Currently Living In China: K-1 vs DCF

[nialresu 1]

Hey all! I'm sitting here with my fiancée trying to work out which immigration route we want to take: get married in China and then DCF an I130, or apply for a K-1 visa. We're currently cohabitating together in China, I've been working here for the past two and a half years.

I've got some specific questions I was hoping you guys could shed light on, I've been doing research for two weeks and there are still some things I can't get straight:

1. Is it necessary to live in America while applying for the K-1 visa? Please note, I have already secured my father as a co-sponsor. I've been filing taxes while working abroad here in China anyway. Have any of you successfully applied for a K-1 Visa while living abroad in China?
2. If we chose to go the DCF route instead of the K-1 visa route, then how suspicious is it if we were to get married in China without a ceremony and do the DCF like two weeks later? We've been together for the past two and a half years and have photo evidence to prove it (us together, us together with her family, etc..) but we're worried that the consulate would suspect fraud if we were to just apply right after we get married in China. (By the way, we aren't planning on having any sort of ceremony yet, just get the marriage license)
3. Regarding supporting evidence: would it be good to include my contracts as evidence of my presence in China? What about affidavits from my employers stating the nature and duration of my work in China? What about affidavits from coworkers on the nature of our cohabitation together? Or affidavits from security guards for our building?

Thanks a bunch, guys and gals!

-Jake

[j&ana 363]

I will do the DCF if I were you as it is much faster then the K-1 visa. It sounds like you have everything to qualify for DCF. I do not think the ceremony will be a problem a lot of people only have a simple wedding. My wife and I had a simple wedding at her parents house in the Philippines.

you might search on this site in the DCF forum and the regional forum(china) part

[Pitaya 2,576]

Welcome to the forum.

If you are able to meet the requirements, do DCF.

Become acquainted with the marriage laws of the PRC. Check out the instructions of the US embassy/consulate servicing your location in the PRC.

Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/dcf

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/petition/file/filing-immigrant-petitions-outside-the-u-s.html

http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/china-beijing-field-office

http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/china-guangzhou-field-office

http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/information_about_getting_married_in_china2.html

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[Darnell 8,478]

0.1 - Administrivia - set your profile for China, this post will pop up in the China Portal - and the China members here will easily see it and think to respond to you.

1.0 No. I-129F? Doesn't Matter. K-1 visa with DS-160? That's the beneficiary document. Sticky Bits? I-134, affadavit of support. If you have no USA Income or assets in USA bank over 60K USD to show ON INTERVIEW DAY to a Vice-Consul during the interview, well, you'll need a co-sponser.

1.1 I think it's a waste of time, if time is important to you, as is possible 2 to 5 month gap between 'NVC out' and 'GUZ IV Receive' timeticks, as the casefile sent from NVC, a unit of the DoS, will sit in a China Customs warehouse, per treaty, for 1 to 3 months - then there's scheduling and further background checks.

1.2 Suggest you chase DCF. You two can be in and out of USCIS/DoS in China in under 4 months after filing DCF'd I-130, having interview and visa in hand. USCIS in USA is about to be swamped with over 1.5 million applications for deferred adjudication for illegal aliens starting in January, you don't want to play in the USCIS USA queue at all. No way, and no how.

2.0 - None at all, as you'll be slinging PROOF of stuff in with the I-130 submittal into USCIS Guangzhou or BeiJing. See the 6 types of proof listed in the instructions. Yes, even prior to marriage date, this proof can not only be substantial, but it is important since you two have been cohabitating.

2.1 - My best guess is that 1/3rd of DCF filers file after 2 weeks of marriage in China, based solely on what I've read here at VJ over the 5 years that I've been a member.

2.2 - I-864 - study it if you two actually marry, knowing your father will be filling and filing one as well.

3.0 Supporting evidence of your legal presence in China? Absolutely, as a tourist visa won't cut it. You'll need to show the work visa, at a minimum, and a copy of the work contract is meaningful. Multiple work visas, multiple work contracts, if that applies. Photocopies are sufficient, not need to submit originals.

3.1 Affidfavits, per se, are not useful if the duration and term of the current work contract keeps you in China and the dates in the prior work contracts match up with the working visas you've received.

3.2 Affidavits of and on and cohabitation might be useful, if you have no bills in both names, no lease in both names, no mail addressed to both names, over the duration of the cohabitation prior to marriage.

Sorry for my numbering system - I usually write technical docs this way, and somehow, I'm in 'that mode' at the moment.

Hey all! I'm sitting here with my fiancée trying to work out which immigration route we want to take: get married in China and then DCF an I130, or apply for a K-1 visa. We're currently cohabitating together in China, I've been working here for the past two and a half years.

I've got some specific questions I was hoping you guys could shed light on, I've been doing research for two weeks and there are still some things I can't get straight:

1. Is it necessary to live in America while applying for the K-1 visa? Please note, I have already secured my father as a co-sponsor. I've been filing taxes while working abroad here in China anyway. Have any of you successfully applied for a K-1 Visa while living abroad in China?
2. If we chose to go the DCF route instead of the K-1 visa route, then how suspicious is it if we were to get married in China without a ceremony and do the DCF like two weeks later? We've been together for the past two and a half years and have photo evidence to prove it (us together, us together with her family, etc..) but we're worried that the consulate would suspect fraud if we were to just apply right after we get married in China. (By the way, we aren't planning on having any sort of ceremony yet, just get the marriage license)
3. Regarding supporting evidence: would it be good to include my contracts as evidence of my presence in China? What about affidavits from my employers stating the nature and duration of my work in China? What about affidavits from coworkers on the nature of our cohabitation together? Or affidavits from security guards for our building?

Thanks a bunch, guys and gals!

-Jake

Edited December 22, 2014 by Darnell

[Darnell 8,478]

sorry - forgot 1 thing - supporting evidence of legal residency not matter when chasing a K-1 visa. CR-1 visa, absolutely needed when chasing DCF.

[nialresu 1]

Thanks a ton, everybody! I definitely qualify for DCF in China, I've been here on a Residence Permit (the Chinese document necesary for establishing legal residency here) for over 2.5 years. I'm worried that the evidence I have is insufficient because we really haven't traveled much together and don't have a record of joint bank accounts (which I don't think is even possible) or anything like that. Really, we've been living together for over two years and have tons of photographic evidence with a wide range of people in the photos...

[bigdata 0]

I feel for you brother, I was in the same boat. I was living in Shanghai and lived with my girl for over a year while working in China. I would recommend moving on one or the other immediately. It takes time and our government does not care how painful this process is going to be on you or her. It was extremely painful for us being apart when I went back home while she was denied her traveling visa. I cannot give you advice on the DCF as I only know the ins and outs of the K1 visa.

1. It is not necessary for you to live in the US to file the K-1. Fill out the forms (don't waste time with a service, IMHO), everything is relatively straight forward and easy enough to figure out, gather the papers and mail it to the lockbox in Texas ASAP. I got my NOA1 in 4 days and then got my NOA2 in a few months after that.

2. In my opinion it doesn't matter to them anyway, when Julia did her interview in Guangzhou she told them that I had been living in Shanghai with her for the past 18 months, showed them my passport with my work permit and 3 or 4 visa's (I was waiting outside at the Starbucks) they pretty much rubber stamped everything after that point. She also had some serious OCD and carried in like 30 lbs of documentation proof (that they never even looked at), pictures and 6880 screen shots of iMessages and wechats (like I said OCD!)

3. I would recommend that you get every single piece of supporting evidence that you can get and put it into the pile. The more you have and the more she carries in the door with her, the better she is going to look when she walks up to the window.

When your girl has her interview here are the questions that they asked Julia last week on 12/15/2014:

1. What is your fiances name?

2. How old is he?

3. How old are you?

4. Do you think the age is a problem? (She is 26 I am 43) She said not for me.

5. How many kids does he have?

6. How did you meet? She said that we were room mates, then the guy asked How did you become room mates? (I rented a room from her)

7. Do you guy fight a lot? She said we do fight but not a lot (This was kind of a tricky question IMHO)

8. What does he do for work?

9. What are his hobbies? She said a munch of stuff but he keyed on "reading", when he asked her what book I was reading, she told him about a book that I read and gave to her called "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel, I guess this clinched it. The fact that she knew what I was reading was very powerful.

10. Do I still work in Shanghai?

11. How long did we live together?

12. When did I propose?

13. Do I have a job in the USA?

14. How much is my income in the USA?

15. What she likes about me?

I hope this helps bud, if you are apart like we were I would recommend using Wechat video. We lived on Wechat video. I would drive home from work talking with her, we would go to sleep with Wechat video on, we would work, eat, watch TV (I broadcast Living Dead over Wechat for her to watch) all for free. It made our relationship stronger I believe, we both put a ton of effort into making it work, and now I am typing this sitting in our place in Shanghai. We are going to go home to California when she gets her passport (hopefully this week) and get married immediately.

Chad and Julia