Hi. Please help me understand something. If my fiance and I were to marry in India, how long must I be there before marriage-60 days? If I stay there for a year or so, my husband and I could come back to the US together, right? But then how will I prove residency or employment in the US having been gone for a year? My current visa to India expires in Feb. I can just reapply for another tourist visa, right? Sorry if these sound like silly questions, I have no one to turn to here in the states. We are anxious to start our lives together, as you all can certainly understand. Thanks so much.

hi i can understand the delima you must be going through but i do not recomend getting married in India. you will get stuck in the beurucratic bull here. For the same you should appy for fiance visa and then once you guys get that get married in US and file for adjustment leave the bull and for famalies sake you can get married in india according to the rituals of the family if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch

Here's my take on it.

I got married in India August 06 came back to the states in September and applied for the CR/IR1 visa. I hope to have the process complete by May. All the paperwork so far has gone smoothly so far, I went to India for one month only to get married. There is no rule about how long you have to stay in India before you can get married. This option is always available to you.

You go to India get married stay for 90 days, (90 days being from the time you arrive, and not from the time you get married is my understanding.. could be wrong) and apply for the IR/CR1 from New Delhi (DCF or Direct Consular Filing). There are some residency requirments in place. You should go to the Delhi consulate website for more information. Going this route, the process should likley take less than 5 month from the time you apply. After you apply you can either stay in India until the process is complete or come back to the States and wait for your wife's application to be complete. However if you do a DCF you both have to go to Delhi to apply


Third option is what the previous poster suggested.. going through the K1 process.

Hope this helps.

Doing DCF in Delhi is intended only for US Citizens who are permanent residents of India. It is no longer as easy as simply going to Delhi and filing the applications. They require you to show extended employment in India; income tax filings in India; foreign registration FRRO documents, etc. The 60 day rule is no longer in effect.

The best/fastest option for you would be to do a K1, come to the US [takes about 5months], get married in US and then do an adjustment of status I-485; If you do want to get married in India, then you can do conventional IR1/CR1 [8 months] or a K3 [6 months].

Hi

I just thought i would write in here. I just got married in Delhi and filed DCF and i did not have FRRO baloney. you do not have to be a permanent resident. you simply have to have 90 days stay.
in fact - i had bills with me to proove residency and they lady at the embassy gave them all back to me.

when i filed there were about 7 total couples filing on that day. the only 3 that were sent packing did NOT have 90 days stay. there were 2 other couples that didnt have the FRRO.

i know the website says the frro is requireed........but its not.
i went through it in November.

btw - i also tried to get the FRRO.
thats a total waste of time.

sam

Hi

I am worried about filing for a K1 visa because he was denied a tourist visa in April. I thought this would go on his permanent record.

I don't think you need to worry too much. Many people have been denied tourist visas in the past. You should only be concerned if your spouse was refused entry at customs when he attempted to go through immigration in the U.S.A, which you would have to declare on the application, but even then, many people who have been denied entry into the USA have successfully entered on a spouse visa without too much difficulty.

Good luck!

DCF sounds easy. Absolutely if you can do a DCF as the other posters suggest, don't go through K's visas. It is long!
I can't understand why the DCF is that fast and why we get stuck with the K process, then AOS, in the meantime the EAD, the AP. After AOS you get your 2 yrs GC and then after that again stuck with an expired GC waiting for the NOA and the 10 yrs one. It is really frustrating... Good I'll be done soon I hope!
Anyway, congratulations to all of you who made a DFC.
If I would have known before!!!

I had to comment, just based on the title of your post. "Should we get married in India?" Well, if you do just make sure, like my husband's work colleague, that you invite all your friends and co-workers in the USA, knowing that they can't attend because the wedding is in India!

I had to chuckle today when my hubby comes home "We've been invited to a wedding!" "Aaaaah, that's nice" I said. "Only one problem.......it's in India!" "Oh well, the thought was there, I guess!" lol

Good luck with whatever choice you make, with regard to venue!

Thank you for all your help...We still don't know which route to take. What would happen if he got a work visa and was here on that and we got married? I've seen things online that make that look sticky.

I wouldnt do that
it would be different if he had the work visa, met you while he was here, and then got married. however its going to be very obvious to the counselor that he obviously applied for a work visa in order to get to you. because if he got a work visa, and then you got married, then you applied for spousal visa...........thats suspicious.

also - didnt you say that he tried tourist visa before and was denied?
why play games ? what if he gets denied a work visa too?
then if you try a spousal/fiance visa you will be looking mighty suspicious.

also - his denial of the tourist visa is not an issue ..... if he can explain it.
if he applies for a work visa they will question him about the tourist visa. he cannot say "i wanted to go see a girl". if he says that they willl think hes trying to use the work visa to get to you.
if you apply for a fiance or spousal visa then the tourist visa is easily explained and somewhat possibly supprotive of prooving relationship. (did he list you on the tourist visa application as the person he planned to visit?)

the thing is that we dont know what the couselor woudl think. but - its best to choose the method that would be the least complex or risky.

Just be logical and simple about the process.
Apply for either fiance or spousal visa.
I got married in india. many people think thats difficult - but its not. If you go to india and get married, you can stay for 90 days you can apply DCF. This will save you lots of time.

Look at it this way.
Apply K1:
send your papers today
estimated 5 months time to approval
goes to nvc 2 weeks
goes to embassy 2 weeks
documents are maied to your husband min of 1 month
your husband sends them back 2 weeks
you get your interview date 2 weeks
your interview is in a month or so.........
then he comes to US and you get married.
then you apply for all the other papers (after your married he has to do the immigration part)

this will total up to at least 6-12 months. My guess would be 9 months.


Apply K3
go to india
stay to get married (1 month?)
then come home and start the process in the states
this will take the same amount of time as above.
after he comes to the US you have to do the immigration papers.


Apply DCF
go to india for 3 months
get married
apply dcf
submit your visa papers right after DCF (you dont have to wait a month for them to mail them because they give them to you at the window when youre approved)
you get your inter view date the next month.
Time to process 5 months.
and the immigration part is done - no more papers to file for a while
(minus SS#)

and the better thing is that he only has to wait for his SS# after he gets to the states to start working. compared to a K1 or K3 visa - where he would have to do tons more papers after reaching the states to start work. From what i have read that could take 6 months.

IF you do have the ability to go to india for 3 months, i highly suggest taking this route. you will have a faster process, get to spend time with your honey, and he will have a short waiting time after coming to the us to be able to work. And the most valuble part of this is that you will get to spend time iwth his family. Everyone on this board has cultural issues with thier significant other.........we have to learn them and undertstand them. what better than living with his family and absorbing it. and having them absorb you too. not to mention their are tons of places to travel to in india .... and fairly cheaply. im a travel nut so i loved this.

Once you reach the states you can always have another wedding. No matter what country you marry in only half will be there. if you have your wedding in india then most of your side will not be there. if you have it in the US then most of his side wont be there.

Me and my husband just decided to have both. We just made them both small and inexpensive. (Currently planning the US wedding now).

DOnt make this whole thing tricky or difficult. you will pull your hair out and dig yourself a hole. i speak from experience...........i pulled my hair out over a few things and its really not needful. we all get a little crazy and cant think clearly. thats why we have VJ family!

sam

It is my understanding that the guidelines for residence in India are increasing. So, soon it will be a six-month stay.
That information can be viewed here: http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/uscisi130pet.html

Not sure yet if the new restrictions on foreign-consulate DCF are affected; I am still waiting to hear back from the embassy on that one.

My fiance is an Israeli citizen, studying in Dharamsala. We were planning to get married after I arrive in India, probably April or May. We are still trying to decide whether to pursue the k3 visa, cr-1 visa, or if I will stay in India with him and attempt to do DCF. We would prefer to remain together during that time. How will our DCF be affected since neither of us are actual Indian citizens? And doesn't my 10-year tourist visa require me to leave India within 180 days?

"Ten (10) year visa is available only to US citizens under a bilateral arrangement. Irrespective of the duration of validity of visa, on each visit maximum period of stay in India is limited to 6 months (180 days)." http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/visa_guide.htm

Is there any way to remain in India for more than 180 days so that I can do DCF, or is this a hopeless endeavor?

We are looking for an option that will allow us the most freedom to work and travel during the first few years of our marriage, so we are not interested in the K1 option and adjustment of status due to the advance parole requirements.

Thanks for your help!

From your post it seems like you have a tourist visa and it expires this month. There is no way to renew a tourist visa in India. A tourist visa means 6 months stay and then you have to leave. You could go back to USA (or Singapore, or Nepal, etc.), immediately get another tourist visa, and return to India. But such a visa may not fulfill the requirements of DCF. From what I researched when I first came back to USA 18 months ago, long-term visas are NOT available for us in USA nowadays. They are now giving the 1-year Entry visas (that can be renewed indefinitely in India) (this was the type I had for my 21-year stay there) ONLY to those of Indian decent. The 10-year Tourist visas (given freely) carry the stipulation that you have to leave the country every 6 months.

An option would be to return to USA now and immediately send in your I-129F application for K1 Fiancé visa (OR get married immediately, return to to USA and send in the K3 Spouse visa application). It should be approved in about 4 months. Then you could get another tourist visa and go to India. You could live together and by the time the 6-month visa is over, hopefully you both will have the interview over and visa granted, so you could leave together to USA.

Whatever you do, GOOD LUCK for a speedy process!

Hello!
Thank you for your post. I am back in the states, so any visa I get at this point would have to be tourist...unless I move there and attempt to get a work sponsor visa. I bet that was a great experience being in India for 21 years! Do you have any advice for me if I do move to India? I visited him twice last year and loved it...but that is different than actually living there. I think I was too moon eyed to realize any of the negative aspects.
We will have a decision made in 3 weeks as we are working on some other options that would bring us together.
Good luck with your process!

Hi,
I agree with some of the other posters who married there in India. The process is not difficult. I married my hubby there in March of last year, moved there for a few months in May and returned back to the states at the beginning of August. It was October when I finally filed I-130 (only because it took forever to get a copy of the marriage certificate from Goa).

Anyway our experience thus far has been smooth and I pray it remains that way. We are now awaiting packet four and an interview date from the New Delhi Embassy. Good luck on making your decisions.