Bear

My fiance is a US citizen & i am an australian.

we both are expats in Hong Kong & dont know the best way about
immigrating me to the USA.

The K1 visa processing time is not attractive as he has to leave soon
to go back to the USA & i will be here by myself until it is approved.
So i was wondering if we can get married in australia & then come
over on a spousal visa to the USA

Has anyone had experience doing this in the past?
Can anyone tell me how long it would take to get a spouse visa once
married & if there are any penalties going to the USA this way?
i want to work as soon as i can once in the USA & thought this might
be good for both of us.

can anyone help?

mcjimbo

Hi you've got a few options available to you.

K1 is definately one of them, but as you said processing times are quite long. However it seems to vary from service centre to service centre where the forms are processed, for instance Vermont is much faster than say Nebraska or Texas. Which service centre you file through depends on where your partner lives.

K3 is another option, but you need to get married as you mentioned in Australia. This option can be quicker than a K1, but again it all depends on the service centre you file through.

For questions and answers on both of these check:

http://www.visajourney.com/faq/k1faq.htm

The last option availabe to you is DCF or Direct Consular Filing. I'm not 100% sure how to go about this but found the following information:

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"If you do a 'Direct Consular Filing' of the I-130 at the Sydney both the US Citizen and intending immigrant need to be resident in Australia. If this is so, then the process can be done very quickly. The I-130 petition can be filed and approved at the same time. If you then have everything ready for the interview you can book this at the same time too. The waiting time for the interview is about 4 weeks at the moment. At the interview if everything is in order you can get the approval same day. So I guess if you have everything in order and get all of the paperwork at the beginning you could do it in about 5 weeks."


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DCF in Sydney:

For those of you who have been following my visa saga. I got my Appointment letter in the mail today. 10 days after they said it was "in the mail" So I now have a confirmed interview date for the 10th of july at 10.30 am. I was worried as when I called Monday of last week, I found out that the details of my checklist had not been typed in to the computer. It was lucky that I called, and was given an interview date over the phone. So it does pay to make follow up phone calls...........things can go wrong.

Time line:

sent paperwork in at the end of March
Made follow up phone call in May was told to call back in June
Called again on the 5th June.........was given an interview date on the spot due to a mix up (consulates fault)
received appointment notice 15th June (for the 10th july)
Still to come wedding day July 1st
Interview date 10th July
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Hope this all helps, good luck!

James

Rete

That would probably be the best and most expeditent approach for you. Check the Oz experiences for this procedure at:
http://www.kamya.com/interview/intro.html

The USC only has to be there to do the filing. You can e-mail the US Consulate in Sydney and ask their advice about whether marriage can be done in Hong Kong and then return to Australia for the actual filing. You will need certain items, i.e. police clearances from any place you have lived for over six months since the age of 16, a medical by an approved physician, etc.

It is my understanding the US Consulate in Sydney or Perth are user friendly which is an edge up. Good luck.

Rete

Bear

    >
    > The last option
    > availabe to you is DCF or Direct Consular Filing. I'm not 100% sure how
    > to go about this but found the following information:
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    > ----------
    >
    > "If you do a 'Direct Consular Filing' of the I-130 at the
    > Sydney both the US Citizen and intending immigrant need to be resident
    > in Australia. If this is so, then the process can be done very quickly.
    > The I-130 petition can be filed and approved at the same time. If you
    > then have everything ready for the interview you can book this at the
    > same time too. The waiting time for the interview is about 4 weeks at
    > the moment. At the interview if everything is in order you can get the
    > approval same day. So I guess if you have everything in order and get
    > all of the paperwork at the beginning you could do it in about 5 weeks."

Thanks for all the info!
I've found other info too on the DCF process but cant see where (apart
from the above) "officially" both people need to be residents. Can
anyone please clarify?

If i quit my job, i loose resident status in Hong Kong & move back to
australia & again become an Australian resident (I'm assuming), so
I'll be OK, but my fiance will be in the USA by this stage. he will
need to fly over for the wedding - can we do DCF at that stage?

Also - has anyone had any experiences getting "married" in both
countries ie: legal ceremony & wedding in 1 & just the wedding at the
other? Aust & the US are so far apart - cant seeing all our relatives
travelling to the other country

meauxna

Bear,
If you both have residency in HK, you can probably file there, but it may not be a smooth as Sydney, especially as that's about the easiest post in the world to DCF.
If you decide to do Oz, the USC has not historically needed to be resident in any way...many have popped in, gotten married, filed and left. Your residency should not matter either (ie you can stay resident in HK and both go to Sydney to do the filing) but you should of course confirm all of this with Sydney (and don't rely on them knowing what "DCF" is, that is an unofficial term).

You might benefit from reading the Australia DCF experiences at kamya.com