sinloki

With all of the uncertainty with the EB5 sunset date my partner and I are thinking about alternative possibilities. Since I'm a USC, a K1 or K3 is a possibility. Does anyone know if you're allowed to file for either of those while the EB5 is still (for now) pending?

scrubbedexpat099

That would have been much the simpler option than an EB5.

You can have multiple petitions outstanding.

If marriage first, look at CR1 rather than K3.

sinloki

Thanks for the info. It's much appreciated. Unfortunately, a year later we know that a k1 or k3 would have been much simpler and a hell of a lot cheaper, but when we started out we were very confused and our attorney told us that the eb5 was the "simplest and fastest" way to go. We feel swindled, to be honest. I'll look into the cr1. I've never heard of that one before.

meauxna

Seriously, you should follow up on that. What attorney can say with a straight face that an EB-5 would be simpler or faster than a K-1???

The "CR-1" can be found under "Immigrant Visa" or 'immigrants' or "permanent residency"
You marry your foreign national (anywhere) and look up "petition spouse".. it starts with the I-130. It does take about 8 months to complete.

Ray

You were swindled ..sheesh ..

tell me without names was this a proper lawyer or a
immigration consultant

sinloki

One who really wanted our money?

We're not married yet, though we have no objection to doing so. What are the advantages to CR-1 over the K3? The processing time looks about the same. The k1 seems like it might be the easiest / fastest... assuming that things don't pan out with the eb5. Going through the petition process all over again sounds like hell, but I'm just not sure that we should wait to file a new petition until someone gets around to telling us if our eb5 is going to go through or be shelved. Long stretches of time apart are very stressful.

sinloki

This was a proper lawyer. They happen to be the law firm chosen by the regional centre that we invested in. Sadly for us, when we first started this process we decided to seek "professional advice" as to what our options were and we just happened to pick this law firm's name out of a hat from the limited number of immigration attorneys in this area. Go figure that they'd be the one's specializing in eb5's.

Ray

Personally I would back out out and grab your money back if possible ...

Elvira

Are you saying you *chose* to go down this route, without exploring other options?

Yet another lesson that one should never use the lawyers recommended by the people one is doing business with.

meauxna

OK, before we all flood you with stuff you didn't need to know: What is your goal in all this? You chose EB-5 because _______?

I won't go into a long explanation about the K-3 vs IV (CR-1 if you insist) but all you need to now is that it takes the same or more amount of time and gets you less of a benefit.

The K-1 is absolutely the fastest of all; you can start it tomorrow. The IV requires that you be married before you start. All 3 of the visas discussed will ultimately wind up with a Green Card.

The likely reasons I can think of for choosing EB-5 is that you have a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket and you didn't have my address to send it to instead, you didn't really want to get married or rather, one person did not want to immigrate off the relationship so it never gave the appearance of marrying for the visa, OR, you met the lawyers/investors first and they convinced you it was ... well, what exactly?
I just can't imagine why a USC would want to be involved with an investor's visa.

sinloki

Yes, we did choose to go this route. Again, in our defence, we sought the attorney consultation before we ever spoke to the people on the business end. But you're right, we were very stressed and under a lot pressure at the time, and though we thought we did our research, we obviously didn't do enough. Now we're paying a big price. Over half a mil, if I remember right. :curse:

sinloki

It's a long story that I'll try to make short. I'm a USC. My partner is not. I guess that's obvious, sorry. When we first started looking around at our options, we didn't want to rush into a marriage but didn't want to be apart for months on end. We sought a consultation with our attorney. She originally told us that the eb5 would cost us a fortune, but that it would only take 45-60 days, thus giving us the opportunity to live together and have a "normal" relationship prior to getting married. Now we both wish we'd have just gotten married. Anyway, after we signed the paperwork, she qualified her earlier comments by saying the petition would take 45-60 days. She didn't mention the months and months that it would take to get the paperwork together or that the petition was only one part of the process. In fact we only learned that about 3 months ago, mostly because I've been reading this forum and learned the right questions to ask. It's been hell.

meauxna

Wow, I'm sorry to read that. It's so hard to know when you are starting out what all the foreign lingo means, and how to interpret what you are told.
I took a crash course when I fell for my UKC too.

If you would like to have a mooch around in the marriage based forum here, it will help you with the lingo. There is an excellent, recent wiki article or two about the K-1 visa and its process, and plenty of people here who have been that route that will be happy to give you a realistic expectation.

One thing about this EB-5--- are you investing also? If so, I wonder what impact that has on approval. Which is a moot point at the moment anyway, since we're creeping up on the end of the month/FY (yikes).

Stay tuned... it's the weekend, but you do have other options, and if you ask questions I'm sure you'll get plenty of input.

When you put out your explanation like you did here, it's not hard to see why you thought it was the best option. Don't take the 'OMG!'s too hard, ok?

sinloki

I have been doing quite a bit of mooching around the marriage based forum recently, which is where I got the impression that the k1 is the best way to go. I plan to keep my eyes open on that front. Thank you for all of the help and support. It's surprisingly relieving. I wish I had signed on here ages ago. I'll try not to take the OMGs too hard.

I'm not investing in the eb5. But since we're talking about getting married sometime in the foreseeable future now (how ironic!) it's hard not to think of it as "us" investing.

I'm very nervous to see what will happen at the end of the month. Like I said, our I-526 has been approved, but for all we know that amounts to a lot of nothing. I'm so sick of all this uncertainty.

sinloki

Unfortunately that option expired when the I-526 was approved. Now we're invested whether he gets the GC or not.