CR-1 versus K-1: one K-1 couple’s experience

[Mike E 11,739]

I became a U.S. citizen in  1/2018 2018, and filed I-129F in 2/2018

 

Long story short my now wife received her 10 year green card 10/2022 … close to 5 years after I-129F was filed.  
 

We didn’t go the CR-1 route because of the legal difficulty of my wife, a citizen and resident of Burma, getting married to a foreigner of a different race and religion. Among the few countries she could travel to without a visa, marriage between two foreigners was a cumbersome process. Something like the Utah zoom marriage service did not exist. 
 

Let’s imagine remote marriage service did exist and we went the CR-1 route.  How might our timeline have changed:

 

March 2017 - during one of our actual in person meetings , we get married via Utah Zoom and file I-130.  While we had decided to get married earlier, our previous two meetings were in Burma and in 2016, Internet speeds their didn’t support video conferencing.  

 

January 2018 - I take oath of citizenship and inform USCIS or NVC to upgrade petitioner status. 

 

March 2019 - on our two year wedding anniversary my wife enters the USA on her CR-1 visa. In the real timeline she entered January 2019 on a K-1. 
 

April 2019 - my wife receives a 10 year green card. In the real time line she filed I-485 April 2019, and received a 2 year gc in January 2020, forcing us to file I-751 in 10/2021.
 

 In the real timeline, a  year later in 10/2022 she received her 10 year gc.   This btw is abnormally fast.  We have a high profile member on visajourney who has been waiting 3 years with a joint filing and if anything, has a more solid case than ours.  
 

Back to the alternate timeline.  March 2022 - my wife files for U.S. citizenship.  In the real time she hasn’t filed yet and won’t be eligible until  later this month in October 2022. 
 

K-1 was not faster for us.  It was more expensive in USCIS fees.  
 

Imagine a petitioner who is already a U.S. citizen, visiting a fiancé(e) in a country with decent Internet.  I think end to end the process would be faster  by a year or 2.  Probably more because I-751 cases are a death march now and not a day goes by without discussion on visajourney about what to do when a 24 month extension letter expires. 36 month extension letters are coming is my prediction.  
 

Conditional LPRs increasingly  can’t travel, can’t work, can’t drive.  This didn’t matter much to us because of the pandemic and my fortunate financial situation.  But most couples aren’t as old as my wife and I are. 
 

Do not do K-1 unless your alien fiancé(e) has children aged 18, 19, or 20 and you both want them to immigrate at the same time. 
 

 

[powerpuff 6,697]

Thank you for the post, I agree with you. As a (former) K1 applicant myself, CR1 is the way to go unless for one reason you mentioned:

6 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Do not do K-1 unless your alien fiancé(e) has children aged 18, 19, or 20 and you both want them to immigrate at the same time. 

Utah Zoom marriage solves any difficulties that come up with marrying in a foreign country.

Edited October 25, 2022 by powerpuff

[Dashinka 24,487]

We did the K1 back in 2013 when processing times, etc. were much more reasonable.  I filed the I129f in the Summer of 2013 (I am to lazy to check my timeline for the exact date), it was approved in December 2013, interview in March 2014 and she entered in Sept. 2014 and we got married two weeks later.  Then we filed the AOS package in late October 2014, and she got her CGC in March 2015 (EAD came in about five weeks if memory serves).  We filed the I751 in December. 2016 right when the ROC slowed to a crawl, heck they were still only issuing 12 month extension letters back then.  My wife decided to naturalize, so she filed the N400 in January 2018 and had her oath ceremony in June 2018 never actually receiving a 10yr GC even though the I751 was approved (USCIS actually did something right).  So about 5 years from the I129F to the oath ceremony.

 

Regardless, today, I would almost always recommend the CR1 path.  I used to recommend the K1 for same sex couples where the immigrating person was from a country that did not allow such unions, but the Utah Zoom marriage has eliminated most of those issues.

[SalishSea 17,819]

3 hours ago, Mike E said:

I became a U.S. citizen in  1/2018 2018, and filed I-129F in 2/2018

 

Long story short my now wife received her 10 year green card 10/2022 … close to 5 years after I-129F was filed.  
 

We didn’t go the CR-1 route because of the legal difficulty of my wife, a citizen and resident of Burma, getting married to a foreigner of a different race and religion. Among the few countries she could travel to without a visa, marriage between two foreigners was a cumbersome process. Something like the Utah zoom marriage service did not exist. 
 

Let’s imagine remote marriage service did exist and we went the CR-1 route.  How might our timeline have changed:

 

March 2017 - during one of our actual in person meetings , we get married via Utah Zoom and file I-130.  While we had decided to get married earlier, our previous two meetings were in Burma and in 2016, Internet speeds their didn’t support video conferencing.  

 

January 2018 - I take oath of citizenship and inform USCIS or NVC to upgrade petitioner status. 

 

March 2019 - on our two year wedding anniversary my wife enters the USA on her CR-1 visa. In the real timeline she entered January 2019 on a K-1. 
 

April 2019 - my wife receives a 10 year green card. In the real time line she filed I-485 April 2019, and received a 2 year gc in January 2020, forcing us to file I-751 in 10/2021.
 

 In the real timeline, a  year later in 10/2022 she received her 10 year gc.   This btw is abnormally fast.  We have a high profile member on visajourney who has been waiting 3 years with a joint filing and if anything, has a more solid case than ours.  
 

Back to the alternate timeline.  March 2022 - my wife files for U.S. citizenship.  In the real time she hasn’t filed yet and won’t be eligible until  later this month in October 2022. 
 

K-1 was not faster for us.  It was more expensive in USCIS fees.  
 

Imagine a petitioner who is already a U.S. citizen, visiting a fiancé(e) in a country with decent Internet.  I think end to end the process would be faster  by a year or 2.  Probably more because I-751 cases are a death march now and not a day goes by without discussion on visajourney about what to do when a 24 month extension letter expires. 36 month extension letters are coming is my prediction.  
 

Conditional LPRs increasingly  can’t travel, can’t work, can’t drive.  This didn’t matter much to us because of the pandemic and my fortunate financial situation.  But most couples aren’t as old as my wife and I are. 
 

Do not do K-1 unless your alien fiancé(e) has children aged 18, 19, or 20 and you both want them to immigrate at the same time. 
 

 

Excellent, detailed explanation of your personal experience and the never-ending K-1 vs CR-1 debate.  

We did a K-1 in 2018, are currently almost a year into the ROC wait, and eligible to file the N-400 next month.   
 

I agree 100%, and in retrospect, we would have done a CR-1.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,092]

4 hours ago, Mike E said:

I became a U.S. citizen in  1/2018 2018, and filed I-129F in 2/2018

 

Long story short my now wife received her 10 year green card 10/2022 … close to 5 years after I-129F was filed.  
 

We didn’t go the CR-1 route because of the legal difficulty of my wife, a citizen and resident of Burma, getting married to a foreigner of a different race and religion. Among the few countries she could travel to without a visa, marriage between two foreigners was a cumbersome process. Something like the Utah zoom marriage service did not exist. 
 

Let’s imagine remote marriage service did exist and we went the CR-1 route.  How might our timeline have changed:

 

March 2017 - during one of our actual in person meetings , we get married via Utah Zoom and file I-130.  While we had decided to get married earlier, our previous two meetings were in Burma and in 2016, Internet speeds their didn’t support video conferencing.  

 

January 2018 - I take oath of citizenship and inform USCIS or NVC to upgrade petitioner status. 

 

March 2019 - on our two year wedding anniversary my wife enters the USA on her CR-1 visa. In the real timeline she entered January 2019 on a K-1. 
 

April 2019 - my wife receives a 10 year green card. In the real time line she filed I-485 April 2019, and received a 2 year gc in January 2020, forcing us to file I-751 in 10/2021.
 

 In the real timeline, a  year later in 10/2022 she received her 10 year gc.   This btw is abnormally fast.  We have a high profile member on visajourney who has been waiting 3 years with a joint filing and if anything, has a more solid case than ours.  
 

Back to the alternate timeline.  March 2022 - my wife files for U.S. citizenship.  In the real time she hasn’t filed yet and won’t be eligible until  later this month in October 2022. 
 

K-1 was not faster for us.  It was more expensive in USCIS fees.  

 

Though I largely agree with your general conclusions, and wouldn't do a K-1 today  ... we started the K-1 process three months after you did, and my wife got her 10 year green card in April and filed for citizenship in July. Granted, a big part of that was because San Diego was processing AOS relatively quickly in 2019.

 

Since Zoom weddings were not a thing in 2018, though, I definitely don't regret doing a K-1. We wouldn't have been able to get together for a third-country wedding (there was no way we were marrying in Russia and as a young-ish single Russian woman, Anastasia was unlikely to get a US tourist visa) for another few months (we filed after I met her family in Russia, and would not have married before then even if it had been practical to do so anywhere we'd been together at), and at the time it was taking about 9 months for a K-1 and 18 for a CR-1 from petition to interview.