How long does it take to get a Green Card after you marry ???

[Limey 551]

Kind of an odd thing to use a K-1 for??!!

Thought marriage was something you wanted for love, or am I old fashioned and cynical

Perhaps sometimes it is good to at least think about the possibility that a marriage won't work, especially one between two people from very different cultures a long way from each other. Of course you shouldn't enter a marriage having doubts, but at the same time around 50% of US marriages don't work, and I'd guess that most of those people were convinced theirs would be in the 50% that would work.

[baron555 934]

You guys are great !!!

I already planned on bringing her here on the K-1 which was all ready approved and sent to the embassy in Guangzhou. We are both flexible with our plans. We just felt the K-1 visa would give us the best chance to see if the marriage would work.

Well, determining if the marriage would work is supposed to be all worked out prior to filing for the K-1. If you mean if it could work relative to living in the US?, then yes.

She is open to moving here but we both are toying with the idea that after we get married (and or get her a GC) we might move back to China for a year (or at most 2 years).

So what you would do is just prior to leaving is send the GC card back to USCIS and inform them you are abandoning it. She needs to maintain a minimum presence in the US (6 months min within a year). Maintaining "ties" as others have mentioned is not enough. She has to physically be here. USCIS would know of her whereabout by the usage of the card at Border Control (both leaving and entering the US).

So, then when you two want to return to live permanently in the US, you would file for a CR-1 Spousal Visa (or DCF if that is available and then move. If you two wanted to visit to the US, then she would need a tourist visa (which may or may not be difficult to obtain).

I do know its a lot easier to prove that you are married to someone if it is done in the US. So even if we shift when we get her a GC I think its a good thing to get married in the US.

Whatever.