Possible to enter US seven months after marriage abroad?

[quibily 2]

Hello, everyone! I'm new. My fiancé and I are only just embarking on this scary-looking journey of getting him US residency. We're hoping you can help us make sense of it all. Here's our plan (or future timeline, if you will):

I am a US citizen by birth, and he is French, wanting to move to the US with me. We will marry while in Thailand in January (Apparently, he has to send documents to the French embassy in Bangkok three months before this--something only French people seem to be required to do!). I will file the I-130 immeditely after.

We will then return to China where we will teach ESL until July. We will go to France for a month to visit family--and then we want to move to the US together where I will be a student and he will look for a job. (He has a master's degree--from a French university.)

We thought this would be possible--but maybe we wouldn't be able to be together that soon

Please, we need advice. Is it the CR-1 we need? Or is it the K-3 we need to help us stay together? My parents have agreed to co-sign the financial support form for him since he will not have a job for some time.

Thanks in advance!

-Quinn

Edited August 29, 2016 by quibily

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

A spousal visa takes about year so seven months is probably not going to happen. Even if it were a feasible timeline, the processing time goes up and down and you can never make set plans like planning to move in a particular month.

[quibily 2]

So we'd definitely have to stay apart the whole time? I have read K-3 visa is for the spouses to be together. It was on travel.state.gov, so am I missing something?

Edited August 29, 2016 by quibily

[Kastrs 723]

So we'd definitely have to stay apart the whole time? I have read K-3 visa is for the spouses to be together. It was on travel.state.gov, so am I missing something?

It seems like for the first 7 months you'll be together. You are welcome to stay with your husband in his home country until the visa is issued and he can visit you here.

A k3 is obsolete so count that out.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,408]

K-3 is hardly ever issued anymore. CR-1 used to take several years, K-3 was a stop-gap measure.

Now they both take the same amount of time (about a year) and K-3 does NOT mean an automatic GC, like CR-1 does. With K-3, there is Adjustment of Status in the US, for an extra $1070.

[JFH 12,190]

If you (the USC) have a residency permit for China and have been a resident there for at least six months, you can file the CR-1 through the Beijing or Guangzhou consulate in China. This is called Direct Consular Filing (DCF) and is quicker than the one-year standard processing time for those of us who file through the lock boxes in the USA.

I took the "we will return to China" to mean that you are both currently working in China.

Edited August 29, 2016 by JFH

[LionessDeon 2,060]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

[quibily 2]

If you (the USC) have a residency permit for China and have been a resident there for at least six months, you can file the CR-1 through the Beijing or Guangzhou consulate in China. This is called Direct Consular Filing (DCF) and is quicker than the one-year standard processing time for those of us who file through the lock boxes in the USA.

I took the "we will return to China" to mean that you are both currently working in China.

Okay, that's interesting, but it probably won't work.

We work in China each school year and leave the country every summer, so we are not currently working.

So, unfortunately, no, I don't have a current permit . . The residency permit gets re-issued every year as our contracts are yearly, and this year, the school didn't finish them in time for the summer holidays. So I wouldn't be able to get that residency permit until October... so six months later would be April, and I'll bet the filing time can't be THAT fast.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Edited August 29, 2016 by quibily

[quibily 2]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

Filing time is around three months? That would be fantastic!

That just might work. We will look into it.

Thank you!

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Filing time is around three months? That would be fantastic!

That just might work. We will look into it.

Thank you!

That is for DCF, which requires residence....

If you go ahead with the current plan, he can visit you in the USA, but he could not live or work here until the visa comes through.

[quibily 2]

That is for DCF, which requires residence....

If you go ahead with the current plan, he can visit you in the USA, but he could not live or work here until the visa comes through.

We will both have residence permits in China soon, so this can work.

Sorry. I forgot to make it clear, in the first message, that we will live and work in China over the next year.

Edited August 30, 2016 by quibily

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Filing time is around three months? That would be fantastic!

That just might work. We will look into it.

Thank you!

Read ALL the requirements carefully.

[NikLR 13,227]

Normally takes 6 months of residency to qualify for DCF.

[quibily 2]

Normally takes 6 months of residency to qualify for DCF.

We're teachers, so the schools that hire us give us 10 months of residency so that we can stay the whole school year. And you can actually extend the permit--though it's a bit pricey.

[NewBrunswicker 19]

Filing time is around three months? That would be fantastic!

That just might work. We will look into it.

Thank you!

I would call the Consulate and see what they can do for you. They might consider your situation satisfactory to qualify for DCF. It is worth a try.