Do you have any regrets?

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

Absolutely regret. We would have gotten our green card over a year ago if we filed DCF. I didn’t do enough research in advance and was afraid to listen to people advice to cancel my k-1 and file DCF after 2 months. Oh well... You live and learn. Hope people learn from our mistakes at least. 

[TNJ17 1,329]

Ok, no offense but the “thanks for sharing” post on every comment is getting a little old. We got you the first time. 

[Roel 7,192]

Not sure how does it matter after the fact... hey, I'm in the US now but I regret "how" I got here? Sounds like a waste of time thinking about it. 

[ST_RO 309]

1 hour ago, Roel said:

Not sure how does it matter after the fact... hey, I'm in the US now but I regret "how" I got here? Sounds like a waste of time thinking about it. 

However this forum is supposed to help everyone, especially people new to the whole matter, make a decision and inform them. Therefore asking people if they had chosen a different path in hindsight offers valuable information. Not a waste of time at all to me. 

 

Edited July 15, 2018 by ST_RO
Typo

[Roel 7,192]

1 hour ago, ST_RO said:

However this forum is supposed to help everyone, especially people new to the whole matter, make a decision and inform them. Therefore asking people if they had chosen a different path in hindsight offers valuable information. Not a waste of time at all to me. 

 

Usually those people create hundreds of WHAT VISA PICK or K1 vs CR1 topics. Literally. There is enough of those to include plenty of info plus there is a comparison chart in the Guide section. 

[nullaccount234 882]

I'm currently AOSing from a K1, and I can say that getting to be with my now husband in May instead of sometime later this winter meant everything to us. We had set a deadline to be together and we made that deadline with 7 days left to go. I personally do not care when I get the green card. Working would be nice, but I'm keeping myself busy with a programming course and volunteering, and I knew it would take time so I have money saved. Valuing my free time since I'm not expecting to have much of it later when I get a job 

 

Also - not having to be separated after marriage - huge plus in my opinion.

[tamcloud 92]

I wouldn't say there are regrets, but if we'd known more about our options we would definitely have gone the CR1 route. The time apart was something we'd already been dealing with and was tolerable because we were trading visits on a fairly regular basis. It takes less time to fly to/from Bermuda than it does to many states in the U.S. and no visas are required. As it turned out, by the time same-sex marriages were federally recognized, we'd already decided she would stay in BDA a bit longer to focus on advancing her career, before returning to the States. We weren't aware of the CR1, we only knew about the K-1 and that's what we planned for. If we'd known better, we'd have gotten married as soon as we could have and dealt with the rest when she was ready to immigrate, rather than waiting and starting with a K-1.

 

If I do have a regret, it's not having found VJ earlier.  

 

 

[little immigrant 800]

I've done the CR1 and I'm glad I did. At that time, after it was filed, my then-husband came to my country and waited the process out with me. Then we flew to the US together. Best decision. 

[Dutchster 1,106]

I was lucky my whole K-1 visa process took about six months in total from beginning to receiving the visa in the mail and I genuinely (still) enjoy that we had barely any time apart. Looking back, I don't completely (...but I do a little)  regret spending another $1070 for adjustment but, I did hate the adjustment phase. I was a very outgoing, social person back in the Netherlands and not being able to do much while waiting (forever) to get your work permit and/or green card was hard for me.  But it was good to be with my spouse. Looking back, to save money  and have the perfect wedding and such, we would have chosen the CR-1 visa. 

[crono_clone 213]

Since gay marriage is not yet available in the Philippines, K1 was our only option. I would have definitely have considered CR-1 though since it's now taking about the same amount of time.

 

(and yes, we could have maybe gotten married first in a foreign country that does offer same sex marriage like Taiwan, but why would we go through all that extra hassle when the result would have been about the same?)

[Rocko20 159]

Yes I have regrets. I’m on month 8 of waiting for my NOA2. 

 

I would've done the CR1 or DCF in hindsight 

[Lemonslice 4,715]

4 hours ago, LizM said:

I'm currently AOSing from a K1, and I can say that getting to be with my now husband in May instead of sometime later this winter meant everything to us. We had set a deadline to be together and we made that deadline with 7 days left to go. I personally do not care when I get the green card. Working would be nice, but I'm keeping myself busy with a programming course and volunteering, and I knew it would take time so I have money saved. Valuing my free time since I'm not expecting to have much of it later when I get a job 

 

Also - not having to be separated after marriage - huge plus in my opinion.

What would have happened if you couldn't make the deadline? 

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

i do 

waste of money and time

wrong in morocco to marry on 1st trip/ i should have made 1 or 2 more and married for CR1 as i ended up making 6 trips and 6 years wasted

[Umka36 781]

Nope. K1 fit our needs. I’m also one not to ponder about past regrets and just move on with my life.

 

If you’re looking at VJ, then you should already have looked/heard about the pro/con of either visa. 

[Chris Duffy 1,257]

I did a K1 from Philiippines about 3 years ago, got approved in 30 days.  Other people from California Service Centers was getting approved in 7 to 10 days. 

 

I think I used the Texas Service Center