K1 two year meeting requirement waiver?

[Sarah&Facundo 595]

That's not an extreme hardship, unfortunately. People travel with kids all the time. To travel to my husband's family is 30+ hours. There are always a ton of parents with kids on those trips. There is no reason you can't take them with you if there is no one local to watch them.

[Boiler 45,442]

Ooops

 

Anyway I remember one case and not sure of it was on here but the guy could not travel at all and the lady had made numerous applications to visit.

 

I do not know what happened at the interview.

Edited October 14 by Boiler

[SalishSea 17,801]

11 hours ago, yetanotherfaery said:

I know that this waiver is hard to get and we're nothing special, but I am in a social hardship predicament (I'm the US citizen) that makes meeting him physically very difficult. 

Long story short: I have sole physical custody of my two young small children. Their biological dad is not in the picture at all. It would create extreme hardship on them to get them on a plane going across the world to meet him. I have known him online for a decade and we fell in love. We want to be together and create a future. We are assuming the tourist visa would be denied outright as we have romantic intentions beyond visiting as friend/family. We are friends first of course, but the wait time for an interview is almost 2 years in his country (Turkey) to even be considered as a yes/no for the tourist visa. 

Would my situation being the sole physical custody parent of my 2 young children be considered extreme hardship for our meeting? 

 

10 hours ago, yetanotherfaery said:

I didn't know getting married online was an option. Is the in-person meeting a requirement for applying for the CR1 spousal visa? Is there a potential waiver for that requirement that might be considered? 

 

Absolutely not.  In addition, although one "can" marry someone without ever having met in person, I strongly discourage anyone from doing that.  Why create another red flag for your case?

 

Marriage is a huge commitment and step.  VJ is FULL of stories by people who married someone they had met maybe once, and are not absolutely regretting that decision.  After all, you wouldn't marry someone in your neighborhood sight unseen, would you?

 

And there is no chance you would get a waiver, sorry.  

[SalishSea 17,801]

10 hours ago, MalloryCat said:

from my understanding a waiver for the spousal visa is even more rare and hard to obtain. and you're reasoning still would be unlikely to be approved

There is no waiver available.  USCIS does not recognize unconsummated proxy marriages.

[MalloryCat 183]

9 hours ago, SalishSea said:

There is no waiver available.  USCIS does not recognize unconsummated proxy marriages.

yea i only did a quick google search and went based off of Googles AI overview response, which obviously isn't always right 😂

[davidvs 337]

Traveling with small children is not a hardship in the least. NY to Istanbul is a 12 hour flight with a stop midway in London. You are looking at 2 6 hour flights more or less. 

Can you have a friend or relative make the trip with you? I'd bet you could find someone who wouldn't mind a vacation. Making a solo trip isn't all that difficult either.

I travelled solo with my 5yo NY to Bangkok which is was a 26 hour trip. He loved every second of it. 

 

Of course there is also the option of meeting in a 3rd country. Bahamas is visa free for him and a very short flight from the US. 

[yetanotherfaery 1]

Thank you for the guidance, everyone. I think the best path forward is for us to meet in The Bahamas or somewhere in The Caribbean as one of you mentioned. I didn't even consider that as an option. That makes sense and is a lot more tangible for us!

Does anyone know where I can see wait times for immigrant visa appointments for the US consulate in Istanbul? This website only shows the nonimmigrant visa wait times.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html#:~:text=Important Notice: Except in cases,supplemental documents%2C whichever is later.

[appleblossom 2,437]

7 minutes ago, yetanotherfaery said:

Thank you for the guidance, everyone. I think the best path forward is for us to meet in The Bahamas or somewhere in The Caribbean as one of you mentioned. I didn't even consider that as an option. That makes sense and is a lot more tangible for us!

Does anyone know where I can see wait times for immigrant visa appointments for the US consulate in Istanbul? This website only shows the nonimmigrant visa wait times.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html#:~:text=Important Notice: Except in cases,supplemental documents%2C whichever is later.

 

They don't show immigrant visa wait times anywhere. By the time you're at that point (if you're going to meet in person at least 2-3 times before filing) it will have changed quite a bit anyway. But figure about 2 years from when you file for the spouse visa overall as a rough guide for the whole process.

 

Best of luck. 

Edited October 15 by appleblossom