Visitor Visa or a K3?

[JerryL 0]

My mother-in-law, a US citizen, is currently living in China. She recently married a Chinese national.

My wife is expecting and my mother-in-law would like to come to the US for a short period together with her husband to visit with her future grandchild. They are not necessarily looking for him to emigrate here. For now, they're happy just to visit for a few months.

My question is... is it going to be difficult to get a visitor visa for her husband? We've heard in cases like this, the consulate doesn't tend to grant visitor visas because they think the visitor will actually want to live in the US. But all he really wants to do is visit. So is it worthwhile trying for a regular visitor visa, or just go ahead to apply for a K3 for her husband? The main objective here is to minimize the waiting time for a visa.

Thanks,

Jerry

[C and J 1]

My mother-in-law, a US citizen, is currently living in China. She recently married a Chinese national.

My wife is expecting and my mother-in-law would like to come to the US for a short period together with her husband to visit with her future grandchild. They are not necessarily looking for him to emigrate here. For now, they're happy just to visit for a few months.

My question is... is it going to be difficult to get a visitor visa for her husband? We've heard in cases like this, the consulate doesn't tend to grant visitor visas because they think the visitor will actually want to live in the US. But all he really wants to do is visit. So is it worthwhile trying for a regular visitor visa, or just go ahead to apply for a K3 for her husband? The main objective here is to minimize the waiting time for a visa.

Thanks,

Jerry

A K3 will take around a year to obtain and it seems, at the moment, they are being phased out (no official notification on this, just personal experiences on VJ). That leaves the only option really as a visitors visa. If your father-in-law can produce enough evidence of ties to China, coupled with the fact your mother-in-law is also a legal resident of China, I think they may have a good chance of a visitors visa.

There is no harm in applying for a visitors visa and being denied, even if you do decide to pursue the CR1/IR1 or (attempt) the K3 later. Embassy's are used to seeing tourist visa denials when trying to visit spouses.