which visa to apply for?

[mmilone 0]

Hello. A quick question please: If a U.S. citizen was married in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican woman, what visa should be used to bring her here? Does the marriage in the D.R. help the situation?

Thanks

[doug and leann 0]

You could either apply for a K3 (Non-immigrant Visa for Spouse) or a CR1/IR1 (Immigrant Visa for Spouse). It is up to you on which route you wanna take. Read the Guides and Forums here, it helps a lot.

If the marriage was legal and recognized by the government, then you're good to go.

[xuemei 0]

Hello. A quick question please: If a U.S. citizen was married in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican woman, what visa should be used to bring her here? Does the marriage in the D.R. help the situation?

Thanks

If the US citizen is married to the Dominican lady, he would need to file an I-130 visa. He would have the option to later file a I-129f(k-3) to maybe bring her here a little faster, but I'm not sure the I-129f beats the I-130 any longer. You cannot file the K3 before first filing the I-130.

Besides the I-130 would have better benefits, such as she could leave the country in an emergency if she had to travel home for an sick relative. She could also get a SS# right away and a 2 year green card or even a 10 year Green card if they are married for more than 2 years when she arrive to the U.S.

Edited July 30, 2008 by xuemei

[Mononoke28 134]

You need to do more research since the US embassy in the Dominican Republic is famous for taking years before giving out interviews for certain types of visas. If you want you can ask your question in the Latin American forum or do an extensive search in VJ to find out how long it would take you to get an interview for a K3 visa vs. a CR1 visa.

I agree that the CR1 visa is a much better option but only because most embassies take just as long to make interview dates available as K3 visas. For the Dominican Republic, up until last year anyway, this was not the case and CR1 visas were taking at least three years to get an interview date with the embassy.

Diana

Edited July 30, 2008 by Mononoke28