Canadian Male - US Female - Want to marry soon!

[mattsson 0]

I've read the FAQ's and a bunch of posts - but I still need some advice. Any help you can offer is of course really appreciated!

situation:

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I'm a Canadian Male, my girlfriend is a citizen of the USA and lives there.

We wanted to get married as soon as possible and start our lives together, in the USA to be close to her family.

questions:

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I've seen lots of people go the K1 route, and others go straight for the CR1. What is the fastest way for me to

apply for a work permit in the USA? the K1 or the CR1?

Would it be better if she comes to Canada and we get married here and apply for a CR1 right after?

or if we apply for a K1, then get married in the USA, and then apply for the CR1?

cheers,

Michael.

Edited March 31, 2010 by mattsson

[Rhiannercakes 14]

If you want to work as fast as you can when getting into the US, I suggest a CR-1.

You get a greencard when you get into the country which allows you to work right away.

With K1 you have to marry, then adjust status... which can leave you waiting a few months for your employment authorization paperwork. You also don't apply for CR-1 after getting a K-1, you go to adjustment of status while you're in the US.

For CR-1 you can marry wherever you want, it takes a bit longer than K-1 but it's more cost effective in the long run.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Exactly.

It also depends on when you really want to get married and if you already have a date in mind. Processing times for the K-1 are generally 7-10 months, and you would need to wait until your visa is approved before you can get married. With this visa you would need to move to the USA and marry your fiancee in the US within 90 days. After, you file for an adjustment of status like Rhiann mention, where you would also apply for EAD (work authorization) and AP (travel authorization) and would need to wait for those two documents to be approved before you could work or travel outside the US. It generally takes 1-3 months to have these approved.

With the CR-1 you can get married whenever you want in whatever country you would like. After you marry you would file an I-130 and wait for your visa to be processed before moving to the US. The CR-1 generally takes longer but you get an green card immediately upon entry, meaning there would be no wait time to work or travel.

[mattsson 0]

thanks for the help!

another quick question:

to qualify for a CR-1 with the least amount of hassle, would it be better to get married in the USA or Canada in that case?

...And do we still need to notify INS about our intent to marry before entering/leaving our respective countries?

[Udella&Wiz 325]

thanks for the help!

another quick question:

to qualify for a CR-1 with the least amount of hassle, would it be better to get married in the USA or Canada in that case?

...And do we still need to notify INS about our intent to marry before entering/leaving our respective countries?

I don't think it matters a bit where you get married....you'll have to get a copy of the marriage license either way...honestly it seems easier in the US to get one back after the wedding then it does in Canada...but I'm no expert...someone will chime in who did this in Canada.

I don;t think I've heard of anyone notifying anyone before getting married. Just think - you might jet off to Vegas for the weekend and get married on a whim - would you tell anyone? I can imagine that if you plan a wedding, then you may need to come with proof of ties to show that you're returning home and not staying in the country after you're married...immigration frowns on that one

[Rhiannercakes 14]

You can marry in either the US or Canada, it doesn't matter. (That I know of)

Edited March 31, 2010 by Rhiannercakes

[Pauley 2]

thanks for the help!

another quick question:

to qualify for a CR-1 with the least amount of hassle, would it be better to get married in the USA or Canada in that case?

...And do we still need to notify INS about our intent to marry before entering/leaving our respective countries?

Shouldn't make a huge difference which country, though we experienced a slight slowdown after getting married in Ontario, as the Ontario Office of the Registrar General apparently takes up to 10 weeks to register your marriage certificate, and so you'd have to wait that long before applying for it for the first petition. In hindsight, we may have been able to get our certificate more quickly in New York state; I don't know for sure.

If asked (which you almost certainly will), always truthfully answer the border agent as to what is your purpose for entering the country. Neither US Customs and Immigration Service nor, I believe, Customs and Immigration Canada need any special notification that you're entering the country to get married. Remember, too, that if you get married in the US, you, as the Canadian, will need to return to Canada for the application process; you cannot remain in the US the whole time, though temporary visits are permitted.

Edited March 31, 2010 by Pauley

[Inky 1,111]

In nebraska we got our marriage license back same day as we got married, we brought the papers down to the registration office at the court house and it took them 5/10 mins to print it out and put a gold stamp thing on it and that was it.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

In nebraska we got our marriage license back same day as we got married, we brought the papers down to the registration office at the court house and it took them 5/10 mins to print it out and put a gold stamp thing on it and that was it.

Same here in Fairfax County, Virginia...we took it in and paid on the spot for notarized copies

[Hugglebuggles 60]

It took about a week for us to get our license here in CO, but that's because we opted to mail it in since we were leaving for our honeymoon the next morning. It arrived the day after we got back, so no big deal! Our officiant did tell us that we could take it in and have it done in person the same day, so that is an option here.

10 weeks in Ontario, seriously? That's crazy!

[Angie'nMark 0]

Exactly...I just went through this whole thing... We opted for the CR-1 because I want (have) to work right away. I live in Montreal and my husband is in Los Angeles. We looked at Ontario...crazy wait, and also Quebec was a longish wait to get the marriage certificate, as well as a lot of bureaucracy before hand. We got married over a couple of days in Cali...We got a rush on the license and had it in a week.

At the border I was nervous. As many people tell you you don't want to lie..they asked if I was going for biz or pleasure...so I said pleasure and gave no more details, and was asked nothing more. To be on the safe side, you can bring a letter from employer and lease and bills and pay stubs....yadda yadda to show ties back to Canada. This is what you will have to do when you are in the midst of the process anyhow. I have crossed twice since we got our papers started and have gotten through twice. I am very up front about it, and I bring every paper to prove ties, and it has been totally fine. Just give yourself extra time at the border when you cross after the papers have started to become processed. Good luck to you with it...

[OBX 51]

As others have posted, we chose to get married in the US where we knew we could get our marriage certificate quickly. We married in North Carolina, took the marriage license directly to the county office and had two notarized copies in a matter of minutes. As Pauley posted I understand the wait in Ontario can be months!

When I crossed into the US heading to NC all I said was that I was travelling there for vacation which was true; we just happened to get married during that week I had every intention of returning to Canada; I had a job to return to and my children were with me.

I did not discover VJ unitl a few months after submitting my I-130 applicaton otherwise I might have been more nervous crossing the border.

Ignorance is bliss.

Edited March 31, 2010 by OBX

[lgg 2]

Hey Pauley...

I KNOW!! What is with Ontario? That 8-10 week wait was so out of control. And the thing with us too, is that my husband was previously divorced SO, Ontario also wanted us to get his divorce decree authenticated by a lawyer in Ontario -- that took a couple of weeks and then it took Ontario about 4-5 weeks to even allow us to get married as in... they accepted his divorce decree as authentic.

So, tons of waiting right from teh get go. So I recommend that if anyone is thinking of getting married in Ontario, especially if the USC has been divorced before... don't do it -- you will die of the waiting.

Oh and yeah, we waited almost the full 10 weeks for our marriage cert to arrive. I am so curious as to why Ontario takes that long to register? All done and stuff now but when it was going on, geez...

We opted for the CR1 as it just seemed to make sense and such...

Shouldn't make a huge difference which country, though we experienced a slight slowdown after getting married in Ontario, as the Ontario Office of the Registrar General apparently takes up to 10 weeks to register your marriage certificate, and so you'd have to wait that long before applying for it for the first petition. In hindsight, we may have been able to get our certificate more quickly in New York state; I don't know for sure.

If asked (which you almost certainly will), always truthfully answer the border agent as to what is your purpose for entering the country. Neither US Customs and Immigration Service nor, I believe, Customs and Immigration Canada need any special notification that you're entering the country to get married. Remember, too, that if you get married in the US, you, as the Canadian, will need to return to Canada for the application process; you cannot remain in the US the whole time, though temporary visits are permitted.

Edited March 31, 2010 by lgg

[OBX 51]

Hey Pauley...

I KNOW!! What is with Ontario? That 8-10 week wait was so out of control. And the thing with us too, is that my husband was previously divorced SO, Ontario also wanted us to get his divorce decree authenticated by a lawyer in Ontario -- that took a couple of weeks and then it took Ontario about 4-5 weeks to even allow us to get married as in... they accepted his divorce decree as authentic.

So, tons of waiting right from teh get go. So I recommend that if anyone is thinking of getting married in Ontario, especially if the USC has been divorced before... don't do it -- you will die of the waiting.

Oh and yeah, we waited almost the full 10 weeks for our marriage cert to arrive. I am so curious as to why Ontario takes that long to register? All done and stuff now but when it was going on, geez...

We opted for the CR1 as it just seemed to make sense and such...

Yup, another reason why we chose anywhere but Ontario

[lgg 2]

Lucky you, OBX, we had reasons why we had to go for Ontario. We were going to get married in Montreal which would have been great but there was something about posting the wedding on the doors of city hall for 20 days before and we could just not get it sorted.

But yeah, we could have saved a few months. Oh well, just want to warn anyone else thinking of Ontario.

Glad you got to avoid that hassle, OBX.

Yup, another reason why we chose anywhere but Ontario