Here's the scoop-

I'm engaged to a girl in India. She's fantastic. We have a wedding date set for December 28, 2006, about five months away. I have not applied for anything yet - is it wise to apply for a fiance visa at this stage, five months ahead? Or is this cutting it too close? On the flipside - I could get married legally this week, enabling applying for K3 spouse visa. This way no matter when our wedding celebration is planned, the spouse visa is still legit and legal. Or - does the forum think it's fine to apply for the K1 now because it most likely will be wrapped up before the wedding?

Thanks guys! Kinda new here.

Having a petition approved and interview scheduled for either a K-1 or a K-3 could both be pushing it. Not advisable to have any plans prior to obtaining a visa as there is always the chance things wont go smoothly. This has been shown time and time again to be very risky. Throw the IMBRA into the equation and who knows how that will affect the length of processing time of your petition at service center. Much also depends which service center you will be going through if you filed for a fiance.

If you look at the average timeline for India it doesn't seem likely that you could have either visa sorted in as little as five months.

Look at the average time is taking now for K1 approvals through your SC and add to that the time it takes for NVC to send petition to the embassy and the time to interview from when the embassy receives the petition. I think it is taking 6 weeks or longer to get an interview date in India depending upon the embassy she would go through. And throw in the time it may take the courier service the embassies in India use to deliver the passport with visa. My wife’s got her passport back on 13th day after her interview in New Delhi –probably an exception.

Good luck.

Well it seems that it's just too risky to go with the K1 when we only have five months. Looks like I'm gonna have to get married soon then! The K3 process is very similar, correct? When already married - the K3 is the fastest option ?

Thanks.

nothing is fast with immigration. I've been waiting for 7 months since filing my interview is next month. Good Luck !!!!!!!!!!

If I were you, I would get married ASAP and apply for a K3. This 5 months of waiting time you've mentioned could be utilized toward the waiting times for the visa process. Simple as that, to me.

Comparatively, pre-IMBRA, the K1 has been the fastest. There's wait time on the front end, but once you're together, you can remain so. Plan to wait at least 12 months until you can be together again.

I'm far from an expert but as I understand it if you're married the K-3 and CR-1 are your options to petition your spouse. The K-3 is faster than the CR-1 but the CR-1 is easier once your spouse is here in the US.

I know you said you have a wedding date set but is it possible to push it back a couple months??? The reason I ask is you could do what some people do here and get legally married in India, then apply for K3 then have the actual wedding in the US later with friends and family. If you could get married with just the two of you then apply for K3 and set a wedding date maybe 8 months later or so and you should be safe.

Good luck in whatever you choose however I think that you will be pushing it if you stick with the December wedding. Have a look at my timeline

Terri

Your first mistake is going into the process in a rush, and under a timeline. You are only asking for disappointment...

I think what he's suggesting makes sense: get legally married now, file for the CR-1 and K-3, then have the celebration in India in December.

That sounds pretty reasonable actually. A small wedding ceremony in India relatively soon. Can we withdraw applications at any point for any reason? Let's say - hypothetically - I already applied for the fiance visa K1. And let's say I fanagle a way to have a legal marriage in August. Can I withdraw that application and apply for K3 spouse visa?

WELL - you guys were right. Rushing this was a bad idea. My entire package got sent back to me this afternoon stating the I-129 I submitted, although correct, was the wrong revision. Can you believe that? So now I have four options as I see it - ALL of which are difficult:

1. Proceed with regular wedding dates in December, and apply for K3 at that point. Wait for her for up to a year with this option.

2. Fanagle some vacation time and a trip to India now - get married with a small ceremony. Apply for K1 immediately afterwards. This option unlikely because much-needed family members, much-needed time, and much-needed funds will not be present.

3. Postpone the whole wedding to July '07, thereby applying again for K1. Probably most feasble.

4. Proceed with K1 right away - and lie to the authorities when they ask us after December "are you married". Highly unlikely option in a post 9/11 world.

Suggestions?