Help needed: Please Advise (Indian marrying American Citizen)

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rd854

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,

I would really appreciate any advice for my particular situation.

I am an Indian citizen and plan to marry my boyfriend who is an Indian born American citizen. I am currently visiting him in the US and plan to return to India in early July. We have plans to marry in December of this year or early January 2014 in India. Our preliminary research suggests that although it is not ‘illegal’ to marry in America while on a tourist visa, it may be considered immigration fraud if there was an ‘intention to immigrate’ when entering the country. While we hadn’t planned on getting married in America during my visit, we are considering the option in case it would be beneficial in shortening the time spent in obtaining a green card. We want to understand the risk involved in the event we get married in America during my current visit. We are open to getting married in either India or America and want to understand which would result in a shorter immigration process.

We are also looking at the fiancé visa (K1) as an option, which I would apply for shortly after my return to India in July. Any thought on whether the K1 is a good alternative in case we do not / cannot marry in America before July? We would still want to have a wedding celebration in India as well, probably after the wedding in the US has taken place based on the K1.

Also, what is the K3 visa? I read somewhere about this visa being obsolete and am a bit confused about it. Can anyone please clarify?

Anyone faced a similar situation? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Any thought on whether the K1 is a good alternative in case we do not / cannot marry in America before July?
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Yes it's definitely a good alternative.

You don't apply for the K1 visa in India, your fiance initiates the K1 process in the US and then you'll interview for it in India. He can apply for it right now even though you're still in the US. The K1 visa interview should happen about 3-6 months after he submits the application. After the visa is approved, you'll have 6 months to enter the US with it. Then after entering the US you'll have 90 days to get married and file the green card paperwork.

Those timelines should enable you to get the visa and marry in the US before December, then you can have an elaborate celebration in India in December/January.

Also, what is the K3 visa? I read somewhere about this visa being obsolete and am a bit confused about it. Can anyone please clarify?
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The K3 is for people who are already married, K1 is for people who want to get married in the US. The K3 requires filing for adjustment of status (and paying the relevant fees) after entering the US, whereas the immigrant visa results in instant permanent resident status upon being admitted to the US and the green card is automatically delivered within a few weeks after arrival, so the K3 doesn't make sense now that it takes as much time to process as an immigrant visa. These days if you apply for K3 the consulate is likely to just ditch the K3 and process you for an immigrant visa.
 
Thanks so much for your help jackolantern. Any thoughts on the first question? Leaning towards the K1 visa but still curious about getting married while on a tourist visa.
 
K-1 is a risk free option. AOSing from B-2 always has a small risk of being accused of fraud and/or misrepresentation. Do you want to take that risk?

rd854 said:
Leaning towards the K1 visa but still curious about getting married while on a tourist visa.
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Triple Citizen said:
K-1 is a risk free option. AOSing from B-2 always has a small risk of being accused of fraud and/or misrepresentation. Do you want to take that risk?
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Thanks Triple Citizen. You're right, the risk free option is more attractive. Just to understand the time involved for the K visa - the K visa process would take about 6 months and after filing for adjustment of status (after the wedding in the US), the advance parole would take about 3 months as an outer limit. Would these assumptions be fairly accurate?

Thanks in advance for your advice. Really appreciated.
 
rd854 said:
Thanks Triple Citizen. You're right, the risk free option is more attractive. Just to understand the time involved for the K visa - the K visa process would take about 6 months and after filing for adjustment of status (after the wedding in the US), the advance parole would take about 3 months as an outer limit. Would these assumptions be fairly accurate?
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Expect 3-6 months for the K1, 2-3 months for the Advance Parole.
 
Hi

Another query: I hear that the time taken for the K visa is the same as for an immigrant visa. In my case both the K visa and immigrant visa would need to be processed from India. Can anyone please shed some light on whether this is true? Is there any way I can ascertain this online?

Am assuming that an immigrant visa means applying for the green card in India after marriage.

Thanks in advance
 
rd854 said:
Another query: I hear that the time taken for the K visa is the same as for an immigrant visa.
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Depends on which kind of K visa they're talking about.

The K3 visa takes about the same amount of time as an immigrant visa. But the K1 is much faster than both the K3 and immigrant visa.
 
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