W199

I do mostly totally agree with you about your 3 points. That is why for me, I am taking as much time as I can to live with my fiancee, know her relatives, share bills, issues, family and so forth. I even renovated their house so I can comfortably live there on extended vacations with her and her family and be in the middle of "real life" with them. It is an engagement with full intent and desire to marry. Nonetheless, an engagement is an engagment and many couples end up breaking it off. If you have been divorced before, you never want to go through that again. But the fact also is that many K-1's end up being withdrawn due to the break-up of a the relationship for many different reasons despite their initial attempt to go through with it and get married. These are the cases I'm referring to. But otherwise, I agree, its so hard to know, but there is a lot you can do if you know what you are looking for during the engagagment. All I am saying is you need to consider the total circumstances and use your brain so you don't end up married and trying to get an international divorce instead of having to simply withdraw the k-1. And every case and every couple is different. Saying cr-1 for all of them is not being ignorant of their circumstances, and so forth.

You are twisting people's words and keep missing the point. There are an infinite number of different situations, simple or complex. For a simple example, there are plenty of cases of young and vulnerable people meeting up with the foreign cuties, have amazing sex, and then are convinced and 100% certain they want to marry them, even after the first meeting, Or even before they even met in person. And no one wants to wait 2 years for a visa, so they want to decide "do they do the cr-1 or the k-1 now" No one is saying to use the K-1 as a trial period or as a way out. We are talking about already deciding you want to marry, and what to do next. By blindly pushing the spousal visa on them due to the benefits, you are ignoring the facts of life and reality of a relationship. You are effectively rushing young and foolish or infatuated people with ranging hormones into a marriage. We are saying that they should consider the realities of life and relationships, so many end up in divorce, scams, fraud, or just dissolve after all the sex is exhausted and there is nothing else to talk about. Yet these couples in "love" and wanting to marry don't realize this and think they know everything. The intelligent decision after meeting someone for the first time, and often just 1 time, is to get engaged and do the K-1 visa. They have the full intent and desire to get married. There is a reason why people get engaged. If there was only a 3 month wait for the K-1, like there was 20 years ago, then people could get engaged and take their time. Now people are forced to rush to a decision. This is not about saying "I want a trial and test run". This is about using your brains and intelligence on the facts of life, that no matter how much you love or want to marry, doing a K1 may be the right approach if you only met them one time, or even not at all. It all depends on each individual couple, their culture, and so forth. The bottom line is that you are ignoring all this and just saying "the spousal visa is so much better" No one disagrees with that. But that is effectively pushing young or fooish or many other kinds of people to rush into a marriage due the benefits of the cr-1 visa. You should advise them to use their brains and really decide if getting married makes more sense or getting engaged. For some cultures, meeting once and deciding makes sense to get married, but many others its doesn't work out that well despite their best and sincere intentions. You are harming and hurting people like the above example by pushing the spousal visa without consideration of the realities of life. I have seen it many times, especially with military men overseas. But sure, for the right mature couple, who are truly ready for marriage and want to jump start their married life, the CR-1 is the way to go. But for others its not, but you keep pushing it.

Yes, that is a very good point. The consulate has far more discretion to deny a K-1 than a CR-1. Just like you and Angela on 90 day fiance, it got refused and they had to resort to a CR-1 and wait 2 more years. But that is more for cases with red flags or other issues. In fact, I considered that issue as well, and still a little nervous, but our love story is very typical of those in Philippines and those cases all get approved. If there are red flags and you want to bullet proof it then CR-1 will help tremendously. On the other hand, CR-1 do also get denied if the beneficiary or petitioner is not eligible. The risk is much lower, and you should know if you are eligible or not, but If your cr-1 is denied due to the benificiary lying about their criminal history or being free to marry, then you are far more screwed, than having to do a CR-1 if your k-1 is denied. Many people whose k-1 are denied just end the relationship. So again, need to think carefully and weigh all factors in your relationship before doing a CR-1, its a very serious decision and should not be based on saving some money on the application fee.

Amen! I think it is because "misery loves company." My last K-1 was 20+ years ago and I don't even remember the extra steps of EAP, AP, etc... Its all in the noise and soon forgotten. Now that I am in "bed" with my fiancee, I am in the know of so many other girls in the Philippines that are scamming their foreign bf. Just being engaged to them for 2 more years would help flush that that, assuming you are not gullible and do not ignore the warning signs. I just had a friend go to the Philippines to meet his fiancee for the first time and to get married. But he never made it there. On his transit connection stop he called her, then, he turned back to usa based on what she said to him. But nonetheless the cr-1 is a lot better, but I think that needs to be taken very seriously and is only right for certain couples, or other special situations. So do not be paranoid to do the cr-1, but really evaluate if you are using your brain and if that makes the most sense from a relationship standpoint, an make a wise intelligent decision, not basing it on the features of the cr-1, lol

It depends on the person, their situation, age, and so forth. For myself, I felt I had to rush to make a decision because when I applied the wait time was going to be 2 years. I didn't want to wait 2 more years before I chose to file the CR-1 or the K-1. Because then it will be 4 years before they arrive in the USA. I am getting too old for that. So I felt rushed into getting married or doing a K-1 due to the 2 years wait and suffering living alone, and the worst of all, spending everyday reading VisaJourney watching the processing times, statistics, and all the horror stories on here. Actually, my case is more complicated as I wanted to do this years earlier but I had to wait until my divorce became final. That already took years. Once that happened, then I had to decide cr-1 or k-1. But I didn't want to rush to married right after my divorce became final I wanted the 2 years of extra time that the K-1 gave me to be 1 million percent confident of my new marriage.

You are missing the point. Getting married or even rushing to get married to get a CR-1 just because it has more features and more convienent is foolish for many people. Granted, for yourself, or for many other people, depending on their stage of life, it may make good sense to decide on it based on the features. But for many others, they should decide based on whether they are really are ready to be married and then seperated for 2 years, or be engaged for 2 years before the K-1 is approved. Its a very emotional issue, that can vary greaty depending on the couple and circumstances. So pushing a cr-1 on many peopke and keep telling them its better may be 100% correct or 100% wrong.

If the K-1 and CR-1 only took 3-8 months like it used to take 20 years or so ago, then I agree. But now it takes close to 2 years. So if you do a K-1. you will ultimately be engaged to each other for 2 years longer until they arrive in the USA when you will marry within 3 months, During these 2 years, or so, you can video chat 2/day for hours, visit each other a few times a year .. or even meet in a neighboring country like Canada if you live near the border. It will give you a chance to develop and deepen your relationship and get better prepare for marriage, and to flush out a bad marriage or scams that too many people end up having ... no marriage how confident they think they are ..

Oh yeah, good point, in some States maybe you can't even drive until you get an EAD. In my State, thats not an issue.

That's a good point! Should add that to the list! The tax savings from the 2 years of filing married and working for 8 -12 months earlier can be huge! I didn't think of that because for myself, I want my fiancee to first learn how to drive and then get in a few months of practice,, and maybe even go to school first for her Master's degree to get a better job. I have see so many divorces, and so many break-ups, and so many betrayals, that for me my priority is to be engaged for 2 years, and meet often while waiting. When I was younger, I rushed into marriage and that was a mistake. Buying a cake for tonight is very different than buying the ingredients with the plan to bake a cake down the road, Don't be foolish.

You forgot about the tax savings. Doing a CR-1 allows you to file taxes as married, probably 2 years earlier. For myself, that would save me about $25/year on taxes. But I am still doing a K-1 instead of a CR-1 because a CR-1 requires you to get married, and then be separated for 2 years. A divorce will cost you even more. The cost of a wedding in a foreign country is also a lot different. Need to be realistic as many K-1 couples break up before they get married. Rushing to get married to save a little bit on the application fee or on taxes is foolish. You should get married if that is your priority, or do a K-1 if you prefer to have a longer engagement and get married in the USA. The money or time is going to be insignificant and all forgotten after being married for a while. What will be important is how you got married, or developed your relationship during your engagement. Or there may be other issues to consider. For example, if you are an international travelor for buisness and can't afford to wait 8 monthes for your EAD, then a cr-1 is the only choice. What I am trying to say is making a decision based on "which is better" is not the right attitude, it should be what do you need. A cr-1 because you are getting married, or a k-1 because you want to be engaged, or a cr-1 for work, etc.... not comparing the features like you compare different credit cards. Another realistic considering is the possibility of divorce. Getting married and divorce in Thailand was trivial. In the Philippines, both are very dif

I used an agency that specializes in K-1/CR-1 petitions for the Philippines. They are paralegals. They were only $600 and worth every penny, better than the lawyer I had too. They don't legally represent you, or submit it, but they fill it out, answer every question you have, and explain exactly what you need to submit and what not to submit.The price even includes a practice K-1 interview when the time comes. It was extremely helpful since my K-1 case was complex for multiple reasons. In fact, I even my lawyer (this was through my legal plan which covers the review of legal documents, but not representation), The lawyer said it was great but had some suggestions. The agency explained why the lawyer's suggestions are bad, risky and would likely screw everything up and create very long delays. If I wanted this lawyer, who specializes and solely does immigration, to actually sign the form representing me, and submit it, it would have been about $4K. I also found Internet lawyers who specialize in K-1 seem to charge about $1200 or so, and they will sign it and submit it as well. If you can follow instructions and don't mind doing the final assembly and submission, I found this agency perfect for my complex case.

The K-1 instructions explain that CERTIFIED court documents and arrest records need to be provided. But usually, not always, they are just looking for the certified cout documents simply to verify that the case is closed because these types of criminal convictions don't make you ineligible for a K-1. They also want to verify you are honest and have declared all offenses. If the case is closed, you provided the certified court documents, didn't hide any arrests, etc.. then there should be no issue.