Londoners Fiancéed - US girl + UK Boy - Fastest method to move to US

[GodBlessAmex 0]

Hello Community Members

First of all thanks to whoever participates and responds on such message boards, I appreciate your time.

Let's give some background, my fiancée and I live in England. We've gone out for now over eight years. She's originally from the Bay area in California and has been living in England with me. Unfortunately now has the come time when she really wants to go back to the US but I'm very happy to move over and start our new married life there.

We're based in London.

Our objective is getting to San Francisco as quickly as we can legally.

My questions are therefore the following:

Is it better to apply for a fiancé visa and then get married in SFO?

Is it better to get married ASAP in London and go through the DCF for a spouse visa? If so which one?

She has been a resident in England for over two years.

Thank you

[Alaska2012 462]

Get married and do a Cr1 through DCF.

[GodBlessAmex 0]

Thank you Alaska, do you know whether there is a minimum amount of time between the time you've been married to your spouse and the ability to apply for this Cr1 through DCF.

Would you also able to clarify why it's much quicker and if you have an guesstimates as to the number of months saved using that method?

[Alaska2012 462]

You can send in the paperwork the day after the wedding! DCF is a lot faster, roughly 3-6 months, sometimes faster. With the CR1 you are all done and ready to roll, you can work in the us immediately.

For the K1 visa you can't do the DCF and you are looking at 7-8 months. Plus the fact that once you get to the US you have quite some time before you can start working

[JayJayH 546]

Thank you Alaska, do you know whether there is a minimum amount of time between the time you've been married to your spouse and the ability to apply for this Cr1 through DCF.

Would you also able to clarify why it's much quicker and if you have an guesstimates as to the number of months saved using that method?

As Alaska said, there is no minimum time. The requirement for filing is that you are legally married. As soon as you have a marriage certificate, file ahead.

The vast majority of all I-130 petitions around the world are filed with and adjudicated by the USCIS at one of their service centers in California, Vermont, Nebraska or Texas. Which ones adjudicate I-130 petitions specifically changes, but what they all have in common is that they handle millions of petitions annually. The U.S. Embassy in London has a USCIS field office which also adjudicates certain immigrant petitions, however, the stack of I-130 petitions that are filed there is minuscule compared to the USCIS service centers in the US.

Actually adjudicating a petition takes no more than 20 minutes or so (guesstimate). The 3 - 10 months it generally takes for a petition to be adjudicated is not a representation of how long it takes to run background checks, verify documents etc. It's a representation of how long a petition usually sits in a storage unit waiting in line to be adjudicated. Since the embassy in London has a much lower workload than the USCIS service centers, your petition will spend significantly less time in a storage unit before being adjudicated.

While most I-130 petitions are adjudicated within 3 - 10 months (depending on backlog - average roughly 5 - 6 months), you could reasonably expect to have your petition adjudicated in half that time through DCF.

I-129f petitions (K-1) can only be filed through one of the service centers.

From start to finish, you're looking at roughly 4 - 6 months if you file through DCF. 8 - 12 months for a K-1. In addition, the K-1 visa requires you to get married and file for adjustment of status within 90 days upon arrival in the U.S. before you can work or travel. A CR-1 visa turns into a green card the moment you pass through the immigration line at the airport. No adjustment of status necessary.

Edited December 5, 2015 by JayJayH

[lost_at_sea 995]

Thank you Alaska, do you know whether there is a minimum amount of time between the time you've been married to your spouse and the ability to apply for this Cr1 through DCF.

Would you also able to clarify why it's much quicker and if you have an guesstimates as to the number of months saved using that method?

My husband and I filed DCF in London 3 days after getting married.

The difference in time is significant - you can get DCF done in 3 - 5 months, whereas filing via the US takes 9 - 14 months.

I have no qualms recommending DCF for any UK-based couples. It's a really superior path if speed is the motivating factor.

Edited December 5, 2015 by lost_at_sea

[Boiler 45,900]

She has ILR?