What Made You Choose The K-1 Visa Instead Of the Spouse Visa?

[MikaG 0]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to this whole immigration thing.

This question is for those U.S. citizens who were not married when they had to choose between one of the four types of marriage based immigration visas to get their sweetheart here w/ them in the U.S.

What made you choose the fiance visa instead of the spouse visa? Why didn't you want to get married first and then apply for a spouse visa like the K-3 or DCF if applicable.

Thanx,

**Mika

[ChrisB0707 4]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to this whole immigration thing.

This question is for those U.S. citizens who were not married when they had to choose between one of the four types of marriage based immigration visas to get their sweetheart here w/ them in the U.S.

What made you choose the fiance visa instead of the spouse visa? Why didn't you want to get married first and then apply for a spouse visa like the K-3 or DCF if applicable.

Thanx,

**Mika

Spouse visa takes a little longer and the fiancee visa gives you 3 months together after she gets to the US. I know all of us love the one we will be with but you just never know until you actually spend time together everyday for a few months not just 2 or 3 weeks at a time a few times a year. I have been to see my fiancee a few times this year and know I love her but some may need the extra time together to know

[Jeraly 4]

We honestly didn't know much about the whole process when we started and again - we felt that by going through the K-1 we could continue our relationship and see how things went while applying for the visa - if things didn't work out in the meantime then at least we hadn't just got married the immediately put the pressures of a long distance relationship onto it

Needless to say two years on we are very happy - we have pretty much mastered (if yuo ever can!) the long distance relationship and are looknig forward to the challenges of living our future lives together

[Mel and Syl 0]

I chose K1 because once i leave i dont want to come for a visa.

[shannon65 2]

I chose K-1 because we met on-line and no matter how much we liked each other on-line, I'm not going to decide if I want to marry someone until I have actually met them. And under the circumstances, being so far away, spending a lot of time together's not possible. So after we met in person we decided we did want to get married but I think after only 3 months, and not being able to stay there very long, it would be too much of a rush to get married. In the long run, I wish we were married now..because we have to do a waiver and we have been apart for most of the last 2 years. But I didn't know at the time what would happen. And we couldn't get married at any point in the last 2 years because it would have invalidated the K-1 and would have to start over again.

[~Laura and Nick~ 5]

Nick and I decided on the K1 because my divorce papers recently went through and we both wanted to take some more time before we got married. We want to get married late 2008. So we would have had to wait for that and then start a spousal visa. Far too long of a wait.

Also, we want to live together for the first year or so of our married life instead of me waiting in Canada for the spousal visa to be approved.

It was a personal choice and with the time line of the K1 visa, it works out perfectly.

Other than that, we would have gone for the CR-1.

Edited January 7, 2008 by ~Laura and Nick~

[NicoNShawn 2]

I thought about both routes when I was with my fiance in her country. I decided on the k1 for a few reasons. For one, it allows her to come to America and see what life is like here before we get married. It also allows us to know for sure that we are here together before we get married. I realized that we could have been refused the spousal visa if I were to have married her and stayed there without a job, rather than returning home and having income to show for the support papers.

[DavidsPrincess 1]

Biggest reason we went for the K-1 is to have time to prepare for a wedding, and so that once he comes here he can stay instead of getting married then going home to wait out the visa.

[*JG* 2]

K-1 was the quicker route through Jamaica.

[payxibka 10,048]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to this whole immigration thing.

This question is for those U.S. citizens who were not married when they had to choose between one of the four types of marriage based immigration visas to get their sweetheart here w/ them in the U.S.

What made you choose the fiance visa instead of the spouse visa? Why didn't you want to get married first and then apply for a spouse visa like the K-3 or DCF if applicable.

Thanx,

**Mika

because we were not married

[CBR 0]

We didn't know much about the whole immigration process but it seemed faster to get the fiance visa. Also we don't want to live our first year of marriage apart.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Several reasons . . . it looked like the Spousal application process was a lot more demanding and felt that trying to work it out across borders would be challenging; we felt the K-1 process would give us time to get to know each other better while waiting for it to be processed and if there were problems, it would be easier to stop the process during an engagement rather than a marriage, plus we felt that once we got married, we didn't want to live apart at all - it was easier psychologically to do that while engaged than while married. We ended up engaged for 13 months waiting through the process and at one time almost didn't make it because of the stress of waiting. We honestly thought the process would be about 4 to 5 months in total, not the 9 1/2 it did take to get the visa. Nor did we expect to still be in the immigration process 4 1/2 years later - I can apply to remove conditions the end of February.

Edited January 7, 2008 by Kathryn41

[anitacastillo 0]

My mother almost disowned me when I eloped with my ex-husband. She really wants to be part of this wedding. We just have to keep her from turning it into a huge event. We want small and simple.

[pushbrk 13,611]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to this whole immigration thing.

This question is for those U.S. citizens who were not married when they had to choose between one of the four types of marriage based immigration visas to get their sweetheart here w/ them in the U.S.

What made you choose the fiance visa instead of the spouse visa? Why didn't you want to get married first and then apply for a spouse visa like the K-3 or DCF if applicable.

Thanx,

**Mika

because we were not married

Right! One might consider the answer above, non-responsive to the question but when you boil down the other answers, I think you'll see many of them simply made their life decision first and then started down the appropriate visa path.

In our case, I was unwilling to put myself through the process or ask my wife to go through the months long process without the commitment of marriage. There was the added benefit of her family's ability to attend a wedding in China but not the USA. That was more important than any of my family considerations. She may have been willing to go either way but I wasn't. Not knocking anybody having different values or making a different decision but that was ours and why.

I do strongly advocate that couples make their when and where marriage decision first and visa decision after but that doesn't work for everybody.

One caution though. Although there is the 90 days to marry and some relationships end after entry and before marriage, the K1 visa is not designed as a try it out visa. It is for a "fiance(e)".

[TheATeam 0]

We knew that we wanted to get married, and so it wasn't a question of when and where for us really. It was the fact that K1 visas take a bit less time here in Canada, especially if you're able to go through Vancouver for the interview. It really came down to, what would get us together the fastest. Even though the K1 might be a little more expensive in the long run, we're able to be together sooner, and that's what mattered to us. Also, we really didn't want to have to spend our first year married apart. Once I marry him, I want to be right there with him!