Starting this whole malarky

[ITLiam 0]

Hi Guys,

Just joined and looking at where to start this whole process. I am a Brit living in the UK. My girlfriend (and soon to be fiancee ) is an American and currently back over there but will come back with me after I visit next week. She will then stay in the UK till January - when she will return without me - with the intention of getting married this February, for which I will come over for a few weeks beforehand and then remain there.

My current plan is that she will submit the I-129F application ASAP and we will wait for that to return before filling in the K1 application from the UK. My worry is the time scale - is it too short a time for this whole process? My estimates put it at 5 months between initial application and my arrival in the country for the wedding. Am I able to enter the country before the K1 is returned or even if I am still waiting for the I-129F to return at that point?

Would really appreciate advice, this whole process is pretty intimidating. Takes some romance out of it all, but she's worth it and I'll fight for it

[Marco&Bettina 502]

Good luck. I like the use of the word "malarkey".

If you're gonna marry in Feb 2015, the K-1 is not for you. It will take longer than that date.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Marco&Bettina

[belinda63 3,053]

A few things to know. The time for the K-1 to be processed cannot be guessed. It might take 5 months, it might take one year. Thus the warning "Do not make any plans until you have the visa in your hand".

If you marry while the K-1 is processing you will have to start all over with the CR-1. The K-1 is for a fiancé to marry in the US, not for a spouse. The K-1 cannot be converted to another type of visa. If you marry the K-1 is not applicable to you and you will lose all the time and money invested.

[ITLiam 0]

Ok, what would you suggest? Open to anything here really!

[nitsirk7562 82]

Do you absolutely have to get married in February? Or can you wait until the K1 processes?

Ok, what would you suggest? Open to anything here really!

[ITLiam 0]

Do you absolutely have to get married in February? Or can you wait until the K1 processes?

We can wait but would really rather not do so. We'd love to be able to give dates for people in advance otherwise if we wait till it's processed then get married then, it would be too difficult getting many people over there for the wedding. Also working out things like jobs and being apart for longer would be tough.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We can wait but would really rather not do so. We'd love to be able to give dates for people in advance otherwise if we wait till it's processed then get married then, it would be too difficult getting many people over there for the wedding. Also working out things like jobs and being apart for longer would be tough.

To be frank, you're dreaming. Marry somebody from your country if you want to set a date now, not be apart, and set up a job right now.

K1 Immigration is--

Never knowing when the next step will happen

Being in the dark about what is happening at any given time

Spending time apart

Not being able to set a wedding date

Not being allowed to work or get a driver license for several months after entering the US. 3-4 at best.

Not being allowed to leave the US for several months after entering the US. 3-4 at best probably.

Costs $1680 + £290 (minimum fees) plus travel to London twice, moving, mailing, passport photos,

[yuna628 9,882]

We can wait but would really rather not do so. We'd love to be able to give dates for people in advance otherwise if we wait till it's processed then get married then, it would be too difficult getting many people over there for the wedding. Also working out things like jobs and being apart for longer would be tough.

Here's the thing, you know that once you are finally approved and good to go, you have the option of taking a stretch of time for planning before you even enter the country. But these sort of things really won't work like a traditional big planning event for a wedding, because you don't have the luxury of time, as once you enter the country you'll only have 90 days to seal the deal. If you're still aiming for a traditional type wedding, and you're having guests coming in -- you'll have to get creative. We have saved up money for our wedding for years, and will be making sacrifices as to location, and who is coming over. We've told everyone in advance how long the timeline might be and to be prepared to book. You most likely won't have the luxury of booking or reserving an event hall or having something super fancy. I have already spoken to the coordinator handling our wedding and willing to work with us to get a gauge on prices and how it will be done. I've narrowed a list for photographers, and will be getting my gown ahead of time. We don't need anything fancy, and unfortunately not everyone will be able to come -- they will have to understand that there's rules and nothing we can do about it. He still works and will continue to keep working until we are all set and he's got his visa. Once he comes here, he won't be able to work until he is authorized to do so, and with the job market as it is -- be prepared for realistic expectations. You cannot give a date until you are authorized to do so. There's no real way around it.

You could file a K1, wait patiently, and once approved have a courthouse wedding, and then invite everyone in for a big planned wedding at a later date.

You could file a K1, wait patiently, and juggle everything carefully as we're doing.

You could go through the hassle of the UK process for getting married in the UK (if under the new rules you even earn enough), and still end up being separated for a period of time as you go through the legal process of her now bringing you classed as spouse here.

You could come to the US visiting, be completely truthful to the IO (never lie) in wanting to marry your fiancé, marry, and then return home. In the off chance they actually allow you to do so (you'd be taking chances there), you will still end up separated and having to wait until the legal process is complete.

In any of these cases, you can expect waiting times and fuss. Being apart is never easy, but the things we do for love, yes?

[dsldesch 27]

We can wait but would really rather not do so. We'd love to be able to give dates for people in advance otherwise if we wait till it's processed then get married then, it would be too difficult getting many people over there for the wedding. Also working out things like jobs and being apart for longer would be tough.

My fiance and I want a wedding with all our family and friends at it, too, so we plan to "get married" in two steps: When he arrives in the US, we're going to be legally married, probably in a courthouse with few guests in attendance (mostly my immediate family who've given us an ultimatum that we're not allowed to marry without them), and then afterwards, we're going to save up and have a larger ceremony at our synagogue. If you do something similar, the K1 should still work for you, and you'll have the added benefit of being able to make all your wedding arrangements together. In our case, since a same-sex Jewish wedding isn't legal in the state where I live, it's a strong possibility that our wedding ceremony will simply be for religious purposes, but as I said, by then we'll already be legall married so that won't matter as much. (If nothing else, it'll give us even more pictures/evidence for ROC down the line, so that's good, too.)

If there's a specific reason why you want to get married in February, you could even hold off your larger ceremony until the next year so you can have it on the desired date, but you'd still most likely need to obtain a legal marriage before then, too.

[Glyn and Kathy 288]

.

You could come to the US visiting, be completely truthful to the IO (never lie) in wanting to marry your fiancé, marry, and then return home. In the off chance they actually allow you to do so (you'd be taking chances there), you will still end up separated and having to wait until the legal process is complete.

People do this ALL the time. As long as your completely honest and show ties that you'll be going back to the UK after the wedding its no big deal and not really taking chances. My husband did this, as do many many people. Then you would file for a CR1, which still takes quite awhile, but you could still visit during the process. The plus side of the CR1 is as soon as you arrive in the US, you are eligible to work, get a driver's license, travel, etc. I believe in the long run, its also less expensive.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

[ITLiam 0]

Thank you for all your help guys, this is really invaluable!

We wouldn't really want to be separated after getting married so hopefully we can work round that. We were speaking this morning and I think we can budge on the big ceremony being tied in which really is a lot of hassle with save-the-dates and shipping the family over etc.

Our 2 options seem to be:

1) Start applying for the KS1 path now and she goes back in January and I wait for it to come back, however long that will be before going over and marrying her.

2) We get legally married while she is over in the UK and we then go straight for the CR1. Can I then go straight over there while waiting for that to be processed?

Thank you, this is really helpful.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thank you for all your help guys, this is really invaluable!

We wouldn't really want to be separated after getting married so hopefully we can work round that. We were speaking this morning and I think we can budge on the big ceremony being tied in which really is a lot of hassle with save-the-dates and shipping the family over etc.

Our 2 options seem to be:

1) Start applying for the KS1 path now and she goes back in January and I wait for it to come back, however long that will be before going over and marrying her.

2) We get legally married while she is over in the UK and we then go straight for the CR1. Can I then go straight over there while waiting for that to be processed?

Thank you, this is really helpful.

You can VISIT on VWP until you are issued either visa (as long as the CBP lets you in). Go too often, for too long and you can get turned around and sent back home. There is no MOVING over to the US until you get a visa...either spouse or fiancé.

K1 info--

Flowchart of the steps. You can't really go by the estimated times given. http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

Processing times on this page based on members timelines. http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical

Just look at how the graphs go up and down. You might get a fast petition processing center and it all suddenly changes by your time.

London is averaging around 65 days from when they get the case, but it was 100 days in the spring. You don't know what it will be when you get to that step. A swing of a month or three on any given step (petition, NVC, London) could ruin a planned wedding is why people say to wait on setting a date. The most often asked question on here is probably "how long" and it is impossible to pinpoint accurately.

Here are the graphs for CR1 processing. http://www.visajourney.com/content/ir1cr1historical

You'll notice the NVC time is months, where a K1 case is there about a week.

And remember these graphs are only as good as the people who fill out timelines and keep them up.

[nitsirk7562 82]

My fiancé and I chose K-1 because, like you, we didn't want to be married and living apart. It just didn't sit well with us. K-1 moves slightly faster as well (in theory). We are having a legal ceremony when he gets here (probably December-January), then throwing a big bash in May. It's not ideal, but it's the nature of the process. Trying to coordinate only one wedding (if it's "traditional") is near impossible. I tried! It made my anxiety flair up so bad I had to stop. Venues booked up, no photographers, ugh! It was a nightmare.

CR-1 does have the benefit of being able to work. If you prepare in advance, though, not working for a few months can be managed. Did anyone mention sponsorship on here? I didn't see. Make sure your fiancée makes enough money to sponsor you! To support 2 people, I the number is $19,622 per year. (seen here http://www.usavisanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/i-864p-2014.pdf)

In the end, neither option is ideal, but do what's best for you and your fiancée. This is just a speed bump on your way to being together And you always have everyone here suffering through the process too! Best of luck.

[charlottelizabeth 11]

My husband (then fiance) and I went into the K-1 process with a 6 month time frame maybe. Boy, we were horrendously mistaken! Through no fault of our own, the processing centres slowed almost to a halt after we filed (around when the DACA law passed).. It took us just OVER A YEAR to receive the K-1 visa. Having said that, I do know others who got theirs in under 6 months.. So, I wish you luck, but it's something you just simply cannot predict!

[ITLiam 0]

You can VISIT on VWP until you are issued either visa (as long as the CBP lets you in). Go too often, for too long and you can get turned around and sent back home. There is no MOVING over to the US until you get a visa...either spouse or fiancé.

K1 info--

Flowchart of the steps. You can't really go by the estimated times given. http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

Processing times on this page based on members timelines. http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical

Just look at how the graphs go up and down. You might get a fast petition processing center and it all suddenly changes by your time.

London is averaging around 65 days from when they get the case, but it was 100 days in the spring. You don't know what it will be when you get to that step. A swing of a month or three on any given step (petition, NVC, London) could ruin a planned wedding is why people say to wait on setting a date. The most often asked question on here is probably "how long" and it is impossible to pinpoint accurately.

Here are the graphs for CR1 processing. http://www.visajourney.com/content/ir1cr1historical

You'll notice the NVC time is months, where a K1 case is there about a week.

And remember these graphs are only as good as the people who fill out timelines and keep them up.

Thank you that's helpful. Time frames always vary of course but it is good to have some kind of idea and not be shocked and discouraged when thye are longer than hoped for.

My fiancé and I chose K-1 because, like you, we didn't want to be married and living apart. It just didn't sit well with us. K-1 moves slightly faster as well (in theory). We are having a legal ceremony when he gets here (probably December-January), then throwing a big bash in May. It's not ideal, but it's the nature of the process. Trying to coordinate only one wedding (if it's "traditional") is near impossible. I tried! It made my anxiety flair up so bad I had to stop. Venues booked up, no photographers, ugh! It was a nightmare.

CR-1 does have the benefit of being able to work. If you prepare in advance, though, not working for a few months can be managed. Did anyone mention sponsorship on here? I didn't see. Make sure your fiancée makes enough money to sponsor you! To support 2 people, I the number is $19,622 per year. (seen here http://www.usavisanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/i-864p-2014.pdf)

In the end, neither option is ideal, but do what's best for you and your fiancée. This is just a speed bump on your way to being together And you always have everyone here suffering through the process too! Best of luck.

I think this is what we'd do. If we did the K-1 and I moved there to marry her legally within the first week, and then immediately applied for AOS, AP and EAD, any ideas how long it would take to start working?

Good point with the sponsorship - would that be before being married or after and waiting for news on being able to work? We are very fortunate in that we both have good jobs and are both over that amount at our current places. I'm in a well needed area so can pick up work fairly easily (I say that hopefully ha)

My husband (then fiance) and I went into the K-1 process with a 6 month time frame maybe. Boy, we were horrendously mistaken! Through no fault of our own, the processing centres slowed almost to a halt after we filed (around when the DACA law passed).. It took us just OVER A YEAR to receive the K-1 visa. Having said that, I do know others who got theirs in under 6 months.. So, I wish you luck, but it's something you just simply cannot predict!

Ouch that's long! We are about to be reunited on Monday after 3 months apart and that was hard, even with Skyping every day. How did you manage the time apart?

This is a really helpful forum, being in the unknown about where to go, time scales and seeming lack of success at every turn is discouraging but this does give me fresh perspective and help put together a plan of action. Thank you again everyone! We'll get the I-129F sent out for ASAP.