How soon can he safely travel outside the country with me?

[lilQueenP 15]

We finally got the visa! Nearly 3 years, but well worth the wait. Hubs is coming Jan 9 and I am meeting him in Miami to spend a week with family before coming to MN. There is a 2 day cruise to Bahamas that I'd like to take with him on the 11th. Is that going to work? Is there going to be an issue with his visa being so new and him just entering the US on the 9th?

[negative01 2]

A K-1 visa is only good for one entry in to the U.S. Once your fiancee enters the U.S. the K-1 is "used up" it is invalid after that. If he leaves the U.S. he won't be allowed back in and you'll have to reapply and do the whole thing over again. The only way a fiancee visa holder can leave and come back is after marriage and after applying for AOS, and only then by applying for advanced parole and getting that document approved which takes at least 2 months after you send it in.

[negative01 2]

After reading your timeline I'm a bit confused. Even though your profile says you applied for a K1 visa, it appears you really got a different visa in the end...IR/CR-1. I don't know the rules regarding that one so disregard my previous answer.

[Penguin_ie 5,994]

***** Moving from CR-1 spousal visa to Travelling During US immigration forum *****

Considering where you posted, and your timeline, I assume you are married and he is coming on the CR-1 visa. If so, he will get a stamp on the visa page of his passport upon entry that acts as a temporary greencard until the physical one arrives in the mail, and he can travel(and work) right away.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Penguin_ie

[lilQueenP 15]

We did a K1 first and it was denied, then got married and re-filed a CR1. Confusing, I know.

[NikLR 13,227]

Also you can change your profile too if you want.

But as he has a green card upon arrival he could turn around and leave right after POE if he wanted.

[MJBRJB 0]

Congrats. How long after the interview did it take to receive a response? And did you have to 'harass' them

[lilQueenP 15]

Well... CR-1 visa application was received by USCIS on June 26, 2013. Our interview date was October 8, 2014. We got stuck in that period when everything was taking way longer because of the whole fiasco with the illegals taking priority. Anyhow...

At our interview on Oct 8 they again said, "how do we know your wife is really dead?" We replied with, "how do you expect us to prove that when there was no body discovered?" We had valid death certificates (he had to re-do that after the first set were forgeries...we didn't know until our K-1 interview) which should have taken care of it.

So after seeing our distraught faces, and finding out that my husband had NOT just filed the death in March of 2013 (which would have been 3 years after the quake) but his cousin had filed the deaths in 2010 (my husband refused to stop looking for his wife and child until a couple of years later) but had gotten fake papers which was an extremely common scam going on at that time, the officer agreed to not close the case, but said their investigation would "take a long time."

Hubs and I started doing our own investigation. We collected names and phone numbers of people who knew about their relationship and could vouch for his first wife not having been seen after the quake. He happened to find business documentation for a business he had registered at the address where his wife was living at the time, giving support to that part of his story (they were separated at the time of her death). He also got insurance papers from his job showing that at the end of 2010 when he started there, he had put his nephew and a mutual friend of his and his wife on as beneficiaries. If his wife and son were alive, he would certainly have had at least his son on his insurance. The friend was on there with the understanding that if something happened to him and his wife and child were found, the friend would make sure the money got to them. Once he and I were married in March 2013, he immediately put me on the insurance. There is absolutely no indication that his job knew about his wife and child being out there somewhere.

Then we went to the town where his wife listed as her parents' home. She had told him she had no family, and that is not uncommon in Haiti, and he is also an orphan so there was no thought for him to push the matter. We got to the little town and met a really nice guy at a liquor store who remembered the father of hubs' first wife and confirmed he had died. In the middle of the conversation a couple of girls came by and the liquor store owner introduced the one who ended up being a granddaughter of the father of my husband's first wife. She confirmed that the first wife was an illegitimate child and so she never knew her or even knew about her, but it was common knowledge that her grandfather had a lot of kids with different women. My husband went back to that town several times after and met the father of the girl who would have been the half brother of the first wife of my husband. The brother allowed my husband to get his information and take a photo of his birth certificate proving that he was a half brother.

My husband also went to the church office where they had gotten married (the church they were married in was destroyed in the quake) and got a certificate showing the marriage and the name of the officiator.

We submitted all of this along with a long letter I helped him write telling his story. I told him that they have to see him as a human with real emotions and fears, or they will assume he was lying. He had to explain why 2 years after the quake he was still listing his status on his tourist visa application as "married" rather than "widowed." He explained in the letter that having been orphaned and later kicked out of his sister's house as a young teenager, the one thing he wanted in life was family and since he had not seen the bodies of his wife and son, he found that he was unable to let go of the hope that they were still alive. Not until he and I decided to make our own family was he able to move past, but the anniversary of the earthquake is still an extremely emotional time for him and probably always will be.

After this letter and supplemental evidence was brought to the embassy, it took them 2 days to call him and tell him to send his passport for the visa.

My advice is to keep at it. If you want this relationship, you have to be patient and push through. Don't sit back and wait. Give them more than enough evidence.

[lilQueenP 15]

BTW, I did update, and when I go in to edit it shows the CR-1, but here lists the K-1. So I'm not really concerned about it.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

In your profile you still have a K1 listed. That is what confused people . Your husband will be travelling outside the US on his passport from Haiti and will need a visa for any country he visits that require Haitians to have a visa. Check before you travel, it would be a bad thing not to be able to enjoy together.

[CBO 15]

I am so happy for you guys. Wow what an ordeal you guys had to go through. Wishing you the best