US Citizen - Married to Vietnamese National - K1 Cancelled - Spousal Visa

[jaymel22 0]

Hello Everybody,

I am a long time reader of this site and the message boards. It really helped me a few years ago when I went through the K-1 visa process. I tried to find a situation on the forum that was similar to my situation but couldn't find anything too close. Here is my situation and thanks in advance for any advice!

My current wife is a Vietnamese national. We met 5 years ago and successfully applied for a K-1 visa back in 2013. We married in the US within a month of her arrival but then I got an offer to relocate to Hong Kong to work in our regional office. I work for a US corporation and my pay checks go to my US bank. Since she left the US to join me in Hong Kong, her K-1 visa was "Cancelled without Prejudice" but she could not go through the naturalization process because she was not living on US soil. So we have been happily married for the past 2.5 years living in Hong Kong. We are both residents of Hong Kong and both work. My relocation in Hong Kong will end at the beginning of 2018 and we will move back to the US. I plan on working with the same company in the US but will move and live in the US.

My question for the forum is, what is the best way for us to move back to the US together on a spousal visa? Can we begin the filing process 8-10 months before I am scheduled to relocate back to the US so that she can join me? Is it possible to apply for the visa when we are both not currently living in the US? We are looking for the best way where we don't have to spend time apart and can both move to the US together on January 1, 2018. Any advice or experience that you can share will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Jason

[NikLR 13,234]

You can begin anytime you want. Since you can take as much time as you need at the NVC stage (up tp a year between contacts) I suggest filing sooner vs later so you have more control over your case and timeframe.

[jaymel22 0]

Thanks for the response NLR. I didn't know we can start early. Maybe we will submit it ASAP and not have to worry about the timeline as much. Thanks again!

[NikLR 13,234]

You're welcome. Its so much easier to go through this process when you have time vs trying to rush to get it done.