So I've spent some days here, and it looks like K3 is the way for me to go (I'm Canadian, my wife is Canadian/American dual citizenship, and we want to move to the US).

The little quirk is before we move to the US, we want to go traveling. That is, spend upto 15 months (from today) in South America.

Reading the guide, it doesn't seem too bad. Eg I would have to fly back to Canada once or twice (medical + interview). My best friend lives in the same building as me, so having him get my mail will be no problem.

So my real question is - has anyone does this, and would there be any problems? Is 15 months too short to get it all processed? (based on me applying very soon)

I don't think the whole process would take 15 months...

it should be okay but there's a lot of little things you have to do
-medical
-police check
-interview
and tons of paperwork!

like your packet 3 would be sent to your canada address and you have to fill it out and send it back for an interview to be scheduled...

so your neighbour might be able to pick up your mail... but not do your paperwork..

another thing....
police certificate of all country lived since age 16.... (more than 6 months)
mean that for the end of the process you might need to get a police certif from south america if you stay in one country long enough.

the process takes approx.... hmmm.....7 to 9 months, something like that.

Thanks for that tip melusine - we don't intend on spending more than 3-4 months in any one country. We have half a dozen to go through

And yep liz - the plan is my friend will DHL it to wherever we are, we will deal with it, and send it back.

Cheap? No - but worth living and traveling and learning for a year? yes!

CR-1 is probably the better of the two!!

Any reason why you say that?

K-3 and CR-1/IR-1 take roughly the same amount of time to finalize but you get a better end result from the CR-1/IR-1 (eg no adjusting of status later on, insta SSN, work authorization and green card)

So then why doesn't everyone go with the CR-1?

at one time between the K3 and cr-1 (married for 2 yrs or less) Ir-1 (married for 2 yrs or more) the K3 used to be a fair bit faster!! At for some countries it may still be that way. But for the most part for Canadians the K3 and the cr-1 are running about the same time frame!!
In ur case you have time to spare,lol so it would be more to your benefit to go the cr-1, or the Ir-1 depending how long you have been married for (initially the process is the same, but the cr-1 gives you a 2 yr greencard, where as the Ir-1 you get a 10 yr greencard)

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;page=compare

I see your spouse has dual citizenship?? The one may be able to DCF (direct consular file) which speeds up the process, but that may not be of concern of ya!!

I like your attitude Inde!
When you're not in a hurry for such processes to happen, they happen "better".
Hee, hee.
And with such a relaxed and positive attitude, anything is possible.

Enjoy your journey.