US Immigration from Malaysia

Greetings all,

My girlfriend (petitioner) and I are trying to figure out which marriage-based US visa to file for me (beneficiary). We have not begun any process as we are still very early in the discussion, but most likely it will be either the K-1 Fianc visa or CR-1 Spousal visa.

Some background to our situation:

1. Although my girlfriend is a U.S. citizen, she has only been living in the States for around 3 years. Before this, she was residing in the Philippines. On the other hand, I have lived in Malaysia all my life.

2. We have visited each other 8 times since 2015: she has visited me 4 times in Malaysia and I have visited her 4 times in the Philippines. Her family members have visited me and my family once and my family have visited them once as well. I have one more trip coming up middle of next year (2021) to visit her in the US if and when I m allow to travel (Malaysia borders are shut currently because of Covid-19).

3. We have passport stamps as evidence that the meetings took place as well as photos both together and with our mutual friends for all the 8 trips. However, we don t have the boarding passes or hotel receipts with us except for one when we stayed in a AirBnB place back in 2018.

4. She had been working part-time until recently. She took on a full-time job about 2-3 months ago which pays above the 2020 Minimum Annual Income Requirements.

My girlfriend prefers the K-1 visa route because she can t afford to take the time off from work for us to get married in the Malaysia since she only recently joined this new job. We need about 3 weeks (from start to finish) to get married in Malaysia. We had also thought we could be together faster with this route (at least before the pandemic struck). This however means extra costs, and demands more of our time. She will also have to support me until I have my Green Card or receive the EAD (Employment Authorization) to be able to work in the US.

I, on the other hand, prefer the CR-1 visa route since: it s less expensive, I will have my Green Card on hand soon after my arrival, and I can start looking for a job right away instead of having to do AOS (Adjustment of Status) after arriving with the K-1 Fianc visa.

So, we are now thinking of getting married when I visit her middle of next year on my B-1/B-2 tourist visa after which I ll return to Malaysia (I still have several commitments there, e.g. work, a car loan, family). From there on she ll file for the CR-1 visa for me while I wait it out in Malaysia. Now the thing is this: we are getting conflicting information if this will be considered visa fraud, i.e. me misusing my B-1/B-2 visa and if it will come back to bite us when we file for our CR-1 spousal visa.

Here s our current situation:

1. I ll be only visiting her for 27 days next year. Some have pointed out the 30/60/90 day rules as a reason why we shouldn t get married while on this visa, others have pointed it out as a myth (not specifically from this forum but what we ve read on the internet as a whole).

2. During my tourist visa application interview last year (2019) at the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the interviewer asked me if we are planning to get married to which I answered yes, but not now, probably in the future since we and our families are located in 3 different countries and I haven t spoken to her parents about it yet before my visa got approved.

3. When I applied for my tourist visa, we had no intention of filling for either K-1 or CR-1 visa as we originally planned to settle down in Malaysia, but things have changed since then. So the thing is if I do enter the US next year, we now have the intention of getting married and settling in the US as opposed to just visiting my girlfriend (what I told the interviewer at the U.S. embassy during my tourist visa interview last year). We just don t know which visa route to take.

4. The last time we had seen each other in person was in September 2018 (meaning we can t fulfill the 2-year face to face meeting requirement of the K-1 visa until my trip next year). Also, my trip next year will be my very first time visiting the US.

So, this is our situation and honestly, we are lost as to what we should do. We would greatly appreciate if you guys could advise us on what would be the best route to take, and to advise us if our plan of marrying while I visit her on my B-1/B-2 tourist visa would be problematic, even though I have every intention of returning to Malaysia after my visit. Thank you very much in advance.

Here's the new plan to radically expand biometrics collection from immigrants *and US citizens*

The DHS just posted the new Biometrics regulation which consists of so much bat*** crazy and the 328 odd pages will be officially published on 9/11

While me and others are hopelessly waiting a biometric appointment they changing the whole thing and asking DNA Voice Eye whatever you can think of in sci-fi movie.

Step to the federal register to be entertained

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-19145.pdf

P.S I don t know if this is the right forum

Hey guys, I just got my interview letter. It is scheduled for August 19 but I don't get the medical exam ready yet. What should I do?

If you know anyone or you yourself are effected by the Malaysian border closures that you can t proceed with your marriage plans or reuniting with your loved ones who is Malaysian. Please sign this Petition or/ and help us by sharing it to get the word out there. Thanks

https://www.change.org/p/malaysian-government-reunite-binational-malaysians-couples-and-families-b222e70b-41e8-431a-8fb5-9e84059033a9

Hi everyone, I had an interview at USCIS office on Mar 6, 2020 and they told me I am approved. However, i believe the offices were then closed the following week due to Covid-19. And up till now i see no progress on my case status, it still shows as "INTERVIEW WAS SCHEDULED". Has anyone facing the same issue? What should i do?

Thanks