K1 to DCF possible?

[OliverBa 61]

Wondering if anyone has ever done this before. My fiancé and I have exhausted all possibilities thus far of getting married abroad, as he has a third world country passport and keeps getting denied from every country that we have applied for a tourist visa to, and all the countries he can visit visa-free do not allow gay marriage. So now our only option is America. Both us reside in China. I’m planning to submit the K-1 application in the next couple of days, based on current timelines we are looking at end of the year before it gets approved. Assuming it does and we travel to the states, instead of doing the adjustment of status and twiddling our thumbs for months, would it be possible for us to return back to China, and do DCF through the consulate here. DCF will be faster than AOS. Has anyone done this before? Thanks in advance!

[Roel 7,191]

Yes. Although it's kind of a stupid plan...

Going to the US on K1 visa, just to get married, just to go back to China, just to do DCF.

I mean, go for it, but it's kind of waste of time/money.

[aaron2020 11,651]

It will not work.

 

For the K-1, you will need to have a US domicile.  For DCF, you must be living abroad.  You can't have it both ways.  

[Roel 7,191]

Just now, aaron2020 said:

It will not work.

 

For the K-1, you will need to have a US domicile.  For DCF, you must be living abroad.  You can't have it both ways.  

Good point.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Your tagline shows that you were married on 7/15/2018 and you filed the I-130 in China.  Why are you asking about a K-1 and DCF?

[OliverBa 61]

3 minutes ago, Roel said:

Yes. Although it's kind of a stupid plan...

Going to the US on K1 visa, just to get married, just to go back to China, just to do DCF.

I mean, go for it, but it's kind of waste of time/money.

Well we don’t have many options. The goal is to get my husband in the states and with his green card as soon as possible. We can’t find any country where were can go to to legally get married as we have been denied 6 times by other countries, most recently New Zealand. We’ve spent the last 8 months applying to all these countries just to get denied, so I’m thinking I should’ve just applied for his K1 visa if I had known it would take this long. Also the adjustment of status time in the states now is around 9 months. Which means, assuming we get the K1 and travel to the states in December, he wouldn’t get his GC until September of next year. If we K1, travel to America, come back to China and do DCF, he could get his GC by February/March, thereby saving us 6-7 months. Waiting for the AOS in the states is the problem we want to avoid, my fiancé is a type A doer personality, not being able to work or do much of anything why waiting to get his GC and all that will drive him crazy. At least in China he has his work to keep in occupied while we wait.

[Jorge V 195]

2 minutes ago, aaron2020 said:

It will not work.

 

For the K-1, you will need to have a US domicile.  For DCF, you must be living abroad.  You can't have it both ways.  

Does the K1 require US domicile, or is it like the CR1 that only requires intent to reestablish domicile at a date no later than the immigrants entry date? If it only requires intent, then they should be able to get a K1.

 

After that, it seems like his plan is actually to move back to China after the wedding, thus reestablishing residence there. It seems that most DCF countries only look for 3 months of residence, so they could apply after only 3 months and then get approved 3 months later. Total processing time would be 6 months vs 18+ for AoS. It's a stretch but it could work.

[geowrian 22,336]

Once you go to the US on a K-1 to marry, you no longer will meet the requirements for DCF when you return abroad. They normally want to see 6 months physical presence or residence (which would be broken when you establish domicile as needed for the K-1).

Also note that the latest information is that DCF may no longer be available by the end of this year. By the time you get a K-1, DCF may not be a thing anymore.

[geowrian 22,336]

1 minute ago, OliverBa said:

The goal is to get my husband in the states and with his green card as soon as possible.

Husband?

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

1 minute ago, OliverBa said:

Well we don’t have many options. The goal is to get my husband in the states and with his green card as soon as possible. We can’t find any country where were can go to to legally get married as we have been denied 6 times by other countries, most recently New Zealand. We’ve spent the last 8 months applying to all these countries just to get denied, so I’m thinking I should’ve just applied for his K1 visa if I had known it would take this long. Also the adjustment of status time in the states now is around 9 months. Which means, assuming we get the K1 and travel to the states in December, he wouldn’t get his GC until September of next year. If we K1, travel to America, come back to China and do DCF, he could get his GC by February/March, thereby saving us 6-7 months. Waiting for the AOS in the states is the problem we want to avoid, my fiancé is a type A doer personality, not being able to work or do much of anything why waiting to get his GC and all that will drive him crazy. At least in China he has his work to keep in occupied while we wait.

 

You must live in a country for a certain time period to do DCF and he has to have a legal status not just a tourist visa.

 

Just do the K-1, get the US, AOS. Simple. You are over thinking this stuff seriously and making it much harder on yourself. 

 

You aren't in a 'unique' situation as many of us have had same type scenario of being unable to marry abroad.

Just now, geowrian said:

Husband?

 

Yea says husband then later fiance. People need to watch their words. Partner might be better but that's still similar to husband.

[geowrian 22,336]

1 minute ago, Ben&Zian said:

Yea says husband then later fiance. People need to watch their words. Partner might be better but that's still similar to husband.

Yes they do. Saying husband in the context of a K-1 can and has resulted in a denial.

[OliverBa 61]

6 minutes ago, aaron2020 said:

It will not work.

 

For the K-1, you will need to have a US domicile.  For DCF, you must be living abroad.  You can't have it both ways.  

I should update my signature, if you go look at my last thread you will understand what happened, but basically we found out after submitted our I-130 that our marriage license was not valid and we needed to get married again which is what we have been trying to do since October of last year.

 

For DCF you must be living abroad or have residency abroad but show that you have not given up your US domicile, or if you have, you need to show that you have re-established your US domicile. I have never given up my docimile in the states, I have my home, bank accounts, bills, etc to prove that. And I have my Chinese permanent resident card to prove my residency abroad to qualify for DCF. If I haven’t given up my domicile, in the US why can’t I apply for K1?

 

Also I’ve filled out the K1 forms, no where did it state I needed to submit evidence to prove my US docimile and it even provided payment instructions if I was apply from abroad, it just stated that no USCIS office abroad could accept the application, not that I couldn’t be abroad at the time of submission. Did I misunderstand something? 

[OliverBa 61]

I keep saying husband because like I said we already got married last year and had a wedding and got a marriage license, only to find our three months later our license wasn’t valid, again for that story check out my other posts, Jorge V is familiar with what happened (nice to see you around again by the way :). But yeah in my mind and in my heart we are already married because we did all this already, it’s only on paper that we technically are not married, but the District Court of DC would actually say we are married, ugh, the situation is so effed up. This is the unique part of the situation I was talking about, not the fact that other foreigners have not faced problems with getting married abroad. But for immigration purposes on paper we aren’t married and his only my fiancé.  

 

regarding residency talk. I’m not giving up any residency anywhere. Literally it’s going to be like a 3 day trip. We fly to LA, get married (again) at the courthouse, get the license, fly back. My residency permit in China is good until next summer, so is my fiancé/husband’s. And we have lived here for years, so I don’t think a 3 day trip out of the country would disqualify either one of us from doing DCF in China when we can show through our passports and residency permits that we have been here 3+ years for him and 5+ for me. Neither one of us are tourists here, we work her with legal residence permits.

Edited April 16, 2019 by OliverBa

[OliverBa 61]

15 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

 

You must live in a country for a certain time period to do DCF and he has to have a legal status not just a tourist visa.

 

Just do the K-1, get the US, AOS. Simple. You are over thinking this stuff seriously and making it much harder on yourself. 

 

You aren't in a 'unique' situation as many of us have had same type scenario of being unable to marry abroad.

 

Yea says husband then later fiance. People need to watch their words. Partner might be better but that's still similar to husband.

Please see above

[EandH0904 1,184]

10 minutes ago, OliverBa said:

I should update my signature, if you go look at my last thread you will understand what happened, but basically we found out after submitted our I-130 that our marriage license was not valid and we needed to get married again which is what we have been trying to do since October of last year.

Where did you get married that it wasn't valid? Are you sure it wasn't a problem with your documentation instead of your marriage?