any ideas or suggestions

[doctorf]

I am a citizen of us and my fiance is a pr of canada, originally from the philippines. We would like to get married in canada. Will this create a problem, and would it be better to go the fiance visa? Any suggestions will be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[nichole]

My personal opinion--

If you want a traditional wedding in Canada, well planned in advance with friends, family, caterers, etc go for the CR1 visa. That will take longer because you can't apply until that wedding has happened. But she can keep her job longer and save up money. She will enter the US approved for her green card and Social Security card and can work in the US immediately. There won't be a gap where she can't go back to Canada like on the fiance visa.

If the wedding in Canada can have some flexibility then a K1 fiance visa could work for you. You could start the process today. There's too many variables to know exactly how long it will take for pinning down big wedding plans. But she could enter on her K1, marry immediately in a court house type legal marriage in the US. Then file for Adjustment of status immediately along with the Advance Parole travel document. The travel document should come in about 60 days. Then she is free to return to Canada and have a wedding ceremony there, albeit not an actual legal-with-Canadian-marriage-license wedding. If the priest or officiant is cool to doing the ceremony knowing you are already legally married then all is good. But it will be hard to predict the date of that wedding now because you have to wait on the US government for many steps. It is possible to prepare each step in advance so the delay isn't caused by you. My husband filed for AOS (and travel and work) less than two weeks after entering on a K1 because we had already researched and had the papers filled out. We only needed our marriage certificate and a few details from the entry (I94 form) that weren't done months in advance of his entry on the K1. Just keep in mind that a K1 can't leave the US prior to getting the advance parole document and expect to get back in the US. A K1 visa is for ONE entry, then it's no longer valid. Visa waiver won't work after validating entry on a K1.

[doctorf]

Thanks so much for your info. As we have only been together a few months i wonder if they will approve the k-1? I really think though that the cr-1 visa is the best way so that she can have all her friends there at a traditional wedding. It wll be costly in terms of my travel, but the wedding will make her (and i ) happy. Would anyone know how long after the marrriage it takes to get the cr-1 visa? How about findind a good immigration attorney that i can trust? Thanks again for your opinion and your time.