K-1 or K-3?

[txladykat 1]

Ok, our story...I know a lot of people don't approve of getting married while on VWP....but this WAS NOT our intent when he came here on this visit. My divorce had not yet been filed when boyfriend arrived here for this visit. However, the day after he arrived my soon to be ex filed the papers (finally). Anyways, a week ago my boyfriend proposed!! We then visited with two different immigration attorneys to discuss options. Since it was not the intent to get married when he came for this visit, we initially decided to go ahead and get married as soon as my divorce is final (in June). We reached this decision for various reasons..one being I am 38 and he is 43...when you know what you want, why wait for years at our age (smile), second, I have two teenagers close to graduating high school and we wanted them to be able to spend some time together before they leave for college, getting to know each other better, plus being that I am raising two children and work full time, traveling frequently to Denmark is not an option right now. Well..bombshell dropped today and the soon to be ex backed out of marital agreement, which means the divorce will be dragged out for months....crying.

Anyways...so now, we have two options.....for me to go to Denmark when the divorce is final and get married there then file for K-3....or of course just file for the K-1.

Which one do yall recommend? During the pendency of both of these, am I correct in that he will not be able to come here to visit? I can't go there for very long as I would have to pay for me and my children to go to Denmark, plus I only get 2 weeks off a year so I could only conceivably go for one visit while we await the visa.

I really appreciate any advice yall can give based on your experiences.

I wasn't sure which forum to post this in, so I hope this is the right place. Sorry if it isn't.

[RosemarieL 0]

I believe that a K3 takes a little longer than a K1. If the ability to work as soon as he gets here is important then the CR1 route might be better as work authorisation would be included but that route takes the longest.

My husband filed for a K1 for me and I was able to visit during the process on the VWP. I just made sure that i brought evidence of ties to my home country such as a rent agreement and work paysubs etc. I think you are only likely to have a problem with the visiting if the visits are too long but a couple of weeks here and there are unlikely to be a problem.

[txladykat 1]

I believe that a K3 takes a little longer than a K1. If the ability to work as soon as he gets here is important then the CR1 route might be better as work authorisation would be included but that route takes the longest.

My husband filed for a K1 for me and I was able to visit during the process on the VWP. I just made sure that i brought evidence of ties to my home country such as a rent agreement and work paysubs etc. I think you are only likely to have a problem with the visiting if the visits are too long but a couple of weeks here and there are unlikely to be a problem.

Thanks for the reply! Work is not an issue. He is self employed. His clients are in Europe, but he can do the work from anywhere...which is why visiting me vs. me visiting him is much easier. Is it pretty typical then that one can visit during the K-1 process? Since his job allows him to work from anywhere and he is self-employed, providing check stubs would be hard. When your spouse was visiting here on VWP, what did they do when he tried to come in and visit, i.e. what kind of questions did they ask?

[Dakine 26]

I believe that a K3 takes a little longer than a K1. If the ability to work as soon as he gets here is important then the CR1 route might be better as work authorisation would be included but that route takes the longest.

My husband filed for a K1 for me and I was able to visit during the process on the VWP. I just made sure that i brought evidence of ties to my home country such as a rent agreement and work paysubs etc. I think you are only likely to have a problem with the visiting if the visits are too long but a couple of weeks here and there are unlikely to be a problem.

Thanks for the reply! Work is not an issue. He is self employed. His clients are in Europe, but he can do the work from anywhere...which is why visiting me vs. me visiting him is much easier. Is it pretty typical then that one can visit during the K-1 process? Since his job allows him to work from anywhere and he is self-employed, providing check stubs would be hard. When your spouse was visiting here on VWP, what did they do when he tried to come in and visit, i.e. what kind of questions did they ask?

If you are going to get married abroad. Do the CR-1 as it's a MUCH cheaper, easier and BETTER visa than the K3.

[Damian&Kelly 16]

K-1 is faster. and you/he can visit during the process. He would just have to show ties to his country so they know he will be returning. things like rent, car payments...

[KimandRuss 0]

You can legally visit on any valid visa while awaiting either process but, as stated, it may be harder to prove there is no intent to immigrate if he is self-employed. Lots of people visit of course, but it is always up to the discretion of the POE officer, they are all very different, and there is always the chance that he could be denied entry.

My SO was denied entry in 9/07 on his last visit in (5x's in a year and pretty much living here but leaving every 3 months) for that very reason. We were VERY lucky he got in as many times as he did as he had left his home and a very lucrative job in AUS to come here to be with me. I too was awaiting a long drawn out divorce (my ex just wouldn't sign the papers)..and i'm 38 years young ... so we have very similar circumstances. I feel for you and hope you can get the divorce settled asap! btw.. depending on where you are from, there is often a nisi (waiting) period after your court date. We had to wait 120 days from our court appearance to have the decree absolute needed to file for the I129f.

best of luck to you

edit; As far as which visa to petition for... it will depend very much on what office you are filing with. Vermont, which is great for K1 filers right now, is not very speedy when it comes to the spousal visa's. So, you might want to have a look at the timelines for your location to see where you would be filing and how they are handling each kind of visa.

Edited May 22, 2008 by KimandRuss

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Hello TX Lady. I'm assuming you're from Texas. So am I. You will file at Vermont, where approvals are taking less time. I filed (K1 process) March 10 and just 2 months later have the approval and the papers are already to the embassy stage in London. We could probably be finished in 6 more weeks if we weren't needing to stall the interview until late July. I don't know how fast Denmark moves when it gets to the embassy stage.

Right now Vermont isn't really dealing with approving K3 petitions. You can look at the dates of NOA2 (which means the approval) in the lists on this page called Igor's list http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/igor/vjdata/vsc.aspx

The first list shows the last 20 approvals for K1s and the second list shows last 20 K3s. I'm not really familiar with K3 process, but I don't see approvals happening for months now.

Hope some of this information helps. I was lost when I first tried to sort through this website. People use so many abbreviations and I found the website very difficult to navigate when it was all new to me. "Look at the timelines, look at the guides..." and I honestly was clueless where to find or how to use those things.

Just wanted to give you a more specific recent Texas person's timeline. Also as far as travel during the process, we have decided it's fine, but my fiance only visits for 3 weeks at the longest. If your guy just goes through immigration line at the airport and says I'm here to visit friends, and doesn't go into the whole visa/marriage/fiancee story, he should be fine. If he comes too often and stays a long time, he could be denied if they got suspicious he was wanting to not go home and become an illegal.

[txladykat 1]

Hello TX Lady. I'm assuming you're from Texas. So am I. You will file at Vermont, where approvals are taking less time. I filed (K1 process) March 10 and just 2 months later have the approval and the papers are already to the embassy stage in London. We could probably be finished in 6 more weeks if we weren't needing to stall the interview until late July. I don't know how fast Denmark moves when it gets to the embassy stage.

Right now Vermont isn't really dealing with approving K3 petitions. You can look at the dates of NOA2 (which means the approval) in the lists on this page called Igor's list http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/igor/vjdata/vsc.aspx

The first list shows the last 20 approvals for K1s and the second list shows last 20 K3s. I'm not really familiar with K3 process, but I don't see approvals happening for months now.

Hope some of this information helps. I was lost when I first tried to sort through this website. People use so many abbreviations and I found the website very difficult to navigate when it was all new to me. "Look at the timelines, look at the guides..." and I honestly was clueless where to find or how to use those things.

Just wanted to give you a more specific recent Texas person's timeline. Also as far as travel during the process, we have decided it's fine, but my fiance only visits for 3 weeks at the longest. If your guy just goes through immigration line at the airport and says I'm here to visit friends, and doesn't go into the whole visa/marriage/fiancee story, he should be fine. If he comes too often and stays a long time, he could be denied if they got suspicious he was wanting to not go home and become an illegal.

Thanks everyone for the replies! Yes, Texas it is for me. So I guess that means I go through Vermont too....a good sign. Soon to be ex said yesterday he would sign the papers..but he keeps flipping on me so who knows. In our city, they have to sign the decree within 7 days after entry by the court, so waiting for the decree is not a big issue. If he signs the decree we can still of course go ahead and get married now..but that worries me. Should we bypass that and just go for the K-1? It is easy enough I think for us to prove there was no intent to marry when he came in on the VWP.

[JeroenAndMichelle 28]

I know a lot of people don't approve of getting married while on VWP

It is mostly not because of approving or not approving.. I too was thinking about doing it that way but we ended up doing it the 'legal' way (basically it is not legal to marry and stay after marriage while being there on VWP).. The reason for us to go for the K1 route instead wasn't the above, it was more because I found out it brings much more risk with it, the risk of being denied is far more greater and, if you do get denied, you might end up with no place back in the home country and no access (and possibly even a ban) to the new country.

If I were you, I would go for the safe route and just go K1 (and not because I would not approve because it is not up to me to approve these things)

[KimandRuss 0]

The problem with getting married while on a visitors visa is that the burden of proof is on you to prove the intent was not to marry when he arrived. If he has been in and out of the country several times it would probably send up many red flags to the adjuticator when it comes to AOS.

Here's more info before any decisions are made... http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...page=i130guide2