Quickest path forward for two foreigners in China?

[OliverBa 61]

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read my post and offer advice. I’m trying to determine which path forward would be best for me and my fiancé. We both currently reside in China, I’m here working and he is on a student visa, therefore neither of us are Chinese citizens. Our situation is slightly unique in the fact that we are a gay couple, and China does not issue marriage licenses for gay marriage currently.

 

I have heard that the fastest process was getting married and doing the DCF through the embassy (2-4 months), but with the fact that we can’t legally get married here, that option seems not available. If we were to get married in another country or territory, for example Taiwan where it is legal, or Australia, would we still be able to do the DCF through the consulate in Guangzhou-China since China is where we both reside now? Or do I just need to go through the process of getting the k-1 visa so he can come to America and we get married there?

 

I’m trying to Identify the fast and best option forward for us because next fall 2018 I will need to go back to America to start medical school and I would like for us to go to the states together, and get his green card, conditional or otherwise, and quickly as possible as he wants to start a masters degree program as soon as possible in the states.

 

I would appreciate any advice you could give me, thank you so much for your time. 

[misken 61]

I'm in a pretty similar situation, I am in China on a student visa and she is here on a work visa, and I graduate in spring 2018. My fiance and I have been planning on filing a K1 soon but I just stumbled upon this DCF option. It appears to be a much quicker and more streamlined option, but the exact process isn't exactly clear. The current processing times for K1 currently appear to be taking anywhere between 5-10 months with an average of about 6 months, while there is no clear timeline for the DCF (except that it is fast).

 

Have you decided which path to take yet? I'd be curious to see what the process for DCF is if you've called the GZ consulate.

Edited January 9, 2018 by misken

[OliverBa 61]

1 hour ago, misken said:

I'm in a pretty similar situation, I am in China on a student visa and she is here on a work visa, and I graduate in spring 2018. My fiance and I have been planning on filing a K1 soon but I just stumbled upon this DCF option. It appears to be a much quicker and more streamlined option, but the exact process isn't exactly clear. The current processing times for K1 currently appear to be taking anywhere between 5-10 months with an average of about 6 months, while there is no clear timeline for the DCF (except that it is fast).

 

Have you decided which path to take yet? I'd be curious to see what the process for DCF is if you've called the GZ consulate.

 

We are also going to do the DCF option through Guangzhou consulate. The K1 seems like it could take up to 18 months in most cases, and that just not going to work for us. We have decided to go Denmark to get married, in late April. In May or June we will start the DCF through GZ, based on my research it looks like it will only take about 4-5 months total if everything is filled out correctly the first time. I saw some other posts from people on VJ, they did this process in 2013 and 2014and both got it done in 4 months, one person got it all done in 3, so I guess it just depends. Anything under 6 months works well for us. Here's the link to the other post, the guy documented the process very well. Of course this was 4-5 years ago, but i still think its probably just as quick.

 

DCF is definitely the way to go for us, because if we do the K1 visa, after we arrive in America, it will take more than a year in most cases to get the green card, which means no working or studying for my fiancé until then. Doing the DCF option allows my fiancé to get his green card a few weeks after we arrive in the states, so I've heard.

 

 

[misken 61]

Thank you for the information! I think that it is unfortunately too late for us to do DCF; there is simply no time in our schedule to plan a wedding on short notice, I wish I knew about this process earlier. I wish you two the best of luck!

 

Quote

DCF is definitely the way to go for us, because if we do the K1 visa, after we arrive in America, it will take more than a year in most cases to get the green card, which means no working or studying for my fiancé until then.

Just one thing, I believe you can apply for an EAD and AP concurrently with your AOS application, and the current processing times for the EAD is under 100 days. Not immediate like getting the green card on arrival, but through the K1 your fiance wouldn't be left without a means to work for 1.5 years.

[OliverBa 61]

59 minutes ago, misken said:

Thank you for the information! I think that it is unfortunately too late for us to do DCF; there is simply no time in our schedule to plan a wedding on short notice, I wish I knew about this process earlier. I wish you two the best of luck!

 

Thank you! You don’t need to do the wedding actually. Just need the marriage license, which the two of you can get in China actually. Me and my fiancé are two guys so we can’t do it in china. But we are going to Denmark (because Denmark allows tourists get married there after only spending one day in the country)  to get our marriage license which is the first and basic requirement for applying for a spousal visa and doing DCF, and we will do our wedding in America a few months after we arrive.

[misken 61]

So just having a marriage license is fine? Doesn't that make establishing a bona fide marriage more difficult if you cant even show proof of some sort of wedding?

[OliverBa 61]

33 minutes ago, misken said:

So just having a marriage license is fine? Doesn't that make establishing a bona fide marriage more difficult if you cant even show proof of some sort of wedding?

I haven done the process myself yet, but I’m assuming that a wedding is helpful but not necessary for proving a bona fide marriage, because your marriage is more than the wedding. Some people don’t have weddings or maybe it’s not a part of their culture. Showing cohabitation, shared bank accounts, and other things I think is sufficient for proving your marriage is bona fide.

[OliverBa 61]

41 minutes ago, misken said:

So just having a marriage license is fine? Doesn't that make establishing a bona fide marriage more difficult if you cant even show proof of some sort of wedding?

Also we will have some pictures taken together while we are there getting the marriage license, like some engagement photos and wedding-like photos, since we are doing a town hall type wedding. So it’ll be small and intimate and fast and simple. And if they ask we will explain the situation that we can’t get married in China, my friends and family are mostly in America, his are mostly in Africa, and getting them all to come, to Paris just wasn’t going to happen. So the wedding would happen later.