K-1 and F-1 Visa Combo

[Jessica&Luiz 0]

Hello everyone! I've been spending a lot of time looking up information on this and have no been very successful thus far. My fiance is looking to study in the US next year (Fall 2014-Spring 2015) and we were planning on having a long engagement and getting married in the second half of 2015. Since he would be getting a student visa (F-1) visa in order to study at a university for a year I was wondering how it would work or if it would work for him to apply for a K-1 fiance visa while in the USA. I know that visas are meant to allow entry into the country and therefore if he has one technically he wouldn't need another but since we plan on getting married and living in the US permanently I don't want to take any chances on him not getting permanent residency by not getting a fiance visa as I have heard stories about getting married on other visas and the fiance being denied residency.

As a little bit of background, we have known each other almost 3 year and been a couple for almost as long. I have been living for the last 1.5 years in Brazil with him and before that we were in a long distance relationship for 1 year and saw each other once at the 6 month mark. We have been talking about marriage for a long time since it seems right and we are best friends, in a relationship, and love each other so much. When you know you know, right?

So I'm asking for help here. I'm sorry if there have been other threads that have answered this question but since we are getting ready for him to apply for his student visa I wanted to hopefully get my questions answered quickly so that we can decide how to proceed from here.

Thanks in advance!!

[mtcmk1 37]

Not an ezpert, but I think in this case, I would just marry in the US and then adjust status... Without going through the K1 visa.. Hope someone with more knowledge on the subject can help you! Good luck!! :-)

[SparklePony 238]

I would suggest the same, get married and apply for Adjustment of Status. I would think you're not committing immigration fraud as he would really be studying there, so his study intentions are real. Besides, if you apply for a fiance visa, he would have to return home for the embassy interview. Might as well skip that part, I would think.

[Jessica&Luiz 0]

Thank you both for your quick replies! What we are worried about with him entering on a student visa is that even though we would be getting married at the very end of it (since we don't plan on marrying until the spring-we would really like to have a longer engagement if possible), we don't want to have them charge him with fraud. Will this be an issue? If so he wants to get a K-1 visa so that there is no issue but one reason for him wanting to study in the US is so that we don't have to be long distance again (while he waits for the K-1 to be processed) after living together for two years. We just aren't sure how to go about doing this since it is not just a normal case of applying for one visa or the other.

[SparklePony 238]

Speaking as a non-expert in immigration law, I think what is important to consider is Intent. Immigration Fraud occurs when you apply for one visa meant for one thing, when your intent is another. So, if he was to apply for a student visa when his real intent was to marry and stay, then that would be fraud. But he is applying for a student visa that he will use, regardless of whether he was in a relationship with you or not, so his intent really is to study.

Now, one thing that USCIS might frown on is the evidence of your relationship existing before he entered on his student visa. In that case, I suppose a case of fraud could possibly be made.

I guess this isn't helping much, but just giving you more to think on.