New to forum lots of questions

[Crazy Cat 42,127]

8 minutes ago, LizaJane said:

I was under the impression he cannot come here with the sole intention of getting married however.

This is incorrect.  He cannot enter the US via ESTA/VWP with the intent to stay and adjust status.  There is no prohibition for a visitor to marry and leave.

[LizaJane 13]

What is the likelihood that he would be let in that way though? The minute he's asked what the purpose of his visit is and he says to get married he'll surely be sent back home I would imagine. 

[SalishSea 18,096]

Just now, LizaJane said:

What is the likelihood that he would be let in that way though? The minute he's asked what the purpose of his visit is and he says to get married he'll surely be sent back home I would imagine. 

This would be correct if his intention is to marry and remain in the US and adjust status.  Not correct if his intention is to marry and return home to go about the wait for the CR-1 process.  The second option is the only legal option.

[SalishSea 18,096]

1 hour ago, LizaJane said:

he'll be 56 in August,

All the more reason why you need to have a plan that includes no lapse in health care coverage.

[LizaJane 13]

Just now, Jorgedig said:

This would be correct if his intention is to marry and remain in the US and adjust status.  Not correct if his intention is to marry and return home to go about the wait for the CR-1 process.  The second option is the only legal option.

Right otherwise it's visa fraud. It seems like a lot riding on the luck of getting a decent officer questioning you. And my original question still stands being what are the chances of the spousal visa being approved, as doing it that way doesn't change my financial or employment status for the application. 

[SalishSea 18,096]

Just now, LizaJane said:

Right otherwise it's visa fraud. It seems like a lot riding on the luck of getting a decent officer questioning you. And my original question still stands being what are the chances of the spousal visa being approved, as doing it that way doesn't change my financial or employment status for the application. 

Either way you will need a joint sponsor, and as all applicants are by law, he will be subject to the public charge scrutiny.

[LizaJane 13]

1 minute ago, Jorgedig said:

Either way you will need a joint sponsor, and as all applicants are by law, he will be subject to the public charge scrutiny.

Yes, we have a cosponsor, my mother is doing it and has more than enough to meet the financial requirements but I still worry. 

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,096]

2 hours ago, Highmystic said:

I'd reconsider the Spousal Visa.  Sure, takes 2 or 3 months longer, he can start work as soon as he finds work, (and get insured), and you avoid that wait again, for the AOS, with more anxiety waiting and a lot of dollars. 

Although the downsides of a K-1 vs a CR-1 are very clear, I wish people would stop claiming a CR-1 only takes 2 or 3 months longer to get to the US. That was maybe true during the extreme slow K-1 processing period from mid-2017 to mid-2018, but that's not true now.

 

At least according to current VJ averages, that's not remotely true; it's a lot closer to nine or ten months longer (and that's assuming you could get married tomorrow).

[yuna628 9,700]

3 hours ago, LizaJane said:

Hello newbie here so I apologize for questions you've all seen before and I appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from everyone. My fiance is in the UK and we're going to apply for the k1 but I'm worried because of my work and income history here in the USA. I recently worked for immediate family as a caregiver and therefore my income was nontaxable so no w2s for that. This past year I spent a few months working in a salon as well as still being a caregiver but only earned about $9,000 that is counted as taxable income. I am now a caregiver for a different family on a freelance/self employed basis and will do next years taxes with a 1099 for that. All that taken into consideration I have a cosponsor since I will not currently meet the income requirements alone and do not have assets to make up for it. I also recieve state health insurance for my 17 year old daughter and myself. I'm wondering if the visa is likely to be denied because of these issues. My circumstances do not allow me to get a different job or private insurance, there are a lot of variables at play there. Any information and/or advice is appreciated. Thanks,

Katie

Having a cosponsor will not be an issue for the UK. You can rest easy in that as we went through the K1 process using a cosponsor ourselves.. however, I must warn you, we had a significant amount of savings which came in the greatest of need due to health insurance premiums. While the thinking usually is ''I want to do a K1, because why would we want to be apart while married, when he can just come here and wait through it all together'' unfortunately, I have to tell you from experience, things don't always work out in the best way. Remember I said, we had a cosponsor and savings to ensure we had health insurance to the point where he could work? Well, as we quickly learned, even being a very educated person with work skills and work authorization (an EAD which comes before the green card if you file for it) means very little if no one is willing to hire you. There is no guarantee the spouse will be able to work right away or at a level that will provide enough support, or furthermore that an employer is willing to hire at all. In fact we found no employer was willing to hire without seeing a green card in place of an EAD. That was a year+ of waiting, him feeling helpless, and all that time premiums stacked up. But I wasn't willing to let my husband go without having insurance and it was a good thing too. Some idiot ran into our vehicle, and we were banged up pretty bad. My point is to you, anything can happen at any time...things don't always work out as planned - and as you say below:

3 hours ago, LizaJane said:

I know, and I worry about that as well, though he doesn't. In fairness to him, he's never I'll and hasn't needed healthcare in many years and he has it available for free to him, but I'm much more worried about it because that would be my luck, something would happen while he's uninsured. We're prepared to take the risk and deal with something if it happens. The only debt I have to my name is medical from an awful horseback riding accident I was in and a rare illness that almost killed my daughter six years ago.

...your daughter had a rare illness, and you had an accident. Your fiance you said is 56 soon, and to me that is an especially important age where one needs to be having regular checkups to their health. Well, I was young and healthy once and without health insurance. I did not think that anything would happen to me, and then one day it did. That risk came with a big hospital bill to pay and threats of collection agencies. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, especially someone that is leaving their country, their free system, and everything they understand to come to the US. We are not just potential spouses when we take on the immigration system - we agree to the self sufficiency and provision of that immigrant's needs. In your situation I could not advise a K1 unless there is a big chunk of savings or financials available for an insurance plan. 

 

You may get married on the VWP provided he returns home and he has enough proof to satisfy the officers that he will be leaving. There is no guarantee  but people do it successfully all the time. You could also pursue a fiance type visa to the UK for marriage, provided he could satisfy UK sponsorship rules.

[LizaJane 13]

9 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Having a cosponsor will not be an issue for the UK. You can rest easy in that as we went through the K1 process using a cosponsor ourselves.. however, I must warn you, we had a significant amount of savings which came in the greatest of need due to health insurance premiums. While the thinking usually is ''I want to do a K1, because why would we want to be apart while married, when he can just come here and wait through it all together'' unfortunately, I have to tell you from experience, things don't always work out in the best way. Remember I said, we had a cosponsor and savings to ensure we had health insurance to the point where he could work? Well, as we quickly learned, even being a very educated person with work skills and work authorization (an EAD which comes before the green card if you file for it) means very little if no one is willing to hire you. There is no guarantee the spouse will be able to work right away or at a level that will provide enough support, or furthermore that an employer is willing to hire at all. In fact we found no employer was willing to hire without seeing a green card in place of an EAD. That was a year+ of waiting, him feeling helpless, and all that time premiums stacked up. But I wasn't willing to let my husband go without having insurance and it was a good thing too. Some idiot ran into our vehicle, and we were banged up pretty bad. My point is to you, anything can happen at any time...things don't always work out as planned - and as you say below:

...your daughter had a rare illness, and you had an accident. Your fiance you said is 56 soon, and to me that is an especially important age where one needs to be having regular checkups to their health. Well, I was young and healthy once and without health insurance. I did not think that anything would happen to me, and then one day it did. That risk came with a big hospital bill to pay and threats of collection agencies. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, especially someone that is leaving their country, their free system, and everything they understand to come to the US. We are not just potential spouses when we take on the immigration system - we agree to the self sufficiency and provision of that immigrant's needs. In your situation I could not advise a K1 unless there is a big chunk of savings or financials available for an insurance plan. 

 

You may get married on the VWP provided he returns home and he has enough proof to satisfy the officers that he will be leaving. There is no guarantee  but people do it successfully all the time. You could also pursue a fiance type visa to the UK for marriage, provided he could satisfy UK sponsorship rules.

Thank you for your reply. I tell him all the time that he can't count on nothing happening and being without insurance is way too risky but since he comes from a place where he's literally never had to worry about such things I think he takes it for granted. He does meet the requirements to bring me there,  but he does not want to live there any longer, and I have no intention of leaving here as my two daughters are here and my youngest is just 17, I am the only parent they have and we are all very close. My parents are also here and as they age I like to be around to help as much as possible. I'm not worried about him finding work quickly as he works in healthcare (ironic hey?) and it's a highly in demand field here, and if not that he's willing to do literally anything in the meantime. He's the 'can't sit still and do nothing' type. I tell him he'd go crazy waiting ten months to be able to work here on the k1 route! If we do the spousal visa is he able to visit me here while we're awaiting approval of that? I'm finding conflicting information on that.

[LizaJane 13]

2 hours ago, Paul & Mary said:

People come from all over the world to marry here.   Ever hear of a destination wedding?   We did that in Hong Kong.

Yes, my first marriage was a destination wedding,  we got married in the Bahamas and returned to the USA where we were both from. However in this case I live here and he does not and every time he visits obviously he's asked what the purpose of the visit is and when he has to answer to get married he very well could be sent right back home regardless of any proof he has of plans to return home. It's solely up to the immigration officers discretion and that seems like an awful big risk to me.

[yuna628 9,700]

4 minutes ago, LizaJane said:

Thank you for your reply. I tell him all the time that he can't count on nothing happening and being without insurance is way too risky but since he comes from a place where he's literally never had to worry about such things I think he takes it for granted. He does meet the requirements to bring me there,  but he does not want to live there any longer, and I have no intention of leaving here as my two daughters are here and my youngest is just 17, I am the only parent they have and we are all very close. My parents are also here and as they age I like to be around to help as much as possible. I'm not worried about him finding work quickly as he works in healthcare (ironic hey?) and it's a highly in demand field here, and if not that he's willing to do literally anything in the meantime. He's the 'can't sit still and do nothing' type. I tell him he'd go crazy waiting ten months to be able to work here on the k1 route! If we do the spousal visa is he able to visit me here while we're awaiting approval of that? I'm finding conflicting information on that.

He certainly can visit while such visas are in progress. And I might add even if for some reason he was denied on the VWP, it does not impact his application or ability to enter on such visas.

[LizaJane 13]

2 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

He certainly can visit while such visas are in progress. And I might add even if for some reason he was denied on the VWP, it does not impact his application or ability to enter on such visas.

What do you mean by this, exactly? He's come on the VWP every visit over the last 2.5 years, only had a problem once where they almost didn't let him through.

[LizaJane 13]

1 hour ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

Although the downsides of a K-1 vs a CR-1 are very clear, I wish people would stop claiming a CR-1 only takes 2 or 3 months longer to get to the US. That was maybe true during the extreme slow K-1 processing period from mid-2017 to mid-2018, but that's not true now.

 

At least according to current VJ averages, that's not remotely true; it's a lot closer to nine or ten months longer (and that's assuming you could get married tomorrow).

Wait, so what time frame are we looking at in total for a spousal visa to be approved? Say he comes next month to get married and goes home and we file for the spousal,  average wait of how long until a decision is made?

[HRQX 4,145]

42 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

You may get married on the VWP provided he returns home and he has enough proof to satisfy the officers that he will be leaving. There is no guarantee  but people do it successfully all the time. You could also pursue a fiance type visa to the UK for marriage, provided he could satisfy UK sponsorship rules.

Yup, those are valid options. Other options include marriage in:

• Gibraltar http://www.visitgibraltar.gi/getting-married
• Iceland https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/getting-married-in-iceland
• Denmark https://familieretshuset.dk/en/your-life-situation/your-life-situation/international-marriages/if-you-wish-to-get-married-in-denmark

Edited January 25, 2020 by HRQX