K1 Visa
What You Should Know About K1 Visas
WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR A K1 FIANCÉE VISA?
-
The people eligible to apply for a K1 Visa are "U.S. citizens" who intend to marry a foreign born person in the U.S.A.; Ideally, you are engaged to your fiancee(woman) or fiance (man).
-
You and your foreign national fiancée must be qualified to marry. This simply means that each one of you are not presently married. Therefore, any prior marriages must be completely final and not pending a divorce or an annulment
-
You must have seen your fiancée face to face ,or in person, within the last two years prior to filing for a K1 fiancée visa. This particular condition can be forgiven if seeing your fiancée in person would either make you endure an excessive hardship or if it is disrespectful to long standing cultural traditions.
-
Following your fiancée's arrival into the U.S.A. you are required to get married to each other within 90 days. Usually following the wedding, an application for adjustment of status for permanent residence is made.
After the petition is granted your fiancee must secure a visa. Visas are administered by the U.S. consulate or embassy. Immediately following your fiancee entry into the USA, you are allowed ninety (90) days in order to get married. If you do not get married in 90 days your fiancee will have to depart the U.S by federal immigration law. If your fiancee gets married to another person besides you (the American born citizen applying for the USCIS Form I-129F-Petition for Alien Fiancee), your enagaged partner will still need to leave the U.S.A. Your fiancee is considered a nonimmigrant until the marriage takes place.
Important: The fiancee visa simply permits your fiancée entry into the USA one time. If your fiancée leaves the country prior to the marriage, your fiancee will not be allowed permission to re-enter the U.S.A. with the identical K-1 visa unless your fiancé(e) has paperwork for advance parole.
If your fiancee has minor children who have not reached the age of 21 and are not married, you may also bring them into the United States .
WHERE CAN I FILE A FIANCÉ(E) VISAS APPLICATION?
Fiancee applications, also known as petitions, have to be filed at the nearst regional USCIS Service Center for your area.
WILL I GET A WORK PERMIT FOR MY FIANCÉ(E)?
Your fiancé(e) will be qualify for a work permit following entry into the U.S. (Please understand that the USCIS may not be able to complete the work permit process inside the 90 day timeframe within which your marriage is required to occur). Your fiancé(e) should use form I-765 to petiotion for a work permit. If your fiancé(e) applies for adjustment to permanent resident status, it is wise to simultaneously apply for a work permit along with the adjustment of status application.
IF DENIED, HOW CAN I APPEAL?
In the case that your petition for a fiancé(e) visa is not approved, the appeal typically should be filed with the office that made the initial denial. Once your appeal document and fee are received, the appeal will be sent out to the Administrative Appeals Unit (AAU).
US EMBASSY PROCESSING
After your fiancée gets an approval from CIS she can get her visa at the consulate.
How do Applicants Apply Through a Consulate?
The way to get a visa is diferent depending on the consulate, but there are some shared guidelines in the process. The majority of applicants for fiancee or marriage visas must submit a form DS-156 meeting current Department of State (DOS) specifications along with a passport photo, eligibility evidence for the kind of visa requested and documentation of the application payment fee commonly known as the machine readable visa (MRV) fee. The consulate may also ask for form DS 230 part 1, Affidavit of Support and other associated documents. In addition, the petitioner needs to possess a valid USA passport which has not expired.
Are there any limitations when applying through the consulate?
Post-9/11 the Department of Stater has made through security clearance guidelines following the visa interview for people above 16 years of age from "State 6" nations and men from age 16 to 45 years of age from the "List of 26 Countries". Countries categorized as "State 6" by the US government are those who sponsors terrorism.
All applicants who are male between the ages of 16 and 45 years need to fill out form DS-157 which gathers more security-linked data irregardless of where they were born. Most consulates mandate a fee at a specific financial institution prior to the visa application being submitedd or consulate meeting.
Where is the K1 VISA application accepted?
For the majority of the time, a visa application is accepted at the consulate in the applicant's country of origin. Otherwise, the consulate could result with issues receiving the application if the applicant does not maintain residence in the country, or has dual-nationality. However, the Department of State suggests consulates receive applications from the applicants who are live witin the country no matter if they are outside of their area, unless the consulate office posses a strong csase for denial. Jurisdiction is determined by multiple factors such as citizenship and residence among others. Moreover, if applicants went over theor visa on a prior issued visa, they must return to the consulate in their home country to secure a new visa.
Should I apply for a K-1 visa or a K-3 visa?
In reviewing cases from legal help companies the K-1 visa process is usually quicker than the K-3 visa process, although processing times for each one vary a lot. Also, keep in mind that if a K-1 visa petioner ends up marrying their fiancee prior to the visa being approved their K-1 visa petition will not be valid and now the petitioner has to send in a K-3 application to USCIS. If you are unsure or the proccess becomes time consuming, confusing, frustrating, you should seek the assistance of an immigration attorney to figure out what is best for you.
I want to thank you for all the hard work, lengthy paper preparation, and moreover the
patience in dealing with the embassy. I know the embassy has not always been exactly
"customer-friendly" so big high fives for all the help.
