Fiancee
K1 Visa
Fiancee Visa from Poorer Countries
We
have had clients who, before they engaged our services, tried every
trick in the book to obtain another type of visa for their fiancees.
Several have had their pastors write invitation letters for their
fiancees to obtain a visitor visa. Many have had their companies write
invitations for a business visitor visa. Others have attempted to
obtain student visas, J-1 visas, H-1 visas, etc. Not only were they
unsuccessful in their efforts, but they greatly increased the time
it took us to bring their fiancees to the U.S. on a K1 visa and they
made our work much more difficult in obtaining the fiancee visa.
Those
who try to take shortcuts with immigration are asking for trouble.
Most of the few unmarried ladies who manage to obtain a B-1/B-2 visitor
visa to the U.S. from "an agent" have been arrested by USCIS (formerly the "INS" and "BCIS")
officers at the airport when they entered the U.S. Often the fiancee
does not even know how the agent fraudulently obtained the visitor
visa for her. Those who get past airport screening have been investigated
for fraud when the couple marries and she applies for her permanent
resident "green card." Once caught, the fiancees (or foreign
wives if they married) have been deported from the U.S. and some have
been BARRED FROM ENTERING THE U.S. for 3 or 10 years.
Fiancee
Visa from Developed Countries
If
your fiancee is from one of the wealthier "developed" countries
of the world (England, Canada, France, Australia, etc.) she can probably
get into the U.S. without a K1 fiancee visa. However, for those who
intend to marry a United States citizen, the K1 visa is the appropriate
visa and it is advisable for several reasons to obtain a fiancee visa
before the marriage.
The
biggest reason is that if your fiancee enters the U.S. by any method
other than a fiancee visa the USCIS has the right to require her to
depart the U.S. When this occurs US immigration laws require you to
file for a spousal visa. Your wife cannot visit you in the US while
the spousal visa is pending, which will take time. If your fiancee
has children who will be coming to the U.S. you will have to file
separate visa petitions for each child, whereas with a fiancee visa
the children under twenty-one-years of age can be included in the
parent's fiancee visa petition.
Bottom
line, the fiancee visa is the only proper method for her to use to
enter the U.S. if you want to marry and have her be able to stay permanently in the
U.S. with a work premit and without having to worry about being deported.
Marriage
Outside the U.S.
If
you marry your fiancee outside of the U.S. we can greatly speed up
her getting into the U.S. by use of the newly created K3 Visa for
foreign brides of U.S. citizens.
However, the K3 visa requires more paperwork than a fiancée
visa.
Either
way, if you are engaged and want a K1 fiancée visa or are married
and need a K3 spousal visa, we can help you. If you will call our offices we can advise you on how best
to proceed. We have been
obtaining K visas since 1991.
We currently obtain more than 1,200 K visas every year.
We have successfully filed for over 10,000 K visas. Our entire immigration
law practice consists of obtaining the K visa from all over the world
and we service clients in all 50 states.
Fiancee K1 Visa Requirements
The
K1 visa requirements are simple. You must be a USA citizen. Permanent
residents of the United States are not allowed to obtain fiancee visas.
Both you and your fiancee must be free to marry. This means that if
either of you has been married previously, you are either divorced,
widowed or the marriage was annulled. You must have met your fiancee
in person within the previous two years. If your fiancee lives
in a developing country she cannot legally obtain a visitor visa to meet you in
the U.S. This means that you must travel outside the US to meet your fiancee.
Finally, there is a minimum income requirement for the
fiancee visa petitioner.
You
may have heard that 40% of the K1 visa petitions filed never result
in a visa being issued. From what other immigration attorneys have
told us, we believe this to be true. Notice that we used the words
"not approved," and not the word "denied". This
is because both the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
("USCIS", formerly the "INS" - Immigration and
Naturalization Service) and the U.S. Consulates rarely turn down a
K1 visa petition or application request if the requirements mentioned
above are met.
What
happens instead is that the USCIS finds some technical error or omission
in the paperwork submitted to them. Then, after several months they
will send you a form letter telling you what you did wrong. Very often,
when you submit the required correction, they will again wait several
months and again return the visa forms to you with another cover-sheet
informing you of a second minor error or omission.
When
(and if) your approved K 1 visa petition reaches the U.S. Consulate
at the U.S. Embassy handling the fiancee visa for your fiancee's country,
you still are not home free. If the consulate officer who interviews
your fiancee can get her to give an answer to one of his or her many
questions which is different from the information you submitted in
your petition package, the officer can send your entire USCIS-approved
petition package back to the USCIS in the U.S. for "investigation".
The minimum delay from this action in getting your fiancee's visa
issued is six months. Needless to say, if your fiancee does not know
all about your background and because she will naturally be nervous
during her interview, it is not too difficult to get her to give the
wrong answer to one of the questions.
As
you can see from the above, neither the USCIS nor the U.S. consular
officers want to risk taking the political heat which could result
from their turndown of an immigrant petition. However, if they can
find an excuse to return it for correction or investigation, they
are perfectly within their rights and not subject to criticism. In
fact, it is their duty to find problems and return cases.
What
usually happens in this situation is that one or both of you will
give up. Unfortunately, the usual result of delays is that the fiancee
becomes convinced that her American fiance is not serious about marrying
her and she ends the engagement. She probably knows of someone whose
fiance used our services to obtain a fiancee visa. She knows that
the foreign wife received her fiancee visa quickly and efficiently
and she wonders why you cannot do the same. Our normal
processing timeline from the USCIS receipt date until visa issuance
depends on the country of residence of your fiancee
and the state in which you reside. When a particular USCIS Service
Center or U.S. Consulate gets behind in their work, the K1 visa processing
time can increase. When this occurs we will let you know. The bottom
line is that however long it takes us to obtain your fiancee visa,
we believe it would take you or anyone else much longer.
When
your fiancee receives her fiancee visa, she has six months to enter
the U.S. After her arrival in the U.S., you have 90 days to marry
her or you must send your fiancee back to her home country. There
is no legal way to extend the 90 day limit. While she is in the U.S.
you are completely responsible for her financially. If for any reason
you do not marry her and she departs the U.S. within the 90 days,
she will not be precluded from coming to the U.S. in the future on
another K1 visa and you will not be precluded from again bringing
her or another foreign fiancee to the U.S. on a K1 visa. Although
repeated fiancee visa petitions raise the suspicions of the USCIS,
we obtain dozens of "second" and even some "third"
fiancee visas every year.
In
summary, if you are serious about bringing your fiancee to the U.S.
on a K1 visa, do not fight the system. The system usually wins those
battles. To
find out more about a fiancee visa for your fiancee, e-mail us at
attorneys@fianceevisas.com
or better yet , call us at :
