I'm a US citizen that might end up working out of the US but am starting a K1 for my Fiance

[ZombieSS 0]

I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action will be. I'm just about ready to send my K1 paper work in so my Fiance can come here to marry. She is from the Philippines but lives and works in Hong Kong and now my current employer is telling me they would like for me to live in the Philippines so I'm available in Asia where we have a lot of work happening.

If I don't move to the Philippines, everything is OK and the K1 goes through and she comes here, we marry and we go through the permanent residency waiting game.

If I move to the Philippines, she'll end up joining me before the K1 is approved which will be sent to her old address in Hong Kong where her interview is going to take palce and her employer can forward it to us. I don't know if that will create a problem in itself or not. The other issue is that even if we do live in the Philippines it might be from 6 months to forever. It would be nice to be able to have her come visit the US with me if that's the case. I want to marry in the US but I don't know what will happen if I'm living in the Philippines and we just come back for a few weeks, get married and never apply for AOS. Would we have to later apply for a K3 visa if we decided to move to the US at a later date?

The biggest problem with my situation is I don't know what is happening with my job and where I'm going to live. My current course of action is moving forward on the K1 so we can marry inside the US even if we don't live here and figure out everything else as we go. I hope that is the correct course of action. If my job later changes at another time that I have to come back to the US and don't have much notice I'd have to leave my wife behind which I wouldn't do because it's not acceptable and getting a Visa in a few months seems pretty difficult.

I'd appreciate any advise. Thanks in Advance.

[gnasa 3]

Hi ZombieSS

There could be other possible visa paths for your fiance. It seems to 1st hinge on how to get married in the US. If you plan to move abroad, explore not worrying/waiting for the K-3 visa, she might be able to come here as a tourist. I think you can marry while on tourist status, she just has to depart within 90 days (I may be completely wrong on this...)

2nd hinge is the uncertainty in the future. It would be nice to move immediately with your wife back to the US, but that is just not reality. Direct Consular Filing (DCF) may be an option, as a US citizen with 'residency' abroad, DCF for an IR-1 (or something like that) from the Philippines after you're married might be an option. I'm not sure if you can do DCF from there, but it will be all spelled out on the US Embassy/Consulate website for there if it is possible. otherwise you'll have to follow the K-3 visa process and adjust status...

Also, speaking from personal experience, I recommend you get you wife a green card when your ready to live in the US for 3 years and can get her US citizenship after that time. I have experience trying to hang onto my wife's greencard while being temporarily stationed abroad for my job. Interrupting GC to citizenship process by not living full time in the USA is a logistical nightmare, costly, and you are always at risk of having it taken away due to an abandoned residency claim despite re-entry permits, etc...

OR

If you manage to get the green card for her before/during your temporary assignment abroad AND your employed by a US company/govt you'd be eligible for expeditious naturalization.

Hopefully this is helpful.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

it would be best to see what your job brings. It would be far better to marry her in the PI and then DCF (or just file normally if you dont meet the criteria for DCF) for CR-1/IR-1 (depending on how long you were married at the time). You could just be wasting money on the K-1 visa if you dont ever plan on living together right away in the US.

Another option would be to file the K-1 and then just have her go back to the PI to get the visa and then come to the US (by using her PI address).

I know there is a great deal of uncertainty in your future and it is hard to decide what to do. How soon would you know if you were to be working in the PI? It might be better to just wait and do a spousal filing, but I dont know your specific situation.

[ZombieSS 0]

The problem is I don't know. I'd really hate to wait 3-6 months only to find out I'm not going and that was time the K1 could have been in process. I have no way to work outside of the US unless my company (private not gov) asks me to move there. I don't know if I'd like it or not but I'd be willing to tough it out for at least 2 years with salary from the US which would make life pretty decent (much less than I make now though).

I guess my main issue is I'm just fed up with not knowing what is going to happen with my life right now. I've been jerked around for almost 2 years with being told I'm going contract (self employed), moving to Hong Kong, now possibly the Philippines but still a company employee. I do want to live outside of the US just to see how it is (I spend 3 weeks in the Phils and liked it, stayed in a farming village for 2 weeks so it wasn't exactly luxury).

To compound the issues with filing now, her birth certificate from the NSO is unreadable but says it's the best possible copy and also contains corrections. I've been told she should get an original of the one from her municipality, but it will have miss spellings too. I'll make another post about this fiasco in the correct forum, just a side note about my current disaster.

I'm trying to get an estimate of time or at least a guarantee about what is happening with my job since my fiance's well being is tied to what happens as well. Guess it's just more waiting and I haven't even submitted the K1 documents yet.