MichaelChanthou

I am seeing statements to this affect a couple of times, but I am unable to understand. There is no marriage certificate Cambodia does not "legally" recognize us as being married in ANY WAY. I have ZERO rights or anything in Cambodia different than any other tourist. HOWEVER..... The Engagement party WAS a ceremony. The Family did bless us as a couple That ceremony allowed the family to feel that we were not violating tradition by living together and the neighbors do not think bad about her etc etc. SO.......In the US....with everything being Law based etc.....would they call us married even though there was NO kind of paperwork filed and no Cambodian Marriage certificate or anything like that? I would think the opposite would hold true. Someone would have a ceremony like that try to file for CR1 and the US would say "there is no legal paper trail to say you are married, so you are not married" and make them file K1. I am NOT asking to be belligerent. I am asking very sincerely. I hope that comes across.

In Cambodia it is almost impossible for a foreigner to get an actual Cambodian marriage certificate. Its just a mess of regulations and rules. but yes. there was a ceremony. Are you saying that this ceremony would make the US say "you are married already" and deny my K1....even if there was no paperwork or marriage license or anything like that? my tax returns do NOT show income to meet the requirements. So income would just be my current income from the VA and new job. Do you think that is an actual problem? or just maybe questions that I will need to address? My children are adult....but 2 in college and only 1 has a real job. they are not really Joint sponsor material. haha.

I appreciate everyones input, and understand what you are saying. I see the benefits to the CR1 over the K1.... However.... we will do the K1 visa. Our greatest priorities are 1....shortest time to get them to the US 2....Being able to have the wedding in the US with my kids. That may not make sense for other people and for other situations.... but that is OUR priorities and the K1 fits that best. So that still leaves me wondering if I can get answers to my other questions. 1. For address, is it OK to stay with my brother use that address even if we never plan to really LIVE at that location? 2. For job. Is it ok that my prior income was just my VA disability and I will have a new job.....so long as the new job is stable and a regular paycheck and I still have it at the time of interview and move to the US etc?

I need to clarify this. Are you saying that AFTER I do the K1....we are in the US...married etc. In order to do the adjustment of status....even if I do that paperwork ourselves..... for wife and 2 kids that will cost like $4-5k ADDITIONAL? I knew there was additional fees....but....ummmm......WOW.

The main reason NOT the spouse visa is that I have 3 adult children in the US that have never met her. Out of a sense of respect and i guess for lack of a better word "unity" I want to bring them all to the US and let my children meet here, meet the girls, spend time together, get to know each other and be part of the bringing the two different families together. The engagement party is pretty much a wedding in Cambodia. That was an event for her family to attend and be part of etc. so the wedding is for my side of the family.

overall, I think I have what would be a pretty simple case. 1. I met a Cambodian woman online July '23 (she has 2 children 9 and 12) 2. I moved to Cambodia in November of '23 3. They "unofficially" lived at my condo rental until March '24 when we had a traditional "engagement" ceremony 4. I then moved into her home. 5. We share a joint bank account that we pay most of the bills out of 6. I am currently still living here in Cambodia (for now) with them So 13 months "together" and 9 months living together in Cambodia, plus shared bank account here and a traditional Cambodian engagement party for her family etc. Right now I am a disabled US Veteran who has been living off of my disability alone the last few years. I do not have a real job, but I have been getting re-training through the VA for work in the IT field that I will be capable of with my disability. I do not have a home in the US currently, just a mailing address (although I have 3 adult children and a brother there.) In order to make the process easiest, the plan is for me to go back to the US get a W-2 job with more than enough income to be the sponsor and have an address there etc. File for everything from the US once I have a job and an address. I know that I need to go to the US and get these things to make the process as simple as possible, so now we are focused on how to have as few roadblocks as possible to getting them to the US. QUESTIONS: 1. I feel like if I have an address and a job....this case is pretty simple. Can I really do it on my own? 2. For the address, if I go back to the US, and stay with my brother in Nebraska while all of this is working out, can that be the address we use on all paperwork and count for where we will live etc? The problem I see is....my brother has a small home in rural Nebraska, it is NOT where we would live. My children all live in the Tulsa Oklahoma area which is where we will live when my family arrives and where we will physically get married. The reason to stay with my brother would just be to save as much money as possible between now and when they come. HOWEVER....it would be too cramped for all of us for more than a day. Is this ok? OR.....do I need to have the house or apartment that we will ACTUALLY live in together on the application etc? 3. Will filing from Nebraska give us any help in getting it processed in Nebraska (I see the center there is faster than some of the others)? If I start in Nebraska and relocate during the process can I still maintain the Nebraska address as the mailing/domicile or whatever? I am just worried about changing addresses on any paperwork slowing anything down mostly. 4. My job. I have filed tax returns....but I did not really have income the last 3 years because VA disability is not taxable. If I get a job making $40k+ (looks like 39k for family of 4 is needed) is it an issue in any way that it is a new job from around the time we file? Do I for some reason need to have the job for any certain amount of time? or is it enough that I have the job and STILL have the job when they come etc? I plan to submit my VA documents as well.....but that is only about $20k/year at this time.