Technical differences and costs curiosities

[JeanneAdil 6,624]

57 minutes ago, dledingham said:

Have they fully decided to change the fees yet or is it still in the talks? Where would we go to express our opinions on this (You just answered this). We just filed ourI-129F for the K-1 visa early this month with the regular price but if they're already certain that they are increasing the fees then we've only dodged one bullet 😞

Fees will not change till October 2020 so if you are approved for K1 get the AOS done ASAP

 

and you are from Canada so you know the process to immigrate there is higher than the US

my daugther married and moved there /  spent well over $3000 for the permanent residency alone and that is not even to be a citizen

[ledingham 68]

8 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

Fees will not change till October 2020 so if you are approved for K1 get the AOS done ASAP

 

and you are from Canada so you know the process to immigrate there is higher than the US

my daugther married and moved there /  spent well over $3000 for the permanent residency alone and that is not even to be a citizen

Due to my circumstances I believe that I'm going to spend around that much if not more for my entire process too. My trip to Montreal where I have to do my medical and interview is going to cost around $2,000 😭

[NikLR 13,232]

6 hours ago, dledingham said:

Due to my circumstances I believe that I'm going to spend around that much if not more for my entire process too. My trip to Montreal where I have to do my medical and interview is going to cost around $2,000 😭

I think mine was close to 1400 after hotel, tickets, and food. Not including medical.  That probably brought it closer. Then 2k for the uhaul. Ugh no wonder we were broke by the time i moved.  Lol

[geowrian 22,338]

12 hours ago, dledingham said:

1. Why is the K-1 visa a ‘non-immigrant visa’? What are the technical differences between immigrant visas and non immigrant visas pertaining to marriage? Don’t most people immigrate with a K-1 visa? Not critical information, just curious.

The K-1 is a non-immigrant visa because that's the way Congress made it when they created it. Part of that rational was likely because it was designed to be a faster process than a spousal (immigrant) visa - which was taking years. Part of that process meant less upfront checks, no NVC involvement (other than to assign a a case number and hand off the case to the consulate), etc. That would enable couples to unite in the US more quickly. The downside, however, is being that it is a non-immigrant visa, they still have to go through AOS to obtain permanent residency.

Another likely reason is that - due to less upfront checks - they wanted people to go through a second check via the AOS process.

 

An immigrant visa grants permanent residency (and green card as evidence of that) upon entry. A non-immigrant visa grants a legal status but not permanent residency.

There are a few tens of thousands of K-1s issued per year. There are a little over 100,000 CR-1 and IR-1 visas issued annually. Then add in the people who do marriage-based AOS  from other visas. So most people do the spousal route actually...K-1 is actually fairly uncommon by comparison.

Edited November 28, 2019 by geowrian

[SalishSea 18,125]

11 hours ago, dledingham said:

I understand that there is differences in costs! My question was more so asking why visas cost what they do. What is taking into consideration when figuring out costs for petitions and visas? Why do different petitions cost different amounts and what are the factors affecting those costs?

Because why should US taxpayer funds pay the fees for alien visa/greencard applications?  It is, and should be, pay-for-service.  These agencies are not cheap to run.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Jorgedig

[SalishSea 18,125]

9 hours ago, dledingham said:

Due to my circumstances I believe that I'm going to spend around that much if not more for my entire process too. My trip to Montreal where I have to do my medical and interview is going to cost around $2,000 😭

Immigration is expensive.  So is having a long distance relationship.  We spent thousands and thousands of dollars on flights between NZ and US for three years before my husband got his visa.

[TBoneTX 46,063]

To add to the earlier excellent answers about the K-1, as described to me years ago by a former consular officer:

 

The K-1 is a "hybrid" visa -- a nonimmigrant visa with immigrant intent.  This is why K-1 interviews are conducted by the Immigrant Visa units at the consulates.

[SalishSea 18,125]

2 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

To add to the earlier excellent answers about the K-1, as described to me years ago by a former consular officer:

 

The K-1 is a "hybrid" visa -- a nonimmigrant visa with immigrant intent.  This is why K-1 interviews are conducted by the Immigrant Visa units at the consulates.

Has there ever been any serious moves made toward eliminating the K-1 visa?  

[TBoneTX 46,063]

5 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Has there ever been any serious moves made toward eliminating the K-1 visa?  

I've never paid attention, but I've not heard of any.  Congress would probably have to act, and this would not be a priority matter for them.  

[ledingham 68]

7 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

Because why should US taxpayer funds pay the fees for alien visa/greencard applications?  It is, and should be, pay-for-service.  These agencies are not cheap to run.

I understand that it is expensive, I am more so curious as to what going into consideration when deciding on the prices for petitions/visas. As I stated earlier, I cant imagine they just pick a random number out of their heads and go "yeah sure that will work". What do they factor in and think about when picking prices for us is more so what I am curious about.

[ledingham 68]

7 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

Immigration is expensive.  So is having a long distance relationship.  We spent thousands and thousands of dollars on flights between NZ and US for three years before my husband got his visa.

We have too and unfortunately there is no way to get around this and we just have to deal with it. We have come to terms with it.

[ledingham 68]

10 hours ago, NikLR said:

I think mine was close to 1400 after hotel, tickets, and food. Not including medical.  That probably brought it closer. Then 2k for the uhaul. Ugh no wonder we were broke by the time i moved.  Lol

I feel you on this! $600 for round trip flight, $350 for medical, approx. $670 for lodging and food and whatever it is for transportation and such )): Thankfully I wont need a uhaul but its still soooooooo expensive!

[JeanneAdil 6,624]

12 hours ago, geowrian said:

The K-1 is a non-immigrant visa because that's the way Congress made it when they created it. Part of that rational was likely because it was designed to be a faster process than a spousal (immigrant) visa - which was taking years. Part of that process meant less upfront checks, no NVC involvement (other than to assign a a case number and hand off the case to the consulate), etc. That would enable couples to unite in the US more quickly. The downside, however, is being that it is a non-immigrant visa, they still have to go through AOS to obtain permanent residency.

Another likely reason is that - due to less upfront checks - they wanted people to go through a second check via the AOS process.

 

An immigrant visa grants permanent residency (and green card as evidence of that) upon entry. A non-immigrant visa grants a legal status but not permanent residency.

There are a few tens of thousands of K-1s issued per year. There are a little over 100,000 CR-1 and IR-1 visas issued annually. Then add in the people who do marriage-based AOS  from other visas. So most people do the spousal route actually...K-1 is actually fairly uncommon by comparison.

To add to that when it was created ,  the K1 visa holder came to the US and was interviewed here by local immigration offices and then denied or approved to stay

[SalishSea 18,125]

6 hours ago, dledingham said:

I understand that it is expensive, I am more so curious as to what going into consideration when deciding on the prices for petitions/visas. As I stated earlier, I cant imagine they just pick a random number out of their heads and go "yeah sure that will work". What do they factor in and think about when picking prices for us is more so what I am curious about.

Right, it won't be random.  The fee structure will be based on a myriad of metrics to calculate actual cost of adjudicating a petition, probably with person-hour ranges for simple ones to complex ones.  Because the fees are the same whether a petition takes 5 minutes vs 40 hours to adjudicate, they have to come up with fees that average out to cover all of that.  And since the cost of doing business (for any business) changes over time, periodic increases should be expected.