Employment visa affect on a K-1 visa

[ednmel 0]

Hi all,

I have been visiting these forums for a while and while I have learnt a lot already, I would like to know if anyone who has been in my position before will be able to give me some advice. My apologies in advance if this is the wrong forum to post this in or if this question has already been previously answered in a previous thread. I tried the search feature but was not able to get the answer that I was after.

My situation is this: I am an Aussie guy who met a wonderful American girl online about 7 years ago (while she was finishing high school - and myself starting university). We both had our own respective partners back then and were just friends who would chat with each other once in a while. Fast forward 4 years and I'm in the USA visiting my uncle and grandma who coincidentally (or what I like to think as fate) just happens to live 15-20 mins from her. We met up and spent a great couple of weeks together and once I returned back to Australia, we decided to give long distance a shot. Fast forward another 3 years (this month) of visiting each other in US and AU when we both had enough leave accrued, I decided to stop waiting for the "perfect" time to be with her and just try to sort out being with her permanently. Unfortunately, it was sort of awkward resigning as during the same meeting, he offered me a promotion. Fortunately for me, my boss has been very understanding about my decision and I've reiterated over and over that it was purely for personal reasons, as I love my job, I'm good at it and am getting paid decent coin while getting to travel. Anyway, a couple of weeks after I put through my resignation, he says that he is working on deals in the US and might want/need me to work from there under a business visa. Although not completely declining the offer, I couldn't accept it either, as I've not sorted out anything in AU, let alone US (I'm currently working for the company in Singapore). I told him that I need at least 2-3 months to sort out things in AU and US before I can work for any company again. We came to a compromise that I would get in contact with him and the company again once I've sorted what I need too.

I plan to go back to the US in June/July under the visa waiver program and propose to my gf - she somehow has a feeling that I would be doing this already since we've been talking about marriage more and more recently and also try to sort out some other things while I'm over there. We plan to get in touch with an immigration lawyer and or go through pre-paid legal to see what all our options are for us to be together on a more permanent basis (BTW anyone know a good immigration lawyer in the southern CA area?).

TL;DR My question is:

* Would entering the US on a E-3 or H1B visa affect the status of lodged/pending K-1 visa?

[Kiwifruit 0]

If you want a fruity perspective, Kiwifruit says go with that and do an I-130 AOS off the employment visa.

[JoannaV 173]

The answer to your specific question: if you entered America on an employment visa you would no longer need the K1. You would get married and adjust status from the employment visa.

I don't know anything about employment visas, so I don't know if there is any risk of it being denied if they think you will be marrying and staying in America. Someone else should be able to give a definitive answer to that.