long enough together for the petition?

[Julie1806 0]

My fiancé is able to sponsor me. He has got a pretty good job in a German subcompany and he also gets a pension for he was in the U.S. Marine Corps for 20 years.

Tanja

[l.iber.tatis 7]

that´s good.

now you just need to figure out when and where you want to get married. once you´ve made that decision you know which visa route you have to go

[Julie1806 0]

Thank you very much! I will have a word with him ;-)

Tanja

[Julie1806 0]

We would go for the CR-1 but we are in trouble with the time: My fiancé arrived in Munich at the 29th of February and will depart at the 29th of August. So there is no time left to apply for CR1 via DCF in Germany. Should he do it in the U.S. or would that take much longer? What do we do now?

Tanja

[John and Camie 39]

We would go for the CR-1 but we are in trouble with the time: My fiancé arrived in Munich at the 29th of February and will depart at the 29th of August. So there is no time left to apply for CR1 via DCF in Germany. Should he do it in the U.S. or would that take much longer? What do we do now?

Tanja

Hi Tanja,

My advice: have your fiance file K-1. My hubby and I were together for just three months before we got engaged, so the 8 months we had from engaged to receipt of K-1 visa gave us a lot of time to collect ourselves, build the tools we would need in our marriage (patience, trust, etc.) and have a proper engagement. We figured, if we could survive K-1, we could survive anything, haha. So far, the endurance training we've gotten courtesy of USCIS has kept our little marriage happy through unemployment and all of life's other little disappointments, LOL. Btw, you don't get your EAD (work authorization) until after you file AOS, and then it falls somewhere between Biometrics and We'll Send it To You When We Feel Like It.

Hope this helps. Good luck! x

[KayDeeCee 4,904]

This is from www.uscis.gov:

"Permission to Work

After admission, your fiancé(e) may immediately apply for permission to work by filing a Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization with the USCIS Service Center having jurisdiction over your place of residence. Any work authorization based on a nonimmigrant fiancé (e) visa would be valid for only 90 days after entry. However, your fiancé (e) would also be eligible to apply for an extended work authorization at the same time as he or she files for permanent residence. In this case, your fiancé(e) would file Form I-765 together with Form I-485 as soon as you marry."

Are you sure that this takes at least three months?

Tanja

Just to make this more clear for you:

Yes, you CAN get your SSN and apply for your Employment Authorization Document (EAD) before getting married or filing for your adjustment of status, HOWEVER, there will be a fee of $380 and it takes 2-3 months to process and will expire when your I-94 does, 90 days after you enter the US. You most likely will not even get a chance to use it because of those factors, and it makes it a worthless waste of money.

When you file for your EAD(I-765) and AP(Advance Parole travel doc - I-131) along with your I-485 for adjustment of status after you enter on a K-1 and get married in the US, the fees for those 2 forms are waived, and the EAD/AP combo card will be valid for a year, or until you receive your green card approval and they are no longer needed.

No one that is thinking about going the K-1 fiance(e) visa route should do so thinking the foreign fiance(e) will be able to work as soon as they enter the US. It is just not the case and they will be sadly disappointed.

If you want to skip having to pay $1070 and wait for adjustment of status to be approved to get a green card, or you want to work right away after entry, then you should go the CR-1 spousal visa route instead. It takes only a couple months longer than a K-1 and you will get a green card and be able to work right away after you enter the US. It is also cheaper in the long run because you do not have to file for adjustment of status.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Jay-Kay

[Julie1806 0]

Once again thank you!

I will try to call the embassy in Frankfurt to get some information because I don't think the CR-1 would work: My fiancé has to leave Germany exactly after half a year which gives us no time to go for the CR-1 via DCF in Germany which would be the fastest way. The K1 is probably the only possibility for us.

I hope I have got some more information this afternoon.

Tanja

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Once again thank you!

I will try to call the embassy in Frankfurt to get some information because I don't think the CR-1 would work: My fiancé has to leave Germany exactly after half a year which gives us no time to go for the CR-1 via DCF in Germany which would be the fastest way. The K1 is probably the only possibility for us.

I hope I have got some more information this afternoon.

Tanja

Tanja - You don't have to file CR1 via DCF.

DCF means Direct Consular Processing. It means the US citizen spouse files for their foreign spouse while in that country at that country's US consulate. DCF is usually used by US citizens living permanently in a foreign country.

Alternately, you and your boyfriend could still marry in Germany, and he could file CR1 for you from the US.

In other words, DCF and CR1 are two separate things. They do not have to go hand in hand.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Rebecca Jo

[Julie1806 0]

Yes, I know, but without DCF the visa process would probably take much longer than the K1 Process. CR-1 is only an option for us if we could to it via DCF. We do not want to be separated for a long time, especially if it is not allowed to visit the U.S. during the process.

Tanja

[sara80 17]

Yes, I know, but without DCF the visa process would probably take much longer than the K1 Process. CR-1 is only an option for us if we could to it via DCF. We do not want to be separated for a long time, especially if it is not allowed to visit the U.S. during the process.

Tanja

You should still be able to visit during any process, either K1 or CR1 as long as you can bring along some ties to your home country. They might just be happy with a return ticket, but just in case they are more "picky" is best to have more. Bare in mind that not always the K1 is the fastest route, it is in theory by a couple of months, but in some cases it could take longer and that doesn't depend on the actual case but most of the time is pure luck..

[Julie1806 0]

Now, I talked to our civil registry office. To marry me in Germany my fiancé would need a lot of papers from the U.S. and all translated into German. Everything has to be approved at the Higher Regional Court and then sent back to the civil registry office. Even if we could finish the process in time it is still not clear whether the embassy follows the "half-year-rule" that strikt that we could apply for CR-1 a few days earlier because my fioncé has to leave at the 29th of August and he arrived in Germany at the 28th of February (stamp in his passport). So what could happen to us is that we get married, apply for the CR-1 at the end of August and being turned down just because we applied for it too early. We don't want to take that risk.

Despite the fact that CR-1 would be cheaper and allows me to work immediately, to get married soon without even having met the rest of his family and without having been in the U.S. before would be a bit hasty. And not being able to work for three months or so should not be a major problem. This is actually the time someone needs to settle in and find out what jobs are available. And there is a pretty good chance for me that the german subcompany in the U.S. which my fiancé works for would employ me because they need someone who speeks both German and English.

I thing the best way would be to apply for the K1 while my fiancé is here. With good luck everything is ready in March next year or even earlier.

But I have a question: They need all my documents translated into english. Has that to be done by a nationally certified translator or can that also be done by any translation office here in Germany?

Thanks, Tanja

[l.iber.tatis 7]

they need your documents in english or the official language of the country the beneficiary resides in (and where the interview will be). that´s german for you. do if your documents ar in german you are good. you can get a international birth certificate (which you need for AOS too)

i´m not sure about divorce papers, it could be that they have to be in english...

[Julie1806 0]

Great! I will find out about the divorce papers ;-)

Tanja

[Julie1806 0]

This might be stupid but I have a question about G-325a:

There is a question "Applicant's last adress outside the US of more than a year". What do they mean? I have never been to the U.S. What dates should I put down?

Thanks, Tanja

[KayDeeCee 4,904]

This might be stupid but I have a question about G-325a:

There is a question "Applicant's last adress outside the US of more than a year". What do they mean? I have never been to the U.S. What dates should I put down?

Thanks, Tanja

That would be the last address you lived at for more than a year. If it is your current one, then just re-list it there.