In doubt between the K1 and K3 choices!

[Iviez 0]

Good evening everyone!

I'd like you to help me choose which visa would be better for us, so I'll explain our situation.

My fiance and I have been together since 2010. I live in Brazil, he lives in the USA. We see eachother once or twice/year for at least 1 month each trip.

We have been working on the paperwork for the K1 visa, and we have pretty much everything except a couple forms that I found out that have to be sign by ink (DOH!) and I still have to send it to him. BUT the tricky part is:

I want to start living with him ASAP. I'm graduating college here in Brazil in 2 months (YAY), and I've been looking at the K1 timeline. Apparently I'm going to have to wait around 7 months here in Brazil before I can travel and start living with him for good. While the K3 visa, says that after you get married, you don't have to go back to your home country and I could be with my fiance by the beginning of the next year after my graduation. I would travel on my visitors visa, which has a 3 months limit stay, get married within the first month, and start the K3 paperwork. Honestly, once I'm there, I don't mind how long it takes to get my citizenship/naturalization or whatever, all I really care is that I would be able to apply to start working in ~ 90 days (which you can do on both K1 and K3).

So, if I want to be with my fiance as soon as possible, which one should I choose? and why one not the other?

Thank you all in advance and I thank this forum in general for all the helpful information!

[Elf 146]

- Duplicate topic removed, and topic moved from K3 Process & Procedure to What Visa Do I Need -

- OP is still deciding between fiance and spousal visa paths -

[k_stacky 65]

K-1 I believe is faster because you can start fiing now, but both options are unpredictable.

7 months I assume is the average, but it could be more or it could be less depending on how your case is processed and in some ways circumstantial luck. There have been people who wait over a year for both types of applications or there have been people who only wait three months, etc. For the most part, you can't bypass or expedite the process and no matter what the timelines say you cannot control how long your case will take, and trying to predict it is going to make this process a lot more stressful and emotionally taxing.

[Hypnos 6,576]

K-3s are very rarely granted anymore due to the faster processing times of CR-1 immigrant visas. If you remain unmarried you would be applying for a K-1; if you got married you would instead be filing for a CR-1.

[Iviez 0]

I think I got it...so K1 it is. Thank you all.