Tourist visa AOS to Fiance visa

[Frosty288 0]

Hello,

My girlfriend is planning to get a tourism visa to come to the USA for a few months. She is Chinese (PRC), and living and working in Malaysia. She plans to get vacation approval and then apply for the tourism visa to come to the US. We lived together for two months in Malaysia after I left Afghanistan. (I am not military. I was a contractor).

We would like to get engaged after she comes into the US. We will not tell this to anyone, basically, if she gets approved for the tourism visa.

After she gets here we would like to adjust her status to Fiance visa. Can she stay here while the visa processes, or will she have to leave according to her tourism visa, and then re enter after he fiance visa gets approved?

[Andrea&Henry 311]

Basically, she can't "adjust" to a fiance visa, you can file a petition which is way different. But yes you can send a K1 visa petition (fiance visa)WHILE she is in the US but she CANNOT overstay. Once she is done here, she should come back to her home country and wait for her visa to get ready. Once she has her visa then she can move. Well this is the RIGHT WAY and LEGAL way to do what you are planning to do. But There's another way (I hate it to mention it but I bet somebody else is gonna suggest it) that she can come with her tourist visa, married and stay. It's ok to get married with a tourist visa, what is NOT ok is getting marriedand STAY. Actually its pretty much illegal to immigrate with a tourist visa, but fir what I read, people does it all the time. Not only that but they successfully adjust their status to a green card holder (funny). The other legal way is getting married while she is here in the US, then she should back to her home and you need to file a spouse visa.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Andrea&Henry

[Frosty288 0]

These things are okay, if she can come here as a tourist, and we can file for K1 after she gets here, as long as she leaves when here tourism visa ends, and waits for the fiance visa to finish. At least that reduces the amount of time we will have to spend apart.

Can you elaborate more on the process of her coming on a tourism visa and then us getting married? Also if I am correct after she gets a fiance visa and gets into the country on that, she doens't need to leave once we get married and wait for that to process?

Do you know how long a tourism visa is valid for, or for how much time she can stay on a tourism visa?

Edited March 11, 2013 by Frosty288

[Andrea&Henry 311]

These things are okay, if she can come here as a tourist, and we can file for K1 after she gets here, as long as she leaves when here tourism visa ends, and waits for the fiance visa to finish. At least that reduces the amount of time we will have to spend apart.

Can you elaborate more on the process of her coming on a tourism visa and then us getting married? Also if I am correct after she gets a fiance visa and gets into the country on that, she doens't need to leave once we get married and wait for that to process?

Do you know how long a tourism visa is valid for, or for how much time she can stay on a tourism visa?

Obviously, it's a great tool as long as you give it the right use...just visit or do tourism! When I was waiting for my k1 visa I already had a tourist visa for ten 10 years (this time can be equal or less) and everytime I came here to visit my fiance or just visit I usually got my passport stamped for 6 month (which is highest amount of time that a tourist can legally stay in the US. But is not for everyone, I mean, you cannot asume she is going to get the 6 month stamp, is all depending of the immigration officer. Sometimes you can be stamps for 2 week or 3 month or 5 month... Once I got approved for 2 month but I usually never stayed that long, even if I was approved for the maximum time. Only the stamp on her passport during her arrival, can determinate how much time she can stay.

[MedRoni 161]

These things are okay, if she can come here as a tourist, and we can file for K1 after she gets here, as long as she leaves when here tourism visa ends, and waits for the fiance visa to finish. At least that reduces the amount of time we will have to spend apart.

Can you elaborate more on the process of her coming on a tourism visa and then us getting married? Also if I am correct after she gets a fiance visa and gets into the country on that, she doens't need to leave once we get married and wait for that to process?

Do you know how long a tourism visa is valid for, or for how much time she can stay on a tourism visa?

Coming on a tourist visa and getting married is fine. Then you file a CR-1, still fine. She goes home before her tourist visa expires and waits out the CR1 process - all good.

If she comes and marries on the tourist visa and stays, it is illegal. You are intending her to move here while on a tourist visa which is premeditated and a big no.

Best way is to be correct, follow your legal paths. Either fiance visa or marriage visa, but she returns home when tourist visa expires to finish the immigration process. All legal, no worries, no lies, no fraud.

Edited March 11, 2013 by MedRoni

[Boiler 47,526]

You need to read the guides.

[Andrea&Henry 311]

If you wish you guys can get married while she is here visiting. You can go to a court and get married but she should go before her i94 (the stamp) expires. If you decide to do this, you need to file for a cr1 or spouse visa instead of a k1 visa. If she comes with a k1 visa, she cannot leave the country until she adjust her status, so yes, once she enters to the US with a k1 visa and married within the 90 days after her arrival, she can happily stay.

[Frosty288 0]

You need to read the guides.

Thank you, there is quite a lot of info to gather from here. I wish I would have found this site sooner.

However most of my immediate and 'large scope' questions have just been answered in this thread already, and now I will use the forums more thoroughly for the more specific items.

Thank you all!

[Andrea&Henry 311]

I strongly suggest you to follow the k1 route cause is the faster one, but you need to get married after getting the k1 visa and you only have 90 days after her arrival, but its ups to you

[MedRoni 161]

I strongly suggest you to follow the k1 route cause is the faster one, but you need to get married after getting the k1 visa and you only have 90 days after her arrival, but its ups to you

Faster is not always better. It depends on the importance of having the green card and the right to work right away ot not. Fiance visa requires an adjustment of status which costs more and takes longer for the spouse to work and move forward. Being married they have the greencard, right to work and social security card all up front with no other immigration to worry about until the ROC 2 years down the road. OP, just check out all the options and chosse what works best for your situation. It seems the time difference is not that large right now anyway.

[Boiler 47,526]

Realistically her chances of a B2 is limited.

[Andrea&Henry 311]

Realistically her chances of a B2 is limited.

I didn't want to mention it but Im agree

[Frosty288 0]

I strongly suggest you to follow the k1 route cause is the faster one, but you need to get married after getting the k1 visa and you only have 90 days after her arrival, but its ups to you

Yes, we are okay with that. Basically we have some time to work with. She is Chinese, and I am year of the snake, which is this year. She says marrying during this year is very bad luck, so she would like to if possible put the marriage off until after lunar new year, which is Feb 2014. So in our case maybe the wait times aren't so terrible, we would just like to see each other for some time before hand, and if she can get a few months in the US and have time for me to propose to her formally, then that is good. Wish she could stay while the fiance visa processes and such, but all is not perfect in the world. Backup plan is if she cannot get a tourism visa, we will just apply for the Fiance visa at the end of this month.

How do you guys deal with the time apart? Seems this is a very stressful process, but we are both confident that no matter the time we will be together. We are doing okay for now, while I was in Afghanistan, we spent about 6 months apart, and luckily with my income and circumstances we were able to live together for a bit over two months after I was done. We met when I was on a trip in South Korea before I went to Afghanistan, sometime in April 2012. I now work in California.

Also, cute story in the pictures in your sig!

Edited March 11, 2013 by Frosty288

[Andrea&Henry 311]

Faster is not always better. It depends on the importance of having the green card and the right to work right away ot not. Fiance visa requires an adjustment of status which costs more and takes longer for the spouse to work and move forward. Being married they have the greencard, right to work and social security card all up front with no other immigration to worry about until the ROC 2 years down the road. OP, just check out all the options and chosse what works best for your situation. It seems the time difference is not that large right now anyway.

Yeah you are right but the truth is the even when the cr1 holder comes to the US with all their documents done, the k1 is still faster. Since my husband files for me until I moved in, it only took me 6 month, 2 month later I was adjusting and after a month and a half I had my work permit and my travel permit in hand. The same day I got my driver license and 3 weeks later Iwas working. While most of my cr1 friends (who filed the same year) they were still waiting to get the visa while I was already working and married. But yes its a lil expensive if you adjust from a k1, and you need to wait for your GC, but at least I was here with my boo and the work permit combo card is a great tool so not having my gc yet was never an issue

[Frosty288 0]

Why are the B2 Options limited? If it makes a difference she will be interviewing in Malaysia, not in China.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Frosty288