any input on the visas, but you said you will visit her again... That will be a good time to produce a lot of evidence (photos, receipts, etc) for the K1 should you decide to go that route. Then you can stay with her while it's being processed.

Like others have said, however, give it time. There is more than a language barrier - you two likely have very different expectations of a romantic partner and different worldviews. No matter how fluent you are in the language, it is difficult for both partners to be satisfied if culturally ingrained expectations aren't filled.

I'm speaking from experience.

That being said, my husband and I were using dictionaries even early on in our marriage and I ended up staying in his country after only knowing him about three months, so I get your situation! But I wouldn't recommend jumping into a relationship with a foreigner in this way - it has been at times really rough for us!

[SantyAndAllie 155]

I agree with all the above and just want to throw my story in... I met my fiancé over 3 yrs ago in Ecuador. I spoke little Spanish at the time, and he spoke no English. I was there for 9 days then returned to the US. We pursued a friendship until I was able to return and stay for 2 months that summer.

For the last 3 years we've traveled back and forth, with 3-4 months in between seeing each other. My fiancés family doesn't make a lot of money, but thankfully he got a Spanish passport (from his dad in Spain) and was able to come to the US several times to visit. We now both speak Spanish and English fluently (just immersion, fun game apps- someone mentioned duolingo, and I agree-, and homework books!).

That's different from your situation, BUT what I'm saying is- we all are in long distance relationships. It's not for everyone, but it's so worth the Skype calls and the airport goodbyes. Its not fun, but my fiancé and I wouldn't trade our lives together for anything.

I recommend that you both start studying your languages if you really do want to pursue something serious. I don't think you're crazy to have marriage pop in your head, BUT I agree with others that you should dial it back and really get to know this girl better and spend more time together. I knew pretty quickly that I WANTED to marry my fiancé in the future, but I wasn't absolutely sure until we had spent much more time together. We got engaged after 2 years and AFTER we got over the language barrier.

In my experiences (and I've dated interculturally before this), I don't recommend pursuing an engagement and such BEFORE getting over most of the language barrier, which takes time. It's hard to really know a person, and communication is one of the most, if not the most, important things in a marriage.

I know you don't want to go months without seeing her; we all have suffered through the same heartache. It's not easy, but a good option seems to be visiting her and getting to know her. If you're able to travel on business there, then that's a good option, too. I don't know much about student visas, but visas can be very difficult to obtain in general.

I wish you guys all the best! We're all here if you need any other advice on immigration matters!

Edited April 2, 2015 by SantyAndAllie

[fancy 0]

You met a woman in Bogata last week and is already considering engagement and K-1 visa?!?!?! That is gonna be a big red flag for US immigrations, not to mention the language barrier you two have. Your best bet is definitely to spend some more time together and the F-1 sounds like a good plan. That way, you can get to know each other better and she can learn English. Both of which will help you with a potential future immigration process.

I totally agree with you, it will send RED FLAGS!!!! You just met, and you cannot say that you cant go with out seeing her....be very careful sometimes people in different Countries wanna get married just to get a Green Card...Before you do anything take your time if you need a year take it...Don't go spending money on something that might not last because you didn't take the time to get to know her....and this language stuff that is another Red Flag..REMEMBER THE IMMIGRATION people are not stupid!!

[BaronB 42]

You hardly know each other by your own admission. USCIS doesn't generally believe in love at first sight. Get to know each other before making a marriage decision.