Fiancé and I have a child together. Should we do the K1 or K3 visa?

[NatalieRose 24]

Okay, I need advice. My fiancé and I have known each other for 2+ years and we’ve been dating since March 2018. We live in Cambodia together and I’ve been here since September 2016 (that’s when I met him.) We were working at the same school here. Well he proposed to me in June and I accepted but we didn’t tell anyone about the proposal because we had only been dating for a few months. Then in August, we got pregnant. I’m now 16 weeks. He proposed again in November and that’s when we made the engagement public. Well I want to have the baby in the US. I plan to go in mid March and return to Cambodia in mid July with my child. But I want my fiancé to come with me for the birth of the child. We want to apply for a tourist visa so he can come with me for four months, and then we will return together. The difficult part is proving that we intend to return. I have a contract from my school, we will have return plane tickets, but he is a self employed tuk tuk driver and doesn’t have any savings. My parents will be paying for our trip. I’ve also applied for a fiancé visa for another Cambodian man in 2017, but we ended that relationship and I withdre my application for his visa. I’m worried all these things will affect us. Any advice or wisdom?? 

[NatalieRose 24]

My fiancé and I are expecting our first child. I’m 16 weeks. We are planning on applying to immigrate the the US after our child in born in 2019. I am a US citizen and our child will have a SSN and be a US citizen as well. My question is, which is better, K1 or K3? We aren’t sure if we should get married here in Cambodia first or wait to get married in America. I have been living in Cambodia since September 2016. We want to go to the US for medical reasons and for safety concerns for our child as well as to be close to my family. I applied for a fiancé visa for another man in 2017. We got all the way to the embassy and then I ended the engagement before the interview date was set and I withdrew my application for the US embassy here. I’m sure that will affect us. But which is wiser, fiancé or spouse visa in our case? 

[Lemonslice 4,553]

Your other thread makes it sound like you want to live in the US.  I think you should decide what is your end goal and work from there.  If it were me, I would marry now and apply for a spouse visa (CR1); but read the guides and see what will work best for you and your family.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Lemonslice

[TM92 527]

36 minutes ago, NatalieRose said:

We want to apply for a tourist visa so he can come with me for four months, and then we will return together.

Generally, COs no longer accept proof of financial support, I-134, for tourist trips; he can still have an I-134, just in case. The COs will also see his lack of strong ties to Cambodia as a negative for a tourist visa. If you don't mind potentially losing $160, then give it a shot.

 

Just a FYI: If he is ultimately successful in getting the tourist visa, then you can marry during his visit, if you want. Then you submit an I-130 and he returns to Cambodia to wait for the better CR-1 process. See thread below:

Good luck!

Edited November 25, 2018 by TM92

[geowrian 22,335]

* Moved from K-1 P&P to What Visa Do I Need due to the OP asking about visa options *

 

K-3 is obsolete. It would be a CR-1 for a spouse instead.

 

Personally I'd go with the CR-1. The only advantage of a K-1 in your case is being a few months faster.

Edited November 25, 2018 by geowrian

[Ryan H 3,790]

~~~Similar topics merged~~~

Edited November 25, 2018 by Ryan H

[geowrian 22,335]

He is free to apply. Nothing to lose but the $160 fee + some time.

 

That said, he has multiple negative factors likely to affect the decision:

1. Engaged to a USC.
2. Purpose of the visit (increases chances that you would want to just stay after birth and apply for AOS).
3. Inability to pay for the trip himself.
4. Line of work makes him a risk to work in the US.
5. Planned stay of several months on the first visit. (i.e. what strong ties to return home does he have that he can neglect them for 4 months? Generally strong ties imply you need to attend to them.).

Also:

• Your school contract has no bearing on him.
• It is highly suggested not to make any firm plans (i.e. airline tickets) until the visa is in hand.
• Your past fiance visa petition won't impact him for a tourist visa. He will be approved or not based on his own merits, not yours or parents.

Edited November 25, 2018 by geowrian

[TM92 527]

4 minutes ago, geowrian said:

what strong ties to return home does her have that he can neglect them for 4 months?

Even in the best case scenario of B-1/B-2 approval, OP's husband should be flexible with length of stay. CBP determines max amount of allowed stay at POE.

[NatalieRose 24]

27 minutes ago, Lemonslice said:

Your other thread makes it sound like you want to live in the US.  I think you should decide what is your end goal and work from there.  If it were me, I would marry now and apply for a spouse visa (CR1); but read the guides and see what will work best for you and your family.

I purposely made two threads because these are two separate concerns. I will be going to the US for 4 MONTHS and then returning to Cambodia. I made a thread in the tourist visa regarding only my tourist visa for my fiancé. We fully intend on returning to Cambodia after the birth of our child. 

 

My other thread in the K1 visa forum was regarding after our child is born. We would like to apply for a fiance/spouse Visa after we return to Cambodia with our child. 

 

I had originally planned to marry now, but the process is long in Cambodia and because I need to fly before a certain time frame during pregnancy, we can not legally get married in his country before the birth of our baby. 

[NatalieRose 24]

24 minutes ago, TM92 said:

Generally, COs no longer accept proof of financial support, I-134, for tourist trips; he can still have an I-134, just in case. The COs will also see his lack of strong ties to Cambodia as a negative for a tourist visa. If you don't mind potentially losing $160, then give it a shot.

 

Just a FYI: If he is ultimately successful in getting the tourist visa, then you can marry during his visit, if you want. Then you submit an I-130 and he returns to Cambodia to wait for the better CR-1 process. See thread below:

Good luck!

We actually had family donate the money for us to do the tourist visa and they’ve understand that it isn’t very possible we could lose the money. I thought it was fraud to get married in a tourist visa? 

[NatalieRose 24]

26 minutes ago, geowrian said:

* Moved from K-1 P&P to What Visa Do I Need due to the OP asking about visa options *

 

K-3 is obsolete. It would be a CR-1 for a spouse instead.

 

Personally I'd go with the CR-1. The only advantage of a K-1 in your case is being a few months faster.

Thank you so much for your clarification! I had always thought that k3 and cr-1 were the same thing. Thank you for explaining that! 

[NatalieRose 24]

16 minutes ago, Ryan H said:

~~~Similar topics merged~~~

Why were they merged? One is referring to a tourist visa discussing what I want to do before the baby is born. The second was discussing a fiancé/spouse visa that I want to apply for after the baby is already here. Different topics. 

[TM92 527]

4 minutes ago, NatalieRose said:

I thought it was fraud to get married in a tourist visa? 

It is 100% allowed. What is 100% illegal is to have preconceived intent at Port of Entry to Adjust Status from a tourist visa: https://citizenpath.com/faq/preconceived-intent-adjust-status/ That is why I said he will have to wait for the CR-1 visa in Cambodia after the US visit.

Edited November 25, 2018 by TM92

[Lemonslice 4,553]

Perfect, please read the guides and geowrian's answer then.   Some countries allow foreigners to get married easily; you might want to look at Hong Kong if you plan to apply for a spousal visa (now or later).

 

Best of luck to you and your family.

[NatalieRose 24]

14 minutes ago, geowrian said:

He is free to apply. Nothing to lose but the $160 fee + some time.

 

That said, he has multiple negative factors likely to affect the decision:

1. Engaged to a USC.
2. Purpose of the visit (increases chances that you would want to just stay after birth and apply for AOS).
3. Inability to pay for the trip himself.
4. Line of work makes him a risk to work in the US.
5. Planned stay of several months on the first visit. (i.e. what strong ties to return home does her have that he can neglect them for 4 months? Generally strong ties imply you need to attend to them.).

Also:

• Your school contract has no bearing on him.
• It is highly suggested not to make any firm plans (i.e. airline tickets) until the visa is in hand.
• Your past fiance visa petition won't impact him for a tourist visa. He will be approved or not based on his own merits, not yours or parents.

Thank you so much for your advice and wisdom on the matter!! We definitely believe he has a low chance of getting the tourist visa, but we want to give it a shot. We also thought of getting a rental agreement with my and his name on it showing that we have an incentive to return. Do you think that could be of value?