Belarus: Previous Civil Union of Girlfriend Needing Divorce Decree, and Questions on Circumstances of Meeting

[HillsHaveEyes 22]

My girlfriend from Belarus and I have decided to begin working on the K-1 Visa application after meeting in person recently in the US. She's been to the US a number of times in the past to visit with family who lives here. We both traveled to the city where her family lives to meet and visit with her family, then back to my home state to spend more time together. 

 

On her latest travel visa, she filed as Single, but on prior visa applications she indicated she was in a civil union. She had a child with a Belorussian man and the cohabitated for a period of time, but they were never legally married. They haven't been together for a few years.

 

I've read and searched, here and google, and get mixed impressions on what the implications of this circumstance are. I understand the number one problem could be confusion of the consular on different classifications of union vs marriage and the need for divorce vs not. If she was never legally married, and indicated civil union on past visa applications, is there any risk of the application being denied if there isn't a certificate of divorce? The initial thought is to stick to single regarding her most recent Visa and not mention the civil union as it wasn't a legal marriage, but potential confusion/inconsistency if they look at prior visas/applications have me concerned.

 

Regarding the child, she indicates she wouldn't want the child to come along during the initial process, but after we've married. Between now and the finalization of the K1 an ensuing processes, I plan to visit Belarus to meet her family and her son. Is this within normal routine, or does it raise any red flags with officials? The reasoning for this is there will likely be a relocation after we get married to another part of the US, and she doesn't want to bring the child over until after we've relocated.

 

Lastly, regarding how we met, it was in an online chat room that doesn't require registration. We were both there interested in language exchange, got in contact via WhatsApp, and things progressed from there. There's no concern regarding IMB situation since we met through a chat room, but what kind of challenges might there be with our original meeting if it wasn't through conventional means like facebook or even OKCupid as an example where user ID's and initial communication can be documented? I plan to share an export of our WhatsApp communications going as far back as I have in my possession with the K1 application, but unfortunately I got a new phone and don't have our original conversations prior to February of this year.  She routinely deletes her conversations because her phone has minimal storage (we tend to share a fair number of photos). We began talking originally in November of 2017 so all the original conversation from then until sometime in February is gone. We didn't anticipate how things would progress so didn't even think at the time to purposely back up or retain any early conversations.
 

Thank you for any help and advice you may be able to provide!