I know some people have done this successfully, but my wife and I have also heard that it can make it more difficult to get a CR1/K3 visa in the future if you have applied for a visa before and been turned down. Does anything know whether or not this is true? I know every situation is different, so I'm really trying to figure out if we should apply for a tourist visa and hope to get lucky. We just got married and started this process and I've already used all the vacation days I can for about a year, so we are desperate for some way to see each other. So what do you think? If we just filed our I-130 and I-129F, could trying for a tourist visa actually hurt us in the long run?

a tourist visa application and denial should not affect the outcome of a K3 or CR1. It may be asked about at the interview, but it shouldn't negatively affect the outcome. Unless of course a tourist visa was denied because of criminal background, then any inadmissability for the tourist visa would be the same inadmissability for an immigrant or other non-immigrant visa.