Tourist Visa Questions (Turkey to USA)

[xtina92 2]

1 hour ago, Yeliz said:

Hi  I am a Turkish citizen and I am expecting a k1 visa in Turkey. consulates in Turkey are currently closed until may 17 due to the curfew. They will give priority to some types of visas after they are opened. Unfortunately, the tourist visa is not among these priorities. Even those who previously applied for a tourist visa and paid the visa fee were postponed until the end of 2021 and even 2022. So if you want your boyfriend to come to the USA, you have to wait a long time for a tourist visa, at least until the covid is completely gone and routine visa services begin. How about trying K1? Maybe you will have a happy marriage and sweet children still, even for k1, you have to wait a long time, about 11 months. 

Merhaba! cevabın için teşekkürler! Yikes, end of 2021 or even 2022 sounds like a horribly long time to wait  😢 I'm sure there's no way for you to know, but do you think they might resume visa services after the lockdown? Or not until covid "ends", whenever that might be 😭  We have talked about the K1 visa for the future, but I'm concerned about the fact that he wouldn't be able to work immediately upon arriving to the US. I don't know as much K1 visas (literally just what I've gathered from watching "90 Day Fiance" 😂) but it seems that if we go that route eventually then a spousal visa might be a better option? I believe that would allow him to work upon entering the US? I could be wrong, I haven't done much research on it yet.

When did you apply for your K1 and how long have you been waiting now? 

[Yeliz 28]

18 minutes ago, xtina92 said:

Merhaba! cevabın için teşekkürler! Yikes, end of 2021 or even 2022 sounds like a horribly long time to wait  😢 I'm sure there's no way for you to know, but do you think they might resume visa services after the lockdown? Or not until covid "ends", whenever that might be 😭  We have talked about the K1 visa for the future, but I'm concerned about the fact that he wouldn't be able to work immediately upon arriving to the US. I don't know as much K1 visas (literally just what I've gathered from watching "90 Day Fiance" 😂) but it seems that if we go that route eventually then a spousal visa might be a better option? I believe that would allow him to work upon entering the US? I could be wrong, I haven't done much research on it yet.

When did you apply for your K1 and how long have you been waiting now? 

My fiance applied in september 2020 and we are still waiting for noa2 by uscis. Today we reached the 7.5-month maximum time and demanded acceleration. Our lawyer said that it would result in 30 days. Then we have the nvc process, maybe it will take 1 month, and then our documents will come to the Ankara embassy. I don't know how long it will be after that, maybe 1 month maybe 3 months. With Covid, the marriage visa was almost as short as obtaining a fiance visa, but as with everything else, there is no guarantee. If you have an idea of getting married and you are now in Turkey, you can apply for a marriage visa when you get married here and return to the USA, this will shorten your process considerably. Thus, your boyfriend will not wait for a green card and work permit when he enters the US because you are married and apply for a marriage visa. For tourist visas, they do not make an appointment for a date close to anyone at the moment. There are those who can make an appointment at the end of 2021 or early 2022, but their appointments are constantly being postponed. From now on the decision is yours I hope everything will be the way you want 🙏

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

Regarding the tourist visa dates so far ahead. Really, they don’t know when they will reopen for those. So some embassies take no appointments at all and others do far ones out. Then people book those and keep checking for earlier appointments to open up to make a switch if possible. But anyway, nothing is going to happen soon.

 

No, he cannot just enter on a previous student visa. If he has done this before he will know he needs to be enrolled at a college and have an i20 to enter with this student visa. 

[Chancy 6,243]

37 minutes ago, xtina92 said:

it seems that if we go that route eventually then a spousal visa might be a better option? I believe that would allow him to work upon entering the US?

 

Correct -- by entering the US with a spouse visa, the immigrant would immediately gain permanent resident status, with authorization to work.  K1 visa has no such benefit.

 

You are wise to hold off on the K1 if you are not yet sure.  Although you will not be married yet, you still need serious commitment to be able to complete the K1 process in this COVID era.

 

[mushroomspore 3,044]

15 hours ago, xtina92 said:

Thank you for your advice! Ugh, The uncertainty is killing me 😭

The uncertainty/wait is definitely the worst part. But it also gets a tad easier once you get the first major step, which would be marrying him and then bringing him to the USA permanently with a spousal visa. I STRONGLY recommend considering the spousal visa instead of K1. Spousal visa makes him a permanent resident immediately, which means he can work and travel outside of the USA right away (if needed). K1 involves "Adjustment of Status", which will mean he cannot work or leave the USA for at least 6-9 months. Adjustment of status is really cumbersome. If you add the K1 costs AND the adjustment costs altogether, I believe it ultimately ends up costing more than the spousal visa. @Lucky Cat has a great comparison post that he likes to copy and paste for people trying to decide between the fiance(e) and spousal visas. Overall, it seems like your boyfriend has pretty strong ties to Turkey, so fingers crossed for you guys that he gets the tourist visa soon.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

Of course, neither the K1 nor CR1 should enter the picture until the couple is actually sure they want to get married regardless of immigration needs.

[xtina92 2]

20 hours ago, Yeliz said:

My fiance applied in september 2020 and we are still waiting for noa2 by uscis. Today we reached the 7.5-month maximum time and demanded acceleration. Our lawyer said that it would result in 30 days. Then we have the nvc process, maybe it will take 1 month, and then our documents will come to the Ankara embassy. I don't know how long it will be after that, maybe 1 month maybe 3 months. With Covid, the marriage visa was almost as short as obtaining a fiance visa, but as with everything else, there is no guarantee. If you have an idea of getting married and you are now in Turkey, you can apply for a marriage visa when you get married here and return to the USA, this will shorten your process considerably. Thus, your boyfriend will not wait for a green card and work permit when he enters the US because you are married and apply for a marriage visa. For tourist visas, they do not make an appointment for a date close to anyone at the moment. There are those who can make an appointment at the end of 2021 or early 2022, but their appointments are constantly being postponed. From now on the decision is yours I hope everything will be the way you want 🙏

I appreciate your advice! Best of luck to you and I really hope it happens sooner rather than later!!

Sounds like once we get to that point a spousal visa may be the best choice for us 😇 

[xtina92 2]

20 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Regarding the tourist visa dates so far ahead. Really, they don’t know when they will reopen for those. So some embassies take no appointments at all and others do far ones out. Then people book those and keep checking for earlier appointments to open up to make a switch if possible. But anyway, nothing is going to happen soon.

 

No, he cannot just enter on a previous student visa. If he has done this before he will know he needs to be enrolled at a college and have an i20 to enter with this student visa. 

Thank you! I'll see if they are booking any appointments at all at this point, although I sort of doubt it 😕

 

As far as the student visa, he would theoretically enter through a new student visa for graduate school (his previous student visa was for undergraduate studies). I don't know hardly a thing about that process but I suppose it would probably take just as long at this point considering the state of the world currently with covid. 

[xtina92 2]

20 hours ago, Chancy said:

 

Correct -- by entering the US with a spouse visa, the immigrant would immediately gain permanent resident status, with authorization to work.  K1 visa has no such benefit.

 

You are wise to hold off on the K1 if you are not yet sure.  Although you will not be married yet, you still need serious commitment to be able to complete the K1 process in this COVID era.

 

Thank you for your advice! While I believe we will get to that point eventually, I certainly don't want to rush into a marriage out of desperation to be together. We knew when we got together that this wasn't going to be an easy journey, but I really believe our relationship is worth it 😊  

[xtina92 2]

6 hours ago, mushroomspore said:

The uncertainty/wait is definitely the worst part. But it also gets a tad easier once you get the first major step, which would be marrying him and then bringing him to the USA permanently with a spousal visa. I STRONGLY recommend considering the spousal visa instead of K1. Spousal visa makes him a permanent resident immediately, which means he can work and travel outside of the USA right away (if needed). K1 involves "Adjustment of Status", which will mean he cannot work or leave the USA for at least 6-9 months. Adjustment of status is really cumbersome. If you add the K1 costs AND the adjustment costs altogether, I believe it ultimately ends up costing more than the spousal visa. @Lucky Cat has a great comparison post that he likes to copy and paste for people trying to decide between the fiance(e) and spousal visas. Overall, it seems like your boyfriend has pretty strong ties to Turkey, so fingers crossed for you guys that he gets the tourist visa soon.

Thanks so much for your advice! We will start the tourist visa process and in the meantime, looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of time here in Turkey! I suppose next I'll need to figure out how I can make that work as far as MY tourist visa goes, since it is only good for 90 days. And it sounds like a spousal visa will be the best route to eventually take, should all go as we hope 😊   I'll take a look for that post from LuckyCat! I'd be curious to know how much the spousal visa costs approximately. We knew we were in for some pretty time-consuming (and expensive!) hurdles when we got together, but this relationship is definitely worth it. Thanks again for your help!!

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

32 minutes ago, xtina92 said:

Thank you! I'll see if they are booking any appointments at all at this point, although I sort of doubt it 😕

 

As far as the student visa, he would theoretically enter through a new student visa for graduate school (his previous student visa was for undergraduate studies). I don't know hardly a thing about that process but I suppose it would probably take just as long at this point considering the state of the world currently with covid. 

Actually student visas do get prioritized. However unless he already has a grad school acceptance in hand he is probably too late for fall admission. 

[xtina92 2]

4 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Actually student visas do get prioritized. However unless he already has a grad school acceptance in hand he is probably too late for fall admission. 

Oh, that is good to know! But yes, my thoughts exactly. He postponed applying for grad school as he wasn't sure whether he wanted to study in Germany or US, the latter of which would be more costly. Thanks again for your advice!!