Living with your fiancé while your K1 visa is being processed

[Golfnut 0]

I am currently living in the Philippines with my fiancé and we are trying to decide between getting married in the Philippines and applying for a CR-1 visa or waiting to get married and applying for a K1 visa and get married in the US. 

 

Currently the processing time for a CR-1 visa in about 12-16 months and the processing time for a K1 visa is showing at about 4-7 months. We would like to take advantage of the shorter processing time but only if we can continue to live together in the Philippines. Looking at all the information I can find on the internet, it is not clear to us weather I need to return to US to process the K1 visa and wait for her to travel to the US after she receives the visa or if I can file for and have processed the visa while we continue to live in the Philippines. We are both retired in our respected countries so getting her a work permit upon arrival US is not an issue.

 

If anyone has had experience with this, can you please let us know. 

[Edward and Jaycel 379]

I don't believe there is anything that says you have to live in the US  while it is processing. The only thing that would be of concern is having a US address where you can receive the notices from USCIS (NOA 1 & NOA2) and then when it's time to process the visa, during the interview the Consular Officer will want to know an address where you and she will be living in the US and CBP at her Port of Entry will want to know the same thing. If you can stand the wait, I would highly recommend getting married there and doing the CR-1. If for no other reasons, it's cheaper and on the K-1, once she enters the US, she is stuck here in the country until either the green card is issued after the AOS or if you pay the extra money for the Advanced Parole which could also take months to process