getting married, fiance has vistor visa already

iamsomeone

Registered Users (C)
not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question, hopefully i can get some answer from here.

i am getting married, i am an u.s. citizen, finance is malaysian citizen and has valid u.s. visitor visa for another 7 years.

which form do we need to file to get her to immigrate to the u.s., does that form dependent of marriage license being issued? and when is she allow to start working in the u.s. legally, and obtaining her ssn?

many thanks! :)
 
If you want her to enter the US and then stay, you will need to file for the K1 visa. When she has that visa in hand she legally enter the US, marry you and then apply to adjust status to a permanent resident. If you want her to marry you on her visitor visa, she can do, but then she must apply for a spousal (CR1/IR1) visa, return back to her home country to obtain it, then enter the US and become a permanent resident upon entry. The k1 is by far the quickest process as so long as you are both legally free to marry and have met each other in person you can start the process now.
 
ok, thanks.

with k1 visa, it appears she can obtain her ssn upon arrival to the u.s., is she legally able to work upon obtaining the marriage certificate, or she has to wait until adjustment of status is fully completed?
 
When you marry and submit the aos packet, you can also submit an application for a Employment Authorization Document (EAD). This usually takes between 60-90 days to be received after sending off the packet. This allows you to work while aos is pending so there will be a period of time where your fiance will not be able to work. Once aos has been approved, the 2 year conditional green card will take place of the EAD card. By the way, the application for EAD is free when part of an aos application.
I came over to the US on a K1 visa and I just got my 10 year unconditional green card just by following guides on the Internet, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask away-I'll be happy to help :)
 
another question: since she already has valid visitor visa already, there shouldn't ever be a need for her to apply for AP, correct?
 
She absolutely will need AP if she wants to leave the US (and get back in) during the AOS process. Once the AOS packet is submitted her status becomes 'AOS pending' (or something along those lines), and she won't be entering on the visitor visa as she wil be entering on her K1. To preserve the AOS process and not have it deemed abandoned, she will need the AP document to reenter the states should she leave. If she leaves without it her AOS will be abandoned and you will have to start all over again by applying for a spousal visa.
 
No. The visitor visa is not voided. She could enter the US, apply for AOS, leave and reenter on B2, however this would still cause the AOS to be abandoned as AP is needed to keep it alive if you leave the country.
 
Usually around 8-12 months.
Just a thought though, I don't know what the official call on it is now since I'm not hugely up to date with spousal visas (I came over on a fiancé visa), BUT there was talk a while back about completely scrapping K3s in favor of the CR1/IR1 spousal visa. With the latter, the non US citizen spouse enters the US on their visa and immediately become a permanent resident upon entry (no need to go through AOS). If this is the case, then if you send in a K3 petition they will just process it as a CR1/IR1 visa. If not, then you may want to consider this alternative over the K3.
 
well our laywer is dealing with the forms, she seemed to think the K3 would take 3 months, I have a baby on the way in september i really dont want to be messing around changing forms etc now..... ugh i hate this!!
 
Your lawyer is very misinformed. I would ask her on what basis does she quote 3 months. 3 months possibly for the approval of the initial petition, but this does not factor in for the petition to get sent to the embassy, the embassy to arrange the interview, medicals, the interview to take place and then delivery of the passport with the visa in it. I interviewed for a K1 in London......my petition was approved in January (sent to VSC in Sept 2007) 2008....factoring the time it took my petition to make it to London, London to contact me with the documents it needed, me mailing those documents, London arranging an interview and then delivering my passport with the visa in it, I didnt get my visa until the end of April......so theres 4 months right there AFTER the initial approval. A more realistic time scale is 8-12 months....6 months if youre lucky. Im not going to lie by saying no one has ever got their K3 in 3months as I have seen it happen. However, these cases are few and far between and are not representative of the norm.
If a K3 has been filed and if the K3 visa has been scrapped you wont need to change any forms as your K3 application will automatically be changed to a CR1/IR1, so at least you dont have that worry over your head.
 
here is a copy of what i just sent to my lawyer i will let you now her response...


I have a few questions regarding our case, firstly in your opinion how long do you think it will be before I can come back to the US, as you know lauren is pregnant and I am getting really worried now that I wont be back in time for the birth. Lauren informed me that you seemed to think i would be back before the birth (around 3 months from when we filed the k3) but after doing some research i'm starting to worry it will take longer than this and I am getting really confused and frustrated by the whole thing.

If you would please take a few minutes to explain to me the process and what is involved it would be hugely appreciated, if only to just put my mind at rest.

also i've heard rumours about the K3 being scrapped in favour of the CR1/IR1 and as I understand they enable the Spouse of the person who is petitioning permanent residency when they arrive in the US.

As I say I am really confused, stressed and worried about this whole situation so any light you can share on this will be hugely appreciated.

Regards
 
Sounds like a great letter.
After further research on this issues, if NVC receives both the i129 and i130 at the same time then they will just process the i130 on it's own (administratively closing the i129) and the petition will follow the course of a CR1/IR1 petition. I still havent found any full clarification that K3s are completely extinct now, though going through other forums this does seem to be the case.
As for the timelines on the approval of the i130 petition (the first approval stage) they are currently averaged at 102 days for csc and vsc and 109 for tsc..... This is just the first step that I talked about.....making it's way to the embassy, getting the interview and all that other fun stuff is another different timeline.
 
how long are those new visa's taking to process and will i be a resident as soon as I arrive with one of those???

Like I said i'm risking flying over in august and hoping that i get let in, then when we recieve notice of the K3 or whatever they send to me then I will fly bk to go to the london embassy to get everything sorted,

how long after visiting the embassy will i be eligable to travel bk on my visa?

ps thankyou so much you're more help than my lawyer is!!
 
No problem. I'm happy to help all I can.

For the CR1/IR1 visa is taking on average (from the service center recieving the petition to the embassy interview approval) is 282 days.
http://www.visajourney.com/content/ir1cr1historical. (the very last graph on the bottom of this page shows the overall process timeline trend- the other graphs are showing the timelines of the various different stages of the petition).

K3 is taking on average 276 days from start to finish.
http://www.visajourney.com/content/k3historical

These timelines do not include the time it takes for the visa to be delivered. For London this takes around 5-10 days (mine took 6 days). However, sometimes visa approvals go through additional administrative processing which can increase the delivery time dramatically (for some people 6+) weeks.
 
I also forgot to add that once you get your passport delivered with the visa inside it, you should be good to travel immediately on it.
 
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