marriage with travel visa?

[kitkat1 5]

Why a K1 visa cannot be issued like a regular tourist visa at the consulate and the fiance(e) allowed to join his/her partner in the US right away while the rest of the process is going on I do not know. It seems really silly to keep 2 people apart who intend to be together anyway, I don't understand it and it frustrates me too but that is just the immigration law for you

Because there would be visa fraud left and right. Think about how hard it is for people to get even a tourist visa. You have to prove intent to return with a long list of documentation and even then, they can deny you the tourist visa because they don't believe you don't plan to immigrate.

With the K1, most of the delay also has to do with making sure there is no fraud. There are also additional steps to ensure that the fiance does not have a criminal background, will not bring a contagious disease into the country, and will not begin a public charge. Then there are all of the security issues, name checks, etc. Unfortunately, all of these steps take a long time. In Mexico, for example, the wait for a spousal visa interview is more than one year. That's not only because that particular visa type is an immigrant visa (rather than a non-immigrant like the fiance visa) and results in a green card, but also because Mexico is the busiest consulate in the world.

So while it's a long process, in some ways, we have it a lot easier than other visa categories. And thank god we at least have the option. Not sure if that helps, but hope so.

[GaryC 7]

ok, fine i will go through the K1 process. However, im moving at the end of September and I kind of want to get the process started BEFORE September . Is there going to be a fast way of making changes to my mailing address? Also, another problem is im marrying a muslim women and its a muslim family and they follow the Islamic rules for marriage, which require me to provide a marriage date. I want to fly down to Indonesia this month to go through the whole proposal process with the family so its not last minute. How am i supposed to give a date for marriage if i dont know how long this process is going to take? roughly how long does it take?

You have one other option, If you want she can come to America on her tourist visa and get married as long as she leaves after and go home. Then you can file a K3 visa. At this point a K3 is a little faster.

There is nothing wrong with marrying on a tourist visa you just can't stay after.

P.S. If you want to get married in Indonesia then her tourist visa will prolly end since her status has changed so if you want to get married in both places do it in America first.

Edited June 15, 2006 by GaryC