Engagement Visa or just get married?!

[scottyent 0]

Hi all,

I was hoping you would be able to give me some advice! This is my first post on here but it seems like it's a great resource for visa information, and in there area my fiancé and I are quite confused.

My fiancé and I have been together four 4 years now, and I proposed to her last month and she said yes! She is here on a J-1 visa working as an intern, and we hadn't exactly planned how we would handle it once her visa would end...but we were hoping she would get a work extension. Then I proposed last month, so now we know that at least we will get married so that she can stay....however the timing is proving to be quite an issue.

We planned our wedding for July. Her J-1 technically ends May 20th, so we were hoping to do the K-1, she goes back to her country to get it, and comes back in time for the wedding. But upon doing our research, we learned that the process can take quite a long time, and the forms cost quite a bit of money. Mostly we are worried about timing, and that it won't work out to make the wedding. Naturally we don't want to risk that after putting the money down for the wedding etc.

So we have a choice, either try and move the wedding up before May 20th, or try the engagement visa and hope for the best in terms of timing.

What do you all think? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Scott

[Mariana M. 18]

Hello,

I'm honestly not sure if you can just get married, I can't answer that.

But one thing came to my mind: isn't she under the 2 year rule?

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/study-exchange/student/residency-waiver.html

Good luck!

[valverdeveslings 10]

If you are in Nevada, you would be with the California Service Center and your process could actually be very fast. What country is your fiancée from? That impacts the timing too. Ours was I-129F sent to visa in hand in just over 4 months, so it's possible!

[scottyent 0]

Thanks for the feedback!

She doesn't have the 2 year requirement because her job is not funded by the government, and it isn't an internship so that she can't get more skills and bring them back to her home country.

We are thinking probably just get the marriage done on paper before her visa ends, that way we won't have to pay for the flights back and forth and everything, and it will take a lot of stress of being uncertain about timing.

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from K1 Process to What Visa Do I Need Forum~

~Inquiry about family visas~

[inloveVEN 46]

In my opinion, Fiance visa, is only made with the main proposal to bring a fiance ( as non-imigrant) to the US and then adjust estatus to start the process. In your case she is in the US. So if your want to get marry, it is better to bring the wedding date as soos as a way that she wont stay ilegal and star the process., because once it happens she wont be able to apply for an IR1/cr1 and probably she will need to leave the country and start a process overseas.

Edited October 14, 2014 by inloveVEN

[d3adc0d3 186]

First thing, Congratulations!

Immigration fraud occurs when a non-citizen enters the US legally with a non-immigration visa, with the intent to immigrate. Your fiance entered on a student visa, and is in the process of graduating! This shows that she did not intend to immigrate!

If you can show that you two have no previous ties back to each other in her home country, I would say get married before she leaves, and adjust her status. It's not that uncommon! If you do, I would suggest you contact an immigration lawyer to get legal advice, on how strong your case is to adjust her status if you do so and what evidence you'd need to gather.

The K1 visa will require her to leave the US after her J1 expires, and wait in her home country while it processes. The petition approval can take 5-8 months. Some see it sooner. This does not count the embassy stage, which can take even longer. Many will have their love back in their arms via the K1 in 8-12 months, in addition with the K1 visa costs about $420 (I think) just to apply, then the visa fee at the embassy ($205 I think). Your fiance will get given a Conditional Green Card (CGC) which is valid for 2 years, and you'll have to apply for a Removal of Conditions (RoC) prior to the 2 years ($590).

You may still get a 2 year CGC if you get married on the J1, and RoC, but you won't have to pay the other fees.

Good Luck!

Edited October 14, 2014 by d3adc0d3

[jxn 86]

Thanks for the feedback!

She doesn't have the 2 year requirement because her job is not funded by the government, and it isn't an internship so that she can't get more skills and bring them back to her home country.

We are thinking probably just get the marriage done on paper before her visa ends, that way we won't have to pay for the flights back and forth and everything, and it will take a lot of stress of being uncertain about timing.

Am I mistaken in thinking that if you are adjusting from a J-1 you need an advisory opinion letter from DHS confirming that the two-year rule does not apply to the future petitioner? My wife is adjusting from a J-1 and we knew from the get-go that no government funding was involved by either the U.S. or her country, but we still needed that letter to move forward.

[d3adc0d3 186]

Am I mistaken in thinking that if you are adjusting from a J-1 you need an advisory opinion letter from DHS confirming that the two-year rule does not apply to the future petitioner? My wife is adjusting from a J-1 and we knew from the get-go that no government funding was involved by either the U.S. or her country, but we still needed that letter to move forward.

To add to this, I found this:

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87378.pdf

[Mariana M. 18]

First thing, Congratulations!

Immigration fraud occurs when a non-citizen enters the US legally with a non-immigration visa, with the intent to immigrate. Your fiance entered on a student visa, and is in the process of graduating! This shows that she did not intend to immigrate!

If you can show that you two have no previous ties back to each other in her home country, I would say get married before she leaves, and adjust her status. It's not that uncommon! If you do, I would suggest you contact an immigration lawyer to get legal advice, on how strong your case is to adjust her status if you do so and what evidence you'd need to gather.

The K1 visa will require her to leave the US after her J1 expires, and wait in her home country while it processes. The petition approval can take 5-8 months. Some see it sooner. This does not count the embassy stage, which can take even longer. Many will have their love back in their arms via the K1 in 8-12 months, in addition with the K1 visa costs about $420 (I think) just to apply, then the visa fee at the embassy ($205 I think). Your fiance will get given a Conditional Green Card (CGC) which is valid for 2 years, and you'll have to apply for a Removal of Conditions (RoC) prior to the 2 years ($590).

You may still get a 2 year CGC if you get married on the J1, and RoC, but you won't have to pay the other fees.

Good Luck!

The petition actually costs $340. The visa fee is $265. Medical is around $200. AOS (right after getting married) $1070.

[needsmorebutter 5]

The hubby and I met at college, and we got married in the states at the end of my OPT period so that I could adjust my status from F-1. Since we already had a shared lease and a life together in the States, it made a lot more sense for us.

If you end up choosing the marriage/adjustment route over the K1 route, you don't necessarily have to change your wedding date. You could have a civil ceremony performed at city hall with just the two of you (and a couple of other witnesses, if you want) to get the paperwork side done, and then use your original date to throw your wedding "party." That's what we ended up doing: since neither of us are religious, we were going to have a civil ceremony anyway, so it was all the same to us. This approach also had the added benefit of separating the immigration paperwork headache from the wedding planning headache too!

[scottyent 0]

The hubby and I met at college, and we got married in the states at the end of my OPT period so that I could adjust my status from F-1. Since we already had a shared lease and a life together in the States, it made a lot more sense for us.

If you end up choosing the marriage/adjustment route over the K1 route, you don't necessarily have to change your wedding date. You could have a civil ceremony performed at city hall with just the two of you (and a couple of other witnesses, if you want) to get the paperwork side done, and then use your original date to throw your wedding "party." That's what we ended up doing: since neither of us are religious, we were going to have a civil ceremony anyway, so it was all the same to us. This approach also had the added benefit of separating the immigration paperwork headache from the wedding planning headache too!

I like this idea the most! I think that is what we will end up doing. We have gotten conflicting information from a bunch of sources regarding transferring J-1 to permanent resident, but then we also asked around a lot of our friends and found at least 6 couples that did just that without any problem whatsoever. So apparently it's relatively common.

We don't want to go through the fees and the time pressure of a k-1 as it will just be more stress, more uncertainty, and more fees. We will probably end up doing the civil ceremony a bit early, then throwing the wedding party as we have it planned for July.

Thank you everyone for all the information, I apologize I haven't been more communicative. It's all been really overwhelming, and we are both just kind of trying to process this while at the same time plan our wedding and figure out visa paperwork.

[jxn 86]

Regardless of what you do, get the two-year rule advisory opinion letter confirming that the rule doesn't apply to you. My wife and I did it when we were engaged.

[d3adc0d3 186]

The petition actually costs $340. The visa fee is $265. Medical is around $200. AOS (right after getting married) $1070.

Thanks, they changed the fees since I went through the process and the website was vague when I looked it up. Heh.