ChristopherWales

Hi all, I'm new to the forum but have been reading posts for sometime. I live in the UK and met my girlfriend whilst she was studying here, we have been doing the usual Skype relationship and visiting each other every 2-3 months. Long story short we know we want to get married but want to be realistic with our time frame so we are thinking spring 2015. By this time she will have graduated and I will have completed my security consultancy qualifications. I have read the visa guides and understand the basics of the process, my questions however are;


1.Can we apply for the fiancé visa's for a specific date, so as to have everything in place for me to go over there for the 90 days starting from e.g. April 20th 2015

2. Once we have done this fiancé' visa process and are actually married in the USA can I stay there to apply for residence or will I have to return to the UK to complete this process?

I'm sure I will have lots more questions over the next couple of years, I appreciate all advice even it contains bad news! Thanks in advance.

Chris

Ray

for a fiancee visa


US Citizen can apply for a special visa to allow a non-citizen (their fiancée) to enter the country in order to get married to a US citizen inside the US.

Once issued, the K1 visa will allow the non-citizen to enter the United States legally, for 90 days in order for the marriage ceremony to take place. Once you marry, the non-citizen can remain in the US and may apply for permanent residence. While USCIS processes the application, the non-citizen can remain in the US legally
The US citizen income must meet the require minimum to fulfill the affidavit of support


take around 8-10 months

civilservant

No, the visa will have a period of validity after issue. If you fo not use it before it expires, you'll have to start the process again. Since the process takes around 10 months, and assuming the date you mentioned is the date you actually do want to enter, I'd apply for the K1 (that is, your fiancee will file the I-129f) around August 2014.

Once you are married you will apply to adjust status to permanent resident, you do this inside the US. Note that you will not be able to work until you receive employment authorisation, which takes about 2-3 months AFTER you apply for AOS.

You should also note that your 'security consultancy' qualification is likely to be worth very little in the US.

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ian-mstm

No.


If you want to enter the US on or about April 20, 2015, your US fiancée needs to file the I-129F on or about July 1, 2014. Even so, there's no guarantee... never is!


Marrying a US citizen, by itself, does not give you the ability to remain in the US. To do that, you must file to adjust your status after you're married. You are allowed to remain in the US under "color of law" while the adjustment process is underway.

Ian

Noorah101

No. You cannot do anything with the word "specific" in it when it comes to visa timelines. The best you can do is plan a very tentative wedding date, and begin the process about 8 months before that; knowing that you may have to change the wedding date.

If you do the K-1 visa process, you would remain in the USA after marriage, and apply for adjustment of status to permanent resident.

Welcome to BE!

Rene

ChristopherWales

Thanks for the responses, Just hope for the best as far as dates are concerned! But its all good news from what I have read! As far as my qualification I already work for a global security firm who have said they will be able to transfer me without issue so one less thing to worry about!

Michael

Also you can get married (possibly a wedding at the courthouse) in the US on a vwp visit and then return to the UK and after that your spouse would petition for a spousal visa (CR-1). After you enter the US on that visa, you immediately become a legal permanent resident (green card holder) and can work immediately and don't need to adjust status.

You could then possibly have a formal wedding if desired.

The following is a comparison between marriage based visas.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Compar...ge-based_visas

You can start the process early and if stages are occurring too quickly, you can delay the process. For example if the petition is approved before expected, you can delay before you continue to the next stage. However once you have your medical near the end of the process, then you have 6 months from that date to enter the US to activate your visa. So you could delay the medical plus interview (the last steps to getting the visa) until you are ready. That doesn't give you an exact date but you can estimate within a couple of weeks how long that should take if your paperwork is in order.

ChristopherWales

Thanks Michael, useful advice I will look into both options