I-129F and I-130 (urgent!!)

JasmineGreen

New Member
Hi, My boyfriend and I wants to get engaged to be married. He is american citizen, so my understanding is that he needs to file I-129F for me, so that's what we are looking into doing.

I'm currently on tourist visa but is going to expire in a week (i'm in the states visiting him right now), I'm confused as the I-130 thing. Do I just wait here in the country as my boyfriend file the I-129f and wait to hear back from immigration? Or should I do something about the I-130? isn't it redundant?

I checked the instruction of I-129f, but it wasn't very clear on if the fiancee is already in the States...

CY
 
I-129F is to petition for a fiance visa (K-1 visa). A visa is for you to enter the U.S. A fiance visa is for you to come to the U.S. to get married. So you would only do this if you intend to leave the U.S. for a while and then come back on the fiance visa to get married. If you don't need to leave the U.S., you don't need to get a fiance visa because you are already in the U.S. and can already get married.

To summarize, there are two ways you can do it:
  • Leave the U.S. He files I-129F petition to petition you for a fiance visa. You go through the consulate in your home country to get a fiance visa (K-1 visa); this process may take many months to a year, and you are not guaranteed to get the visa. You come to the U.S. on this visa. You get married. Then you apply for Adjustment of Status (file I-485).
  • You can get married without leaving the U.S. He and you file I-130 and I-485 together. You stay in the U.S. the whole time.
 
Thank you so much Newacct for the quick answer!

When you said "if you don't leave the U.S., you don't need to get a fiance visa because you are already in the U.S. and can already get married." that sounds great, but don't I have to always be on some sort of status to stay here though? Because I'm on tourist VISA right now and is going to expire in 5 days, I need my boyfriend to apply for I-129F so at least my status is on pending while the file process and I can stay legally, right? (Because for my tourist visa, I did the B2 I-539 extend of stay 6 months ago, and the process took them 4 months, and they said while I'm waiting the paper to process, I was to stay here legally while the request of extend of stay is on pending. So, I'm assuming the I-129F process would work the same way....)

The way you said it, is to skip the whole engaged period of our lives and just go get married since I'm in the states now? But that's not what we want.... in the end of the day, we still want to do everything right, like informing all our friends and family, have time to plan the wedding, and have time to celebrate the engagement,..... then wedding. Are you saying that is not possible right now?
 
Petitioning you for a fiancee visa doesn't help you with staying in the U.S. at all. It just starts the process for you to get a visa at outside the U.S. Only applying for Change of Status, Extension of Status, or Adjustment of Status can authorize you to stay here. Petitions (I-129F, I-130) do not help.

If it's going to be at least a year or so until you plan to get married, and you plan to be outside the U.S. during this time, then I guess going the fiance visa route would make sense. Otherwise, if you want to get married sooner, or stay in the U.S. in the meantime, it might make sense to stay here and get married without leaving. You don't have to get married right away -- even if you go out of status it won't affect your ability to apply for adjustment of status after you're married (as an Immediate Relative of a U.S. citizen, you don't need to be in status to apply for adjustment of status). But the time between when your status expires and when you file for adjustment of status (after you get married) you'll be deportable, and there's a small chance if you're really unlucky something will happen that will cause you to be deported during that time.
 
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