EXPECTING A BABY SOON AND WANT TO GET MARRIED!

[Jaredvy 0]

Hello. I am an American living in Bangkok, Thailand with my girlfriend who is from the Philippines. I was married before and am divorced. My girlfriend was also married before and recently received the divorce decree by mail. In the Philippines, there is no divorce law, so she plans to get a petition of divorce of recognition. We are expecting the birth of our first child in a few months. I very much want us to get married before the baby is born. My family is worried that there will be a lot of red tape if we wait. Can we go ahead and get married now or will we have to wait? It is very important to me that my baby have my name. I just want to do these things in the right way. Please help and thank you in advance.

[lilsadie 50]

Hello,

Congrats on nearly having a baby!!

Are you able to stay with your fiancee for the next 8 months?

You have 2 options, you can file for a K1 (Fiancee visa) which depending on what state and a few other things takes anywhere from 3 months to 1 year or you can apply for a Marriage visa which from what I have been told is 1 year plus.

There will be more experienced members which will be able to give you more specific info.

Either visa will not allow your fiancee/Wife to come with you and wait while the visa is being processed. You are able to stay with your new family while it is pending (My partner did) but there is no way she and the baby are able to travel to stay for more than 90 days (VWP) while visa is being processed.

The K1 is quicker. For example, We filed in May and have our interview in 2 days so I will have my visa and be able to travel to the USA with in 3 months of applying. This is ridiculously fast though. I only had 11 days between sending my NOA1 and getting NOA2 (Not very common) I was processed at the California service center due to where my partner is from.

On the flip side, there are some people who are being processed through Texas who have been waiting 6+ months with no NOA2 yet.

We hired an attorney (which is not needed) to do our application for us and he suggested the K1 as we wanted to be processed quickly.

Where in the USA do you live? I believe where you are processed is dependent on where in the USA you live. This could give you a good indication of how long you may have to wait.

Good luck. I hope your baby arrives quickly and the Visa process is painless for you!

[Jaredvy 0]

Hello,

Congrats on nearly having a baby!!

Are you able to stay with your fiancee for the next 8 months?

You have 2 options, you can file for a K1 (Fiancee visa) which depending on what state and a few other things takes anywhere from 3 months to 1 year or you can apply for a Marriage visa which from what I have been told is 1 year plus.

There will be more experienced members which will be able to give you more specific info.

Either visa will not allow your fiancee/Wife to come with you and wait while the visa is being processed. You are able to stay with your new family while it is pending (My partner did) but there is no way she and the baby are able to travel to stay for more than 90 days (VWP) while visa is being processed.

The K1 is quicker. For example, We filed in May and have our interview in 2 days so I will have my visa and be able to travel to the USA with in 3 months of applying. This is ridiculously fast though. I only had 11 days between sending my NOA1 and getting NOA2 (Not very common) I was processed at the California service center due to where my partner is from.

On the flip side, there are some people who are being processed through Texas who have been waiting 6+ months with no NOA2 yet.

We hired an attorney (which is not needed) to do our application for us and he suggested the K1 as we wanted to be processed quickly.

Where in the USA do you live? I believe where you are processed is dependent on where in the USA you live. This could give you a good indication of how long you may have to wait.

Good luck. I hope your baby arrives quickly and the Visa process is painless for you!

Hello and thank you for your reply! Yes I am working in Bangkok, so I will definitely be with my fiancée, especially for the birth of our son. I am from North Carolina in the United States. I think that we will probably file a Marriage Visa, but we also like that the K1 is quicker. Since I am here with my fiancee, having to wait a little longer isn’t that big of a deal. It bothers me a little that my family hasn’t yet met my fiancée and they can”t wait to see the baby. I guess that these are things that I will have to deal with the best that I can.

Thank you again,

Jared

[dalidali 0]

Hello out there......

First off, if you two get married, the K-1 is out. You must file a I-130 for a spousal visa.

K-1 is for a fiancee and not a married couple.

Your fiancee is a Filipina, recently divorced/annnuled and has that decree in hand......was this decree granted from the Philippine justice system and her now X husband signed off on that annulment?

(annulment is interchangable with divorce, just that in the Philippines, it is termed annulment, rather than divorce)

If yes, that decree is already anointed as valid by the very fact the Philippine justice system granting it to her.

If there were any X spousal objections, then that annulment decree would never have been issued and the case would still be pending, until resolved.

Becareful here and verify, that indeed, the x husband signed off on that annulment decree.

Verify first, that your fiancee is 100% legally allowed to marry again....not according to Thailand, but with the Philippine authorities.

It is with Philippine documents, showing her full legal capacity to marry, (annulment decrees or the NSO signing off) that you will be submitting for her visa down the road.

The fact she is pregnant with your child has no bearing on any legality of her freedom to marry again.

That is strictly an emotional issue between you two.

You may need to do some leg work about the ability of two foreigners to marry in Thailand, and what documents are needed to consumate that.

Thailand may require you and her to have the proper stay visas, prior to marriage.

Or even better, to skirt the whole Thailand situation, you and her return to the Philippines and get married there.

Please don't take my word for this and do the research. Have your fiancee talk to the Philippine NSO and verify, if in fact a valid decree of annulment is all that is necessary to re-marry. Get a signed statement to that effect from the NSO if possible.

Best of luck for you both....(and all three of you soon)

Edited July 13, 2014 by dalidali