CR1 OR K1? HOW TO OVERCOME RED FLAGS.

[Lighkas 6]

Hello everyone. I just discovered this page a few hours ago. Read a few pages and I have some questions. Will be immensely grateful for any helpful answers I get.

 

I met my gf online (Facebook) around 2011. We have never physically met. We were only good friends for a while. Never even considered a relationship until last 3 or 4 but I've been involved in every aspect of their lives for years. She has a daughter whom I talked almost daily with since she was about 2. 

 

Now we want to get married. My question is about the seemingly red flags which I wasn't even aware existed until I came to this site.

 

-She's older by 10 years. 
-We have never met physically. (We plan to meet and get married this October)

 

What would you advice? Are these 'red flags' surmountable? What might be the better option between meeting and filing for K1 and getting married and applying for CR1?

Thank you for your responses

[SalishSea 17,836]

13 minutes ago, Lighkas said:

Hello everyone. I just discovered this page a few hours ago. Read a few pages and I have some questions. Will be immensely grateful for any helpful answers I get.

 

I met my gf online (Facebook) around 2011. We have never physically met. We were only good friends for a while. Never even considered a relationship until last 3 or 4 but I've been involved in every aspect of their lives for years. She has a daughter whom I talked almost daily with since she was about 2. 

 

Now we want to get married. My question is about the seemingly red flags which I wasn't even aware existed until I came to this site.

 

-She's older by 10 years. 
-We have never met physically. (We plan to meet and get married this October)

 

What would you advice? Are these 'red flags' surmountable? What might be the better option between meeting and filing for K1 and getting married and applying for CR1?

Thank you for your responses

What consulate?

 

The key to overcoming red flags is plenty of time spent together in person.  The online/chat 'relationship' does not hold the same credibility where US immigration is concerned.

 

Since you wouldn't be eligible to file the I-129F petition for a K-1 anyway, you may as well wait and marry and file the CR-1.  Marrying on the first visit can be a red flag.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Jorgedig

[Lighkas 6]

1 hour ago, Jorgedig said:

What consulate?

 

The key to overcoming red flags is plenty of time spent together in person.  The online/chat 'relationship' does not hold the same credibility where US immigration is concerned.

 

Since you wouldn't be eligible to file the I-129F petition for a K-1 anyway, you may as well wait and marry and file the CR-1.  Marrying on the first visit can be a red flag.

Thanks for the quick reply. 

 

From your response, it's better to plan and get married when we meet, then try for CR-1 than meet, get engaged and go for K-1?

 

Secondly, I suppose if we can prove the sincerity of the marriage/relationship, we can overcome the red flag raised by marrying on first visit. While I'll be researching on that, I'd very much appreciate if you or anyone else can offer suggestions to that end. 

 

Thanks. 

[milimelo 4,481]

What country is the beneficiary from? 

[Lighkas 6]

1 minute ago, milimelo said:

What country is the beneficiary from? 

I'm Nigerian, west Africa. 

[milimelo 4,481]

Yeah you may want to not get married on her visit. High fraud country, extra scrutiny. 

[carmel34 3,633]

3 hours ago, Lighkas said:

Secondly, I suppose if we can prove the sincerity of the marriage/relationship, we can overcome the red flag raised by marrying on first visit.

Whatever you do, DO NOT get married on the first visit.  With the other red flags (Nigeria, 10-year age gap), that is very likely to lead to a denial.  You would be much more likely to get a visa approved if you go and meet this person in Nigeria, spend lots of time together, keep evidence like original boarding passes, passport stamps, hotel receipts, and a few photos together.  Then return one or more more times for visits before you get married and file an I-130 petition to start the CR-1 visa process with lots of front-loaded evidence to document all of those visits.  Time spent together is the key to overcoming the assumption of fraud from this country, as others have discovered.  Although it will take more time, it is the best way to hopefully get approved.  Also look into financial co-mingling you can do while living in separate countries, after marriage, and submit this evidence at the NVC stage (IRS tax returns as married filing jointly, joint credit card statements, beneficiary on life insurance, health insurance, retirement accounts, will, living will, power of attorney, etc.).  Good luck!

[Lighkas 6]

20 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

Whatever you do, DO NOT get married on the first visit.  With the other red flags (Nigeria, 10-year age gap), that is very likely to lead to a denial.  You would be much more likely to get a visa approved if you go and meet this person in Nigeria, spend lots of time together, keep evidence like original boarding passes, passport stamps, hotel receipts, and a few photos together.  Then return one or more more times for visits before you get married and file an I-130 petition to start the CR-1 visa process with lots of front-loaded evidence to document all of those visits.  Time spent together is the key to overcoming the assumption of fraud from this country, as others have discovered.  Although it will take more time, it is the best way to hopefully get approved.  Also look into financial co-mingling you can do while living in separate countries, after marriage, and submit this evidence at the NVC stage (IRS tax returns as married filing jointly, joint credit card statements, beneficiary on life insurance, health insurance, retirement accounts, will, living will, power of attorney, etc.).  Good luck!

Ah. Lol. That's rough. But I appreciate your candidness, and kindness to reply of course. 

 

May I ask few more questions please? 

 

1. Would you say the chances are even slimmer if we were to get engaged on the first visit and ply the K-1 route? 

 

2. What if we got married on first visit, but do not apply for CR-1 until after the passage of some time and possibly, a second meeting wherever that might be? 

 

3. We started talking about making me an official parent to 'our' daughter after marriage, does that improve our chances?

[Unlockable 7,314]

1 hour ago, Lighkas said:

Ah. Lol. That's rough. But I appreciate your candidness, and kindness to reply of course. 

 

May I ask few more questions please? 

 

1. Would you say the chances are even slimmer if we were to get engaged on the first visit and ply the K-1 route? 

 

2. What if we got married on first visit, but do not apply for CR-1 until after the passage of some time and possibly, a second meeting wherever that might be? 

 

3. We started talking about making me an official parent to 'our' daughter after marriage, does that improve our chances?

1. No. Getting into any marital commitment on the first visit will not overcome red flags. You will likely be more scrutinized if you go the K1 path. That is why people are telling you to visit more than once and do the spousal visa later. K1's are very strict and are scrutinized very heavily.

2.That would be a better idea than #1. The idea is to know your partner. You may think you know them now but things are different when you meet in person a few times. Work on you (in person) relationship first and try not to focus on just doing things to please immigration. If your relationship is sincere, with time you will find that you will not have a problem having enough evidence of a bonafide relationship.

3. Possibly, but I would not rely on it. We have seen people actually produce children and later found that there was false pretenses of being in the relationship.

[powerpuff 6,707]

~Moved from IR1/CR1 Spousal Visa forum to What Visa Do I Need? as OP is asking about which visa option would be better~

[powerpuff 6,707]

1 hour ago, Lighkas said:

Ah. Lol. That's rough. But I appreciate your candidness, and kindness to reply of course. 

 

May I ask few more questions please? 

 

1. Would you say the chances are even slimmer if we were to get engaged on the first visit and ply the K-1 route? 

 

2. What if we got married on first visit, but do not apply for CR-1 until after the passage of some time and possibly, a second meeting wherever that might be? 

 

3. We started talking about making me an official parent to 'our' daughter after marriage, does that improve our chances?

None of those are better than simply making more visits and spending more time before getting married. Truly, it is key for a successful outcome, for Nigeria consulate in particular. There’s no way around that, especially considering other “red flags”. I would also scratch K1 completely if I were you. 

[TWISTIE 30]

OP:

 

In my personal opinion, its ok for you to get married on your first visit to her because-(1) you have 11 yrs relationship with her even though you got never met in person; (2) US govt. knows that its not always easy to make multiple times to meet someone before deciding to get married especially when we are still living in pandemic and it does cost lots of money, time and energy. Yes, some might argue that dealing with US govt. always costs money, time and energy, but its no a practical approach which US govt. knows it. Besides, it doesn’t matter how many trips you make, if a consular officer will need to get convinced to the bonafide of your marriage, s/he will ask anything and everything...I had a few red-flags in my previous marriage...I went 8 times to visit my ex in 2 yrs, yet still we got never be approved...I was forced to attend stroke interview in US embassy in Asia even though I am US citizen...Laws don’t require US citizens to be interviewed too together with beneficiary when outside the US, but I was asked. USCIS fraud investigators from local field office visited 3 times at my house in US in the middle of the night to investigate me....and my ex wife was taken in small and dark room on her first interview by 5 ladies American fraud investigators wherein she was interrogated 7 long hours without any food and water...and they dragged our case for 3 yrs until my ex died. 

 

So, they can ask you for anything and drag your case for years if they will suspect anything, with or without marrying on first visit. Besides, your country is the highest fraud country in the world in the list of USCIS...So, no matter what, everyone gets higher scrutiny over there regardless of you marry on first visit or 10 visits. Besides, USCIS also knows that when you know it when is the right time, you know it...Without being in any controversy, in my opinion- you should get married soon as 11 yrs is already too long but focus on having tons of pictures together and with family...and just do your best. Good luck...

[arken 4,197]

In general US embassy doesn't care about photos or chatlogs. US embassy in Nigeria has listed the photos and chat logs as important supporting docs. In addition to other evidences of relationships, photos from multiple trips (say at least 2) carries a lot of weight imo.

 

. Photographs of you and the petitioner together at various times in your relationship
• Chat logs from social media (DO NOT print them in a Word document – they MUST be printed directly from the site)

Edited September 8, 2021 by arken

[Lighkas 6]

Thanks to everyone who took the pain to respond. It is immensely appreciated. 

 

@TWISTIE I'm so sorry about your late ex and the troubles you went through. I hope you've found happiness again. 

 

[TWISTIE 30]

1 hour ago, arken said:

In general US embassy doesn't care about photos or chatlogs. US embassy in Nigeria has listed the photos and chat logs as important supporting docs. In addition to other evidences of relationships, photos from multiple trips (say at least 2) carries a lot of weight imo.

 

. Photographs of you and the petitioner together at various times in your relationship
• Chat logs from social media (DO NOT print them in a Word document – they MUST be printed directly from the site)

Does it matter as to what format a chat record be or where it could be printed from? Almost everyone, if not all, doesn’t keep all the data/record ,from the beginning to end of the relationship, on a particular site because people can loose phone, or phone gets virus or anything could happen...and its too much data to let it stay on the phone, rather than saving it somewhere else...So, I just don’t know how it would be possible to print those record directly from the site...Just say- WhatsApp...One can not let it stay there all the calls and chat records for so long....And I believe- WhatsApp only allows exporting their data thru email and that would be automatically in Word...Maybe I don’t know something here...