Pros and Cons of getting married in US or Japan

Anna09 · April 18, 2017

Hello.

I am a female U.S. citizen currently living in California.

My Japanese boyfriend (currently living in Japan) has recently proposed and we have decided it would be best if we can start a family in the U.S.

We started to discuss if we should get married in the U.S. first or in Japan, and how that would effect the application process for his immigration visa.

Applying for the K-1 visa and then getting married in the U.S. seems to be the most popular route, however getting married in Japan and applying for the CR-1 would help him become eligible to work in the U.S. upon his arrival.

Can anyone advise any more pros and cons on getting married abroad or in the U.S.?

Also, if you think getting married Japan is the best way, please advise where I can get the complete paperwork (certificate of legal capacity to content marriage, notarized and translated certificate of single status, etc)

Thank you all for reading.

Anna

Unlockable · April 18, 2017

You kinda answered your own question when you stated, " getting married in Japan and applying for the CR-1 would help him become eligible to work in the U.S. upon his arrival."

This is true, if working immediately upon arrive is important than go for the CR1. It is also cheaper overall.

Penguin_ie · April 18, 2017

***** Moving from General Immigration to What Visa do I need forum ******

It really depends on what is more important to you- K1 finace is faster, bit more expensive and he cannot work or travel right away upon arrival, which may be a problem if things are tight financially, or he has elderly relatives at home which may require emergency travel. CR-1 spousal visa takes longer, but is cheaper and he can work and travel right away. Another consideration may be family who want to be at the wedding; do either of you have elderly family members who would really want to be at the wedding, but cannot travel?

Pennycat · April 18, 2017

In my mind, it basically boils down to where you'd like to do the waiting for your green card. Want to wait for it abroad? CR1. Can wait for it in the US? K1. The time difference between the two visas are more-or-less the length of the wait for the green card. Only you know your logistics from there in terms of money, jobs, need to travel etc.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the time estimates are from when you submit your paperwork. For the K1, you could send in your paperwork this week because you've probably got all you need already. For CR1....you need to get married first which while I'm sure it's *possible* you do this week, does not sound likely. So overall, K1 can really save you a lot of time if you're looking at time to immigration. But that's not the end of story for most people and again, really only you know.

We did K1 and while I *hated* the process, specifically the need to do a whole second batch of paperwork after we were married, I wouldn't change a thing. But our situation was that my now-husband had just sort of a so/so job in a medium income country, we knew that his potential income here would only be "ok" at first, and plus, I make more than enough to support the two of us, especially with what my living situation was at the time (I had a roommate, who stayed on for the first few months after my husband moved here). Plus, he'd only been out of his own country once, and that was to the neighboring country which while *different*, is not the level of culture shock that you'd expect with leaving a mid-sized city in Central America and being plopped down in the middle of the capital of the United States. Plus he needed to work on his English. In that case, even if he was able to work right off the bat, we'd still have chosen to take a few months for him to take some English classes and get his bearings (volunteered at the local animal shelter and joined a social club) before sending him off to work. So K1 just made sense for us on all sides.