Help with K-1 visa decision

[Ian99]

Hi,

I am 40 years old and a UKC. My girlfriend is a couple of years younger and a UKC but, a permanent resident in the USA. We have been together for nearly 3 years now and 5000 miles apart. She has been there for over 15 years when she got married to her husband who is in the forces. Their marriage was over a few years ago but, only now are they getting divorced. They have children between them and so she will be staying in the USA with the children. We want to be together and the only option is for me to move over there. We plan to get married and maybe have a child of our own depending on health checks as we are older. We have made various trips to see each other both over there and over here. She stayed here in the UK for a few months whilst letting her children get to know her side of the family. We spent all our time together. The children know me and like me as i like them. It was heartbreaking when she went back to the USA but, I saw what our schooling system was doing to the kids and was 100% behind her going back.
Once she has her US citizenship and is divorced from her husband, we will be getting married and she will therefore be sponsoring me to live and work there and be a family. If I could get there under my own steam, i would. I have money (not $500,000 though) as my mortgage is nearly paid off. I can buy a nice house outright when i move over there for us to either live in or rent out. She already has a house as well. Alternatively, it is enough money to support me for a long time which is proof that I wont be trying to claim anything off the state. I have a background in computers, ran my own business and now work for the Rail industry in planning.The USA is currently looking into expanding it rail system and is preparing to develop a high speed rail service based on the European system. My experience (all be it only 2 years so far) should provide me with some suitable credentials.
We also have proof of our relationship in emails (the good and the bad times), travel to see each other, phone bills etc.
From what I can tell, the best visa to do, is the K-1? I dont see the point of getting married and then me having to leave the USA for months until a CR-1
visa is approved. We are getting married because we love each other, want to spend the rest of our lives together and we are both old enough and mature enough to wait for a fiance visa to be granted. After all, we have been having a long distance relationship for 3 years. There was a suggestion to get married and then apply for a K-3 which would allow me to stay in the USA until my visa was approved. But, reading all the information, I would still have to come back to the UK until the K-3 was approved and both the K-1 and the K-3 (which is now the CR-1 i think) pretty much take the same amount of time to be approved give or take a month or so.

I guess my questions are:-

1. Am i right in my information?
2. Can anyone forsee any pitfalls i.e. reasons not to approve my visa?
3. Is there any further information that people have that might be helpful to us?
4. When I do start filling in the forms, should i fill them in myself or use a trusted immigration company, as I have heard that a lot of visas get sent
back due to be incorrectly filled out?


Thank you in advance for any information.

[wavedom]

If you don't want to leave the US once you're married, the K1 is the only option (provided that she becomes a US citizen). The main difference between the K1/K3 and CR1 is that you will have to apply for your green card once you're in the US if you enter the country using a K1/K3, but if you have a CR1 you enter the country as a permanent resident. The K1 and CR1 seems to take about the same amount of time to process, although the K1 is usually more expensive if you see to the total cost.

Some people would claim that it's necessary to hire an attorney while some say it's a waste of money. Putting the petition together is not especially complicated, although it happens that the initial petition is sent back because the USCIS needs additional proof or because a document isn't properly filled out. The only issue with putting the petition together is that the official USCIS information isn't very detailed. But there are written guides and books that give detailed step-by-step instructions of how to go through the process, which (in my opinion) is better than hiring an attorney.

[nichole]

Ian--

You're a little confused on the visas.
K1/K3 are similar process but K1 is fiance and K3 is spouse. Both are non-immigrant visas to get the fiance/spouse into the US. (Remember not everybody can travel visa waiver.) Once in the door, they can apply for a greencard that allows them to stay in the US and work. That costs another $1070 and takes about 5-6 months, so no work (or US drivers license in most states) for that long. If they don't file for the greencard (called adjustment of status) then they are out of status when their entry expires and should go home before deported.

CR1 or IR1 is a true immigrant visa for a spouse. After the initial I-130 petition is approved, the greencard stuff is processed at the NVC. The foreign spouse remains in their country. When their visa is granted, they enter the US as a permanent resident eligible to stay and work. There is no filing of adjustment of status. They get the greencard mailed to them a few weeks after arrival.

The CR1/IR1 used to take a long, long time to process so married people chose the K3 to get in the US where they could stay and wait on adjustment of status. Now the CR1/IR1 process is as fast as K1/K3 so USCIS made a ruling that if both cases are pending and both petitions are approved at the same time, they shut down the K3 and only the CR1/IR1 case continues the process. It's pretty much useless to go for a K3 anymore.

So first your girlfriend needs to be free to marry (divorced.) She needs to be a USC to petition a fiance (K1). She does not have to be a USC to petition a spouse.

When an LPR petitions a spouse the I-130 petition processes the same, but then it gets in a long line at NVC waiting for a visa to become available based on priority dates, quotas, and such talk. She could file I-130 once you marry just to get the petition rolling. Then once she becomes a citizen, she notifies NVC with her natualization certificate and you jump out of the queue into a category that doesn't have to wait for for a visa based on quotas to be available (spouse of US citizen). You can move to the head of the line so to speak. I just mention that because the 5 months are so that it takes for the I-130 petition to be approved could be happening concurrently with the months her citizenship process will take her. But since she's not even filed for divorce, she might have her citizenship before the divorce goes through.

Anyway, you have some scenarios to look at.