Should we get married or stay fiance?

[tsharpe 0]

My daughter and her fiancé have completed all the paperwork and have gone through all the hoops. He has already had his interview in London. After his interview in London, the interviewer gave him a paper saying that he must undergo Additional Administrative Processing. So far it's been 7 months after the interview. Now, my daughter is considering going to London, getting married, then starting the process under a K3 Visa. Is this advisable? Has anyone done this, if so, what is your experience?

[Otto 83]

It's not always advisable to start a new process without some sort of resolution for the previous one. Getting married might not solve the problem.

Has there been no communication between your daughter's fiancé and London?

[pushbrk 13,907]

My daughter and her fiancé have completed all the paperwork and have gone through all the hoops. He has already had his interview in London. After his interview in London, the interviewer gave him a paper saying that he must undergo Additional Administrative Processing. So far it's been 7 months after the interview. Now, my daughter is considering going to London, getting married, then starting the process under a K3 Visa. Is this advisable? Has anyone done this, if so, what is your experience?

Whatever the AP delay, marriage will not solve it. K3 is a virtually obsolete visa. The viable spouse visa is CR1 but a few months after marriage and filing he'll be in the same AP limbo he is now. Best to wait unless there's an urgent reason to marry.

[tsharpe 0]

It's not always advisable to start a new process without some sort of resolution for the previous one. Getting married might not solve the problem.

Has there been no communication between your daughter's fiancé and London?

There has been no communications. According to the letter that was sent to here fiance, it says, "don't call us, we will call you."

[tsharpe 0]

Whatever the AP delay, marriage will not solve it. K3 is a virtually obsolete visa. The viable spouse visa is CR1 but a few months after marriage and filing he'll be in the same AP limbo he is now. Best to wait unless there's an urgent reason to marry.

Thank you very much. I will tell my daughter that she will just have to be patient. Although her fiance wants to see her, we will plan a trip to the UK to visit him but she will not get married. Thanks again for your advise.

[JimVaPhuong 4,865]

My daughter and her fiancé have completed all the paperwork and have gone through all the hoops. He has already had his interview in London. After his interview in London, the interviewer gave him a paper saying that he must undergo Additional Administrative Processing. So far it's been 7 months after the interview. Now, my daughter is considering going to London, getting married, then starting the process under a K3 Visa. Is this advisable? Has anyone done this, if so, what is your experience?

First, filing a K3 is almost never advisable, except under some unusual circumstances. If they decide to get married then they should file for a CR1 instead. It's cheaper, and her husband will get a green card within weeks of his arrival to the US.

There is rarely any reason to believe that a spousal visa of any sort will be easier to obtain than a fiance visa. There is a reason why they placed your daughter's fiance in AP. Until that is addressed, the outcome of a spousal visa petition and interview will likely be the same. What's more, they will have thrown away the months they've already spent waiting, and basically started over. Unless and until the visa is ultimately denied, there's no point in starting over. If the visa IS denied, then they need to address the reason for the denial before they file another petition.

Here's a hypothetical scenario for them to ponder...

What if she flies to London and they get married. The following week she receives a notice that the K1 visa has been approved, and they want her "fiance" to submit his passport. They are now in the unenviable position of having to inform the consulate that he is no longer eligible for the K1 visa because they've already gotten married.

Tell them to be patient. They'll get an answer eventually. Also, tell them to stay in contact with the embassy. If the consulate doesn't hear from them then they may consider the application to be abandoned.

[pushbrk 13,907]

First, filing a K3 is almost never advisable, except under some unusual circumstances. If they decide to get married then they should file for a CR1 instead. It's cheaper, and her husband will get a green card within weeks of his arrival to the US.

There is rarely any reason to believe that a spousal visa of any sort will be easier to obtain than a fiance visa. There is a reason why they placed your daughter's fiance in AP. Until that is addressed, the outcome of a spousal visa petition and interview will likely be the same. What's more, they will have thrown away the months they've already spent waiting, and basically started over. Unless and until the visa is ultimately denied, there's no point in starting over. If the visa IS denied, then they need to address the reason for the denial before they file another petition.

Here's a hypothetical scenario for them to ponder...

What if she flies to London and they get married. The following week she receives a notice that the K1 visa has been approved, and they want her "fiance" to submit his passport. They are now in the unenviable position of having to inform the consulate that he is no longer eligible for the K1 visa because they've already gotten married.

Tell them to be patient. They'll get an answer eventually. Also, tell them to stay in contact with the embassy. If the consulate doesn't hear from them then they may consider the application to be abandoned.

For a US Citizen to actually manage marrying a UK citizen in the UK has its own set of hoops to jump through. Two non-citizens marrying in any most countries (other than the USA) has a different set of hoops. London isn't Las Vegas when it comes to marriage.

[J&N* 68]

Keeping call them, if that doesn't solve it, contact your congressman and that will definitely get you somewhere as they must answer him asap.

Good luck to your daughter!

[Justine+David 218]

tsharpe, has she tried calling the Dept of State? She is most definitely allowed to do that, at least once a week. She needs the case number and the foreign fiance's name and date of birth. Here's the number: 1-202-663-1225, press 1, then 0 to speak to a live person, open 08:30am-4:30pm eastern standard time.

Was the foreign fiance born and raised in the UK? Is he a UK citizen? It is EXTREMELY unusual for UK citizens to undergo the Administrative Processing...and especially 7 months!!

Once she gets ahold of DOS, she can also contact her two senators from Congress and they can do an inquiry...can you tell us what happened during the interview? Why he was put into AP? Is there anything unusual about the petition? Like large age differences, different religious backgrounds, past criminal histories, etc etc?

At this point, your daughter (or the foreign fiance) may also contact the US embassy in London, although it will cost some $$

Callers in the UK: 09042-45010. Calls to this line are charged at £1.20/min

Callers in the US: 1-866-382-3589. Callers are charged a fixed rate of $16:00 for up to 7 minutes

You want to select the immigrant visa line. Ask them for the weekly code for e-mailing the embassy as they will not generally give you general case updates. This will get you to the attention of someone who has access to the paperwork who can check for you. They may take 2-3 days to respond to send you an e-mail response.

When you get the e-mail code, just inquire about your case as it has been 7 months.

Please update us as you get more information...I am SO sorry your daughter is going through this

Edited May 7, 2010 by Justine+David

[tsharpe 0]

tsharpe, has she tried calling the Dept of State? She is most definitely allowed to do that, at least once a week. She needs the case number and the foreign fiance's name and date of birth. Here's the number: 1-202-663-1225, press 1, then 0 to speak to a live person, open 08:30am-4:30pm eastern standard time.

Was the foreign fiance born and raised in the UK? Is he a UK citizen? It is EXTREMELY unusual for UK citizens to undergo the Administrative Processing...and especially 7 months!!

Once she gets ahold of DOS, she can also contact her two senators from Congress and they can do an inquiry...can you tell us what happened during the interview? Why he was put into AP? Is there anything unusual about the petition? Like large age differences, different religious backgrounds, past criminal histories, etc etc?

At this point, your daughter (or the foreign fiance) may also contact the US embassy in London, although it will cost some $$

Callers in the UK: 09042-45010. Calls to this line are charged at £1.20/min

Callers in the US: 1-866-382-3589. Callers are charged a fixed rate of $16:00 for up to 7 minutes

You want to select the immigrant visa line. Ask them for the weekly code for e-mailing the embassy as they will not generally give you general case updates. This will get you to the attention of someone who has access to the paperwork who can check for you. They may take 2-3 days to respond to send you an e-mail response.

When you get the e-mail code, just inquire about your case as it has been 7 months.

Please update us as you get more information...I am SO sorry your daughter is going through this

Thanks for the information. Background: My daughter is from the US. Her fiance is a citizen of Zimbabwe but is now living in the UK. They met in Zimbabwe while we were there as missionaries and have known each other for over 12 years. He has been in the UK for over 5 years and I guess he is now considered a resident. As far as the interview, he said it went fine. He has no criminal record and he has a good job in the UK. He is currently living with his sister who is also from Zimbabwe.

After the interview, the interviewer gave him form H/iv/iv30SVA2007 (UK59)with a check blocked:

"Your immigration visa application requires additional administrative processing before a visa can be issued. The processing cannot be waived and we cannot issue a visa until the processing is complete. When the administrative processing is complete, we will advise you by phone. We regret that we are unable to provide you with any guidance as to how long the processing of your case will take. While the visa is being processed, there is no mechanism for "status checks"."

Based on the information that I have provided, do you recommend that I tell my daughter to go through the process of getting the email code, etc? In any case, thanks, if there is anymore that you can add, based on the information that I have provided, please let me know.

[Justine+David 218]

Okay, Zimbabwe. That is more definitely more believable to be in the dreaded AP.

Your daughter *needs* to call the Dept of State first to ask for any information on the visa. They generally have most of the same information as the US embassy, but this is a good way to get some free information before she contacts the US embassy in London. It's also free, so you can't beat that. Tell her to ask when the last action was taken on the visa, the specific date. They may not give it to her (it's up to their own discretion, which is maddening), but it never hurts to ask.

The DOS people if you are in AP, you can call once a week for updates. More than that you may get some really nasty people on there hanging up on you. This is what happened to one of members, treehugger, who is also in AP through the London embassy.

She can call them today, and I suggest she does so! You may be have to wait on the phone line for awhile and you may have to listen to a long 5 minute ditty about if you're inquiring about Haiti visas you can call this such-and-such number, but tell her to keep on waiting, because this is the best way to get information fast.

Once she gets information from them, you can use that and additionally call up the US London embassy, which she can do or he can do. You basically call them up, tell them you've been waiting for 7 months and then ask for an e-mail code. They may tell you that the e-mail code doesn't exist... (like they did to me while we waited for our visa ) but have her or him just very nicely inquire about the case, saying that it's been 7 months and you haven't heard anything.

I don't know what the usual times for AP for Zimbabwe folks are, but you can look down in the regional forums and ask: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/89-africa-sub-saharan/ <-- that is the Sub-Saharan forum.

This is the AP/waiver forum --> http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/113-waivers-i-601-and-i-212-and-administrative-processes-221g/

where other couples are going through the same thing...

Keep us posted!

[tsharpe 0]

Okay, Zimbabwe. That is more definitely more believable to be in the dreaded AP.

Your daughter *needs* to call the Dept of State first to ask for any information on the visa. They generally have most of the same information as the US embassy, but this is a good way to get some free information before she contacts the US embassy in London. It's also free, so you can't beat that. Tell her to ask when the last action was taken on the visa, the specific date. They may not give it to her (it's up to their own discretion, which is maddening), but it never hurts to ask.

The DOS people if you are in AP, you can call once a week for updates. More than that you may get some really nasty people on there hanging up on you. This is what happened to one of members, treehugger, who is also in AP through the London embassy.

She can call them today, and I suggest she does so! You may be have to wait on the phone line for awhile and you may have to listen to a long 5 minute ditty about if you're inquiring about Haiti visas you can call this such-and-such number, but tell her to keep on waiting, because this is the best way to get information fast.

Once she gets information from them, you can use that and additionally call up the US London embassy, which she can do or he can do. You basically call them up, tell them you've been waiting for 7 months and then ask for an e-mail code. They may tell you that the e-mail code doesn't exist... (like they did to me while we waited for our visa ) but have her or him just very nicely inquire about the case, saying that it's been 7 months and you haven't heard anything.

I don't know what the usual times for AP for Zimbabwe folks are, but you can look down in the regional forums and ask: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/89-africa-sub-saharan/ <-- that is the Sub-Saharan forum.

This is the AP/waiver forum --> http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/113-waivers-i-601-and-i-212-and-administrative-processes-221g/

where other couples are going through the same thing...

Keep us posted!

Thanks, I will have my daughter call this morning. How are they categorizing him; as a Zimbabwean, since that is where he holds a Zimbabwe passport or is he looked at as a resident of the UK, since he lives there?

[Justine+David 218]

The US embassy in London generally categorizes the beneficiaries by where they were born rather than their current resident status. We had one member awhile back who moved to the UK when she was less than a year old from India and had been a British citizen ever since but still got put into (albeit shorter) AP.

I don't know much about Zimbabwe beneficiaries and I did a quick search on consulates here on VJ but there were no reviews! Fairly rare then, I guess.