yetanotherfaery

@Crazy Cat thank you so much! @JeanneAdil thank you!

Does anyone from Turkey or with a spouse in Turkey know where my spouse can get his official Turkish birth certificate? He says they are not really a thing there and that ID suffices at showing citizenship/place of birth. I've checked USCIS and I'm not sure exactly, for when we eventually file for I-130 will he need to show his birth certificate or is his passport enough?

I was able to find Istanbul -> Panama nonstop and then Panama -> Nassau nonstop! Thank you so much for your help.

Did some more research and it seems like the US transit visa is equally of a headache as Canada, UK, etc. So, it'd be easiest to apply for that one. Are these typically difficult to get or something? You'd think that merely passing through is normal operations.

@pushbrk Forgive me but I'm not familiar with the difficulty for a transit visa in the US, either. I also checked and UK is an option, it states another transit visa might be required. Thank you, I'll try that method of doing separate flights.

I did some research and found Canada as an option to connect through, but it says he would need a transit visa. Do you know if those are typically difficult to obtain?

Thank you. Can you recommend a website for searching flights and being able to select which country to layover in? It seems like most of them auto-select for me.

Turkey. He wouldn't be able to do a layover in the US, what about other countries? Surely there has to be a way for him to fly there from Turkey without getting visas in other countries?

Did anyone here marry their spouse in The Bahamas or somewhere in the Caribbean? I'm looking for personal experiences with getting married there as non-citizens.

Thank you for the guidance, everyone. I think the best path forward is for us to meet in The Bahamas or somewhere in The Caribbean as one of you mentioned. I didn't even consider that as an option. That makes sense and is a lot more tangible for us! Does anyone know where I can see wait times for immigrant visa appointments for the US consulate in Istanbul? This website only shows the nonimmigrant visa wait times. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html#:~:text=Important Notice: Except in cases,supplemental documents%2C whichever is later.

I didn't know getting married online was an option. Is the in-person meeting a requirement for applying for the CR1 spousal visa? Is there a potential waiver for that requirement that might be considered?

I know that this waiver is hard to get and we're nothing special, but I am in a social hardship predicament (I'm the US citizen) that makes meeting him physically very difficult. Long story short: I have sole physical custody of my two young small children. Their biological dad is not in the picture at all. It would create extreme hardship on them to get them on a plane going across the world to meet him. I have known him online for a decade and we fell in love. We want to be together and create a future. We are assuming the tourist visa would be denied outright as we have romantic intentions beyond visiting as friend/family. We are friends first of course, but the wait time for an interview is almost 2 years in his country (Turkey) to even be considered as a yes/no for the tourist visa. Would my situation being the sole physical custody parent of my 2 young children be considered extreme hardship for our meeting?