Fiancee has L1B, getting married soon; What are the next steps?

[IsraelMuCa]

Hi!

First of all, thanks in advance. This is a very helpful forum!

Regarding my question:
My girlfriend of two years, and recent fiancee is in USA with an L1B Blanket Visa. She has been there for 8 months, and we're planning on getting married in 5 months so I can join her there and get an L2 Visa.
I currently hold a newly renewed B1/B2 Visa, as I've had since I was born (live close to a border town in Mexico), so I've been visiting her for 10 days at a time every other month.

Questions:
1) Her company says that L2 Visas take from 1 up to 6 months to be processed. What is your experiences with this? Is it usually more into the 1 month, or 6 month?
2) Asking around, a friend of her's told her it may take up to 6 months to be able to start the process, regardless of the time the process takes by itself. I haven't been able to find any evidence of this online. Was he exaggerating? Or are there any records of a "cool-off" period after the wedding?
3) Is there any possibility of an L2 Visa being denied? We've been together way before she was required to transfer to the US.

Again, thanks in advance to everyone!
Israel

[Libra_14]

1) Her company says that L2 Visas take from 1 up to 6 months to be processed. What is your experiences with this? Is it usually more into the 1 month, or 6 month?

No, it should be simple. Just the waiting time for the interview appointment, based on your consular location.

2) Asking around, a friend of her's told her it may take up to 6 months to be able to start the process, regardless of the time the process takes by itself. I haven't been able to find any evidence of this online. Was he exaggerating? Or are there any records of a "cool-off" period after the wedding?

No, its simple for L2, just fill in the form DS160, get all paperwork & appear for the interview. No cool-off period.

3) Is there any possibility of an L2 Visa being denied? We've been together way before she was required to transfer to the US.

Yes, if they suspect that your marriage is not genuine or you got married just to enter USA (human trafficking) or something.

[IsraelMuCa]

No, it should be simple. Just the waiting time for the interview appointment, based on your consular location.


No, its simple for L2, just fill in the form DS160, get all paperwork & appear for the interview. No cool-off period.


Yes, if they suspect that your marriage is not genuine or you got married just to enter USA (human trafficking) or something.

Thank you so much for your kind answers!

[Libra_14]

Thank you so much for your kind answers!

Please share your experience once you are done with the interview.

[IsraelMuCa]

Please share your experience once you are done with the interview.

For sure!
We actually moved the wedding forward and already got married!

There were no appointments though, and I arranged a trip (with my B1/B2 visa) to visit her on May 3rd, but checking again, an appointment opened up on the 29th of April (this Monday).
I hope they don't withhold my passport for too long to stamp the visa in it, or I'll have to postpone my trip...

I'll post an update after the interview!

Thanks again

[Libra_14]

For sure!
We actually moved the wedding forward and already got married!

There were no appointments though, and I arranged a trip (with my B1/B2 visa) to visit her on May 3rd, but checking again, an appointment opened up on the 29th of April (this Monday).
I hope they don't withhold my passport for too long to stamp the visa in it, or I'll have to postpone my trip...

I'll post an update after the interview!

Thanks again

You can choose to collect the passport the very same day from the consulate/embassy - instead of having them mail it to you.

[IsraelMuCa]

You can choose to collect the passport the very same day from the consulate/embassy - instead of having them mail it to you.

Hey!
So I went to my appointment, everything went great!

I had A LOT of documents ready, on a couple binders (pay stubs, tax return of the last year, her support documentation for her L1 petition, a wedding photo album, among other things). I was sent to a line first, were someone from the consulate checked my passport, DS-160 and my wife's I-129S.
She wrote with a red marker L2 on my DS-160 and gave me back everything.
I was sent to another (long) line where they asked for my Passport, DS-160, my wife's L1 visa copy, and our marriage certificate. He congratulated me on the recent marriage, and told me my visa was approved!

They didn't ask any questions at all nor checked any other documents.

I've been traveling every other month to Chicago to visit her this last year on a B1/B2 Visa, I don't know if that had anything to do with how 'easy' they were on me, but all went good fortunately.

Regarding the collection of the passport, they only offered me that option actually, but asked me to check their webpage in 4 to 6 days to see if it's marked as ready to go pick it up.

So, I lost a flight, but we're very happy that I'll finally get to be with her permanently!

Thanks for your advice, and now off to read about the EAD application...

[Libra_14]

Hey!
So I went to my appointment, everything went great!

I had A LOT of documents ready, on a couple binders (pay stubs, tax return of the last year, her support documentation for her L1 petition, a wedding photo album, among other things). I was sent to a line first, were someone from the consulate checked my passport, DS-160 and my wife's I-129S.
She wrote with a red marker L2 on my DS-160 and gave me back everything.
I was sent to another (long) line where they asked for my Passport, DS-160, my wife's L1 visa copy, and our marriage certificate. He congratulated me on the recent marriage, and told me my visa was approved!

They didn't ask any questions at all nor checked any other documents.

I've been traveling every other month to Chicago to visit her this last year on a B1/B2 Visa, I don't know if that had anything to do with how 'easy' they were on me, but all went good fortunately.

Regarding the collection of the passport, they only offered me that option actually, but asked me to check their webpage in 4 to 6 days to see if it's marked as ready to go pick it up.

So, I lost a flight, but we're very happy that I'll finally get to be with her permanently!

Thanks for your advice, and now off to read about the EAD application...

Thanks for sharing back & Congratulations !!

[IsraelMuCa]

Thanks for sharing back & Congratulations !!

I just received the email that my card is getting shipped today!

Thank you again!

[JonathanGill]

Be very careful when choosing a visa as my friend was promised a visa cheap and fast and took her to work as a prostitute. This happens more than you think and it was really hard to get her out of that. If there was no human trafficking outreach organization, we would not be able to do it. Those guys helped us a lot and they are helping people that are having that same problem all the time. Just be careful, and don't trust people that easily because there are so many evil ones who are just trying to exploit others.