Golfnut

I understand that the time to get her Naturalized may be longer that i am estimating, but if we do the CR-1 visa, that clock would start 6 to 12 months later than doing a K1 visa. I'm not seeing any benefit to doing a CR-1 instead of a K1. Being married before we arrive in the US does not have any advantages to us that I can see.

I am in my 70's and my fiancé is in her 60's. We are both retired but she has a very small income to support herself and we mainly live on my social security income here in the Philippines which is well above average but still does not allow us to live the retired life we would like to. Our plan is to get her US citizenship in the 3 to 4 years required for a spouse to live in the US so that she can continue to collect an additional 50% off of my Social Security even after we return to the Philippines or wherever we decide to live outside the US. Also, if I were to pass while we are living abroad she will be able to collect my full Social Security. At the present, the processing time for a CR-1 spousal visa 12-16 months and the time to process a K1 fiancé visa is 4-7 months. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you are our age, 6 months to a year is a long time to wait before we can start really enjoying the active retirement we plan to live until we are physical unable to do so.

I am currently living in the Philippines with my fiancé and we are trying to decide between getting married in the Philippines and applying for a CR-1 visa or waiting to get married and applying for a K1 visa and get married in the US. Currently the processing time for a CR-1 visa in about 12-16 months and the processing time for a K1 visa is showing at about 4-7 months. We would like to take advantage of the shorter processing time but only if we can continue to live together in the Philippines. Looking at all the information I can find on the internet, it is not clear to us weather I need to return to US to process the K1 visa and wait for her to travel to the US after she receives the visa or if I can file for and have processed the visa while we continue to live in the Philippines. We are both retired in our respected countries so getting her a work permit upon arrival US is not an issue. If anyone has had experience with this, can you please let us know.