I'm planning to propose to my long-time girlfriend soon, and we might go the K1 route, or just do a courthouse marriage (bigger ceremony/party later) and go the CR1 route. She's Colombian, has a tourist visa, and will soon be graduating from her university there with a bachelor's degree. The thing is, we would really prefer to close the distance (to the extent possible) in a timeframe shorter than the 1.5-2 years I understand it takes for those visas to be granted, and if we can do so while she's working/studying here in the US in a way that advances her career goals, all the better.
It seems that her doing a relevant Master's (or other graduate certificate) program in the US on an F1 visa or a long-term internship/traineeship for a company here on a J1 visa would both be options that would fit the bill, in terms of advancing her career goals, and allowing her to stay in the US for a longer period of time than her tourist visa would (12-18 months for the J1/F1, as far as I can tell, vs. 6 months for the B2).
My question is whether she will run into any issues filing for a J1 or F1 visa for the purposes I described above, if she has a K1 or CR1 visa petition already pending/being processed? Also, I'm assuming here that it would make sense for her to file for the CR1/K1 before the J1/F1, given the longer lead time, but if the reverse would make more sense for some reason, I'd love to hear differently. Thank you!