Want to get my Danish girlfriend into the US, completely lost

[americanboy 3]

Just a "warning", the K-1 might not be faster than the CR-1 at all. It most likely won't be for us. Had we known it'd take this long we would definitely have went for the CR-1 instead, that would've saved us some money, we would've been done with the AOS part when I enter the US and the process would've been just as fast.

I totally regret the K-1 but at this point it has gone so far so we can't really change our minds.

Uh oh... that doesn't sound good. Are there any specifics to your situation that make this the case, or is CR-1 just generally faster than K-1?

Good luck! Come join us in the Scandinavian regional forum if you like :-)

Wow, forums for everything around here.

[A'n'L 735]

Uh oh... that doesn't sound good. Are there any specifics to your situation that make this the case, or is CR-1 just generally faster than K-1?

Wow, forums for everything around here.

K1's are usually quicker (6-8 months) than CR1 (approx 1 year).

Scandi has been very unlucky along the route, their application got stuck somehow, due to something random. That sometimes happen, but not very often.

You also want to consider if it's important for the immigrant to be able to work as soon as possible or if 3-4 months of unemployment upon entry is ok?

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

DCF is not even an option in Denmark even if the OP were to move there. Not every country offers DCF. Denmark does not even have its own US consulate. Danish visa applicants have to go to Sweden to interview.

Denmark does in fact have its own US consulate, what it does not have is a USCIS field office, which is why it does not offer DCF. Denmark also falls under a special situation because there were so few CR/IR/Ks being processed that Sweden's US embassy processes those cases. They would say that they do not have an IV processing unit, but that can be a confusing way to explain it to newbies. Other types of visas are still processed in Copenhagen.

DCF cases are still done in countries without USCIS field offices but only in very special circumstances.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

You also want to consider if it's important for the immigrant to be able to work as soon as possible or if 3-4 months of unemployment upon entry is ok?

Unemployment, not being able to travel out of the country, potentially not being able to drive or have health insurance (or having to use expensive/difficult options for it), etc.

There are a lot of couples that feel the strain of a K1 once they are together in the US.

Personally, I'd rather a CR1 because you can plan your wedding ahead of time and the immigrant can work right away and has full LPR rights once they clear the port of entry.

[A'n'L 735]

Unemployment, not being able to travel out of the country, potentially not being able to drive or have health insurance (or having to use expensive/difficult options for it), etc.

There are a lot of couples that feel the strain of a K1 once they are together in the US.

Personally, I'd rather a CR1 because you can plan your wedding ahead of time and the immigrant can work right away and has full LPR rights once they clear the port of entry.

And we chose the K1 because it was faster, and because my fiancé didn't like the idea of living without his new wife. We also wanted to enjoy our engagement and not have to jump the gun on the marriage (yes, we might be hopeless romantics still).

Pro's and con's to each path :-) Each situation and couple is different :-)

[NuZayetsPogodi 117]

Good luck, OP! And wow, every time I read bad advice for lawyers, I start to wonder just how easy it is to become a lawyer.....

[Scandi 4,166]

Uh oh... that doesn't sound good. Are there any specifics to your situation that make this the case, or is CR-1 just generally faster than K-1?

Nothing that we know of, no. We didn't even receive an RFE. I'm still following about 25 i-129f cases from back when we filed in December 2015 that were received by USCIS between December 17 and December 28 - about 20 of them are still stuck and haven't received either RFE nor NOA2. Basically they haven't heard anything at all since December. So I guess me and my fiancé are "lucky".

Basically, dealing with USCIS is a lottery.

[Wooderz 314]

Add me to the list of k1s who wish I would have done cr1. We thought the k1 would be quicker and we didn't want to spend the first year of our marriage apart.

In the end, it took 10 months to get the visa in hand and another 8 months for the green card. The time spent before ead was stressful for my husband and k1 + aos costs more in the end. Cr1 would have given my husband the green card at Poe. And then we would have been done with USCIS for 2 years. Instead we had more stress with aos. Granted, we were relatively unlucky dealing with a slow tsc and a longer aos time than a lot of others around us.

If I could do it over, I would weigh the options more and rely on emotion less.

[Ortolan 381]

You don't need a lawyer to help you do a K1 visa application/process, unless you need some extra help because of something (drugs, jail, whatever).

Go here and read: http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

Good luck!

[NikLR 13,227]

K1 wasnt even an option for us as I needed to be able to travel right away because of specific family in Canada.

Most people choose k1 over cr1 because its faster to visa and they can live with their spouse after marriage. But cr1 is better for the beneficiary (and petitioner quite often) and slightly cheaper overall

[soulstriker 274]

do your research thoroughly , most don't even thoroughly research and still make it through the journey without issue (most of these are ppl who use lawyers) on avg from 2016 k1 takes 4-7 months (there are a few that have gotten it even within 2 months) , cr1 is like a year on avg ( ive seen some cr1s get approved under a year ) , as someone said earlier both as pros/cons , mainly depends on your current situation

knowledge is power , either route you go best of luck

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

I am glad my wife and I chose the CR1 route, but beware of some of these estimates. 12 months is optimistic. And there are other lead times that can add to the 12. For instance, you're probably not going to be able to file your I-130 immediately after your marriage. You have to get the official marriage certificate after it's registered. You might need a translation. You have to assemble all of your documents, which are considerable compared to the K-1 forms.

The time after your marriage is hectic. Before the marriage you believe you'll have time to squeeze all this stuff in but you're exhausted from all the wedding stuff, post-wedding stuff, travel, documentation chase, etc. It took 3.5 months after our marriage to file the I-130, although I had 2 address changes during those 3.5 months which didn't help any. Then it took 13.5 months to get the visa after submitting our package to USCIS.

Conceivably, tomorrow you can submit the K-1 package. But again, I'm glad we went the CR1 route so she was an immediate permanent resident upon landing in the US. No AOS. And a little less expensive.

Good luck.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

It is also good to keep in mind that it can change on a dime how quickly applications are being processed and you might not know before you submit it. 3/4 years ago, CR1s were being processed more quickly that K1s and many people had visas within 6-7 months.

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

Near the end of 2015 K-1s were going much faster than they are now. We were given the estimate of 6-8 months but ended up getting ours in under 5 months and that was with some foot-dragging at some points.

Edited July 19, 2016 by MorganandMichael

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Add me to the list of k1s who wish I would have done cr1. We thought the k1 would be quicker and we didn't want to spend the first year of our marriage apart.

In the end, it took 10 months to get the visa in hand and another 8 months for the green card. The time spent before ead was stressful for my husband and k1 + aos costs more in the end. Cr1 would have given my husband the green card at Poe. And then we would have been done with USCIS for 2 years. Instead we had more stress with aos. Granted, we were relatively unlucky dealing with a slow tsc and a longer aos time than a lot of others around us.

If I could do it over, I would weigh the options more and rely on emotion less.

Same for me. We chose K1 for your same reasons, but now I wish we would've just done CR1. Planning a destination wedding in JA would've been much better than rushing around trying to figure out something within 90 days is too much. Plus the added cost and drama of AOS. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Im grateful he's here now!