Pareja de hecho - civil union in Spain

[Kay & Evan 60]

Hi,

 

We have applied for the K-1 Visa with my fiance (NOA1 27/8/2019) and the waiting is driving us crazy! 

It is also making us question and rethink everything we submitted to them..

 

We lived in Spain together before he left fot the US and as he needed a Visa we did a "pareja de hecho" (https://www.healthplanspain.com/blog/expat-tips/469-understanding-common-law-partnerships-and-pareja-de-hecho-in-spain.html) which is like a civil union in Spain that grants him 5 years visa and work authorization. 

We added this to our package as we thought it is strong evidence that we did live together (mentions in the contract our common address etc) to support the relationship.

It is NOT a marriage so we didn't think it will raise any flags but now we are having second thoughts.

Does anyone have any similar story or info about that?

 

Thank you!

[Pitaya 2,576]

Why not avoid the potential issue at USCIS and go for a spousal visa?

[Kay & Evan 60]

30 minutes ago, Pitaya said:

Why not avoid the potential issue at USCIS and go for a spousal visa?

Because in all explanations we read it said pareja de hecho is not equivelant to marriage and that they do not accept any equivelant just marriage certificates for spousal visa. It also looked like K-1 means less time apart so we decided to go with K-1 instead of getting married and then applying fot the spousal visa and then wait for even longer.

[Pitaya 2,576]

It would be interesting what people that have gone through the Madrid embassy think of your plan. Just by the look of the title in the the link you provided could be considered troublesome, ..."understanding common law relationships"... I hope that it works our to your favor.

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[Kay & Evan 60]

For anyone that might wonder in the future, the embassy in Madrid confirmed that the K1 visa is the way to go if you have pareja de hecho as it is not recognised in the US as married he and therefore does not qualify for a spousal visa. 

[KLL 7]

Hi @Kay & Evan

 

I just read your post and almost thought I was reading my own words.  I am going through the exact same thing.  The difference being, I received a reply from USCIS and they mentioned that we included this document, and asked for us to prove that the pareja de hecho was dissolved and that we are free to marry.  This is difficult, because from the research we did, pareja de hecho is not marriage or euivalent and does not prevent individuals from marrying.

 

(here is the link to my thread.  there is quite a variety of conflicting information and advice: https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/744446-k1-rfe-civil-union/#comments

 

I was wondering if you could perhaps post your progress as this was about 8 months ago.  Was you K1 approved?  Did you get an RFE like we did?  In the end did you guys move the the US?

 

Thank you for the reply, it would be very helpful.  I am wondering how I can prove that Pareja de hecho is not marriage and does not prevent us from marrying.

[KLL 7]

Sorry, I just noticed that you did in fact have a timeline on your profile page.  I see you did not get an RFE (unlike us) even though you were in the exact same situation as us.  I am happy that you guys managed to get approved and I see that your wedding is coming soon!  Congrats!  

[Kay & Evan 60]

1 hour ago, KLL said:

Hi @Kay & Evan

 

I just read your post and almost thought I was reading my own words.  I am going through the exact same thing.  The difference being, I received a reply from USCIS and they mentioned that we included this document, and asked for us to prove that the pareja de hecho was dissolved and that we are free to marry.  This is difficult, because from the research we did, pareja de hecho is not marriage or euivalent and does not prevent individuals from marrying.

 

(here is the link to my thread.  there is quite a variety of conflicting information and advice: https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/744446-k1-rfe-civil-union/#comments

 

I was wondering if you could perhaps post your progress as this was about 8 months ago.  Was you K1 approved?  Did you get an RFE like we did?  In the end did you guys move the the US?

 

Thank you for the reply, it would be very helpful.  I am wondering how I can prove that Pareja de hecho is not marriage and does not prevent us from marrying.

Hi there!

im so sorry that this has been so complicated for you! You would expect with this to make your life easier not harder.. it is such good proof that you have a valid relationship and also proves you have been living together! We really debated in wether to add this in our petition or not but ultimately we decided to add it as it shows we lived together and we felt it would make our case stronger now and in the future. 
we were approved pretty fast and we have no rfes and generally no questions about this not even at the interview stage. We did accompany it with a letter that explained how we met and a timeline of our relationship. Because we were worried about what they might think of the pareja de hecho we made sure to address it on the letter and we wrote something like: we are aware it is not a marriage and it is merely an equivalent of a civil union only recognised in Spain but did the pareja de hecho as we lived together and wanted to make our relationship somewhat more official. Now we are ready for the next step and want to move forward with marrying each other. Maybe this is why we didn’t get an rfe or maybe you were just a little unlucky with the person looking at your petition.. it is surprising to methat they also asked you to state how you met since you have been together for so long. 
I have no idea what the best advice for you is but what I would do in your place, is I would provide different website pages printed that explain pareja de hecho in English also point out that civil union is not even recognised as an equivalent of marriage in the US and write a letter to explain how you met and the pareja de hecho and what it means and why you did it. Maybe it is also worth it to ask the embassy in Madrid about it since in my experience they are very nice and helpful. 
I wish you the best of luck!

[KLL 7]

@Kay & Evan  Thanks for the reply.  yeah we were pretty shocked too considering so many people get approved for K1 even though they have only met once or twice in their lives it seems.  We provided a lengthy history of our relationship, starting off with the night we met and then detailing how the relationship progressed up to when and how we decided to marry.  We even both went and visited my family 2 summers ago (btw I am from Chicago too!).  YEs I asked the notary in Barcelona for documentation describing the law and that it is not a marriage or how it is different than marriage or that it does not prevent marriage but they don't seem to have anything helpful.  I think I will go to the consulate and see if I can get some advice on what to include.

 

Perhaps your pre-emptive  statements about civil partnership may have helped.  I am pretty sure we did something like that as well. At this point its been 6 months so I don't recall.  I am dreading digging back into the stack of 5000 papers to review.  Anyhow, I really appreciate the response and I am happy you guys had a simple procedure.  Best of luck!

[Kay & Evan 60]

1 minute ago, KLL said:

@Kay & Evan  Thanks for the reply.  yeah we were pretty shocked too considering so many people get approved for K1 even though they have only met once or twice in their lives it seems.  We provided a lengthy history of our relationship, starting off with the night we met and then detailing how the relationship progressed up to when and how we decided to marry.  We even both went and visited my family 2 summers ago (btw I am from Chicago too!).  YEs I asked the notary in Barcelona for documentation describing the law and that it is not a marriage or how it is different than marriage or that it does not prevent marriage but they don't seem to have anything helpful.  I think I will go to the consulate and see if I can get some advice on what to include.

 

Perhaps your pre-emptive  statements about civil partnership may have helped.  I am pretty sure we did something like that as well. At this point its been 6 months so I don't recall.  I am dreading digging back into the stack of 5000 papers to review.  Anyhow, I really appreciate the response and I am happy you guys had a simple procedure.  Best of luck!

I wish you all the best! I would guess if you can get something in writing from the consular in Madrid it would help your case. 
You guys are coming to Chicago too? Small world! Maybe we could meet when you get here. Anyway good luck again!

[cndrbk 15]

@Kay & Evan @KLL

 

hello!

Our situation is a bit different and sorry for posting it. We have a question about civil union Spain and are having a hard time to find an answer.. so I hope you don’t mind asking you our question here

 

I’m trying to file the form I-130 for my partner who’s a resident in Spain. He has a history of civil union in Spain. We’re wondering if we need to include that as his marriage history, or since it seems it’s not really a marriage in Spain, we don’t need to list it as a marriage history. 
 

if you know, please let me know. Or point me to where we can find answers. (Should we contact the US embassy or consulate for a confirmation?)

 

thank you so much in advance!

[Kay & Evan 60]

52 minutes ago, cndrbk said:

@Kay & Evan @KLL

 

hello!

Our situation is a bit different and sorry for posting it. We have a question about civil union Spain and are having a hard time to find an answer.. so I hope you don’t mind asking you our question here

 

I’m trying to file the form I-130 for my partner who’s a resident in Spain. He has a history of civil union in Spain. We’re wondering if we need to include that as his marriage history, or since it seems it’s not really a marriage in Spain, we don’t need to list it as a marriage history. 
 

if you know, please let me know. Or point me to where we can find answers. (Should we contact the US embassy or consulate for a confirmation?)

 

thank you so much in advance!

Hi! 
I am not sure but I would guess that if you mean the pareja de hecho you won’t need to disclose it because in the US it is not valid. However I would suggest to ask the consulate in order to be sure because this is who I asked in our case and they told me we don’t count as married and we should do K1. Best of luck to you!

[KLL 7]

20 hours ago, cndrbk said:

@Kay & Evan @KLL

 

hello!

Our situation is a bit different and sorry for posting it. We have a question about civil union Spain and are having a hard time to find an answer.. so I hope you don’t mind asking you our question here

 

I’m trying to file the form I-130 for my partner who’s a resident in Spain. He has a history of civil union in Spain. We’re wondering if we need to include that as his marriage history, or since it seems it’s not really a marriage in Spain, we don’t need to list it as a marriage history. 
 

if you know, please let me know. Or point me to where we can find answers. (Should we contact the US embassy or consulate for a confirmation?)

 

thank you so much in advance!

So I am not sure but I can tell you what happened in our case:  Because I mentioned the Pareja de Hecho as evidence of our relationship, USCIS sent and RFE and asked us to explain this marriage and provide evidence that it was dissolved and that I am free to marry.  I thought this was strange because all of the information I saw on their website said that this was not recognized as marriage.

 

So in response to the RFE, based on feedback from this thread, I decided to present evidence from the Catalan law which essentially indicates the differences between Pareja de Hecho and actual marriage and also indicated how easily it can be dissolved and the obligations after dissolution etc.  Essentially I wrote a statement that said I was never married and that under catalan law, those that are in a pareja de hecho are free to marry and it automatically dissolves the pareja, according to law. 

 

I then waited for a response and was sent an approval of our application.  So in the end this was successful.  If I were you I would probably just not provide any indication that he ever had a civil union. It is not a marriage in Spain and is not recognized as a marriage by the USA, but just mentioning it could get you into a complicated situation of having to explain that and hoping your agent agrees.  It could end up delaying your application or perhaps even causing your application to be rejected.  I hope this helps

[KLL 7]

On 7/28/2020 at 12:27 AM, Kay & Evan said:

I wish you all the best! I would guess if you can get something in writing from the consular in Madrid it would help your case. 
You guys are coming to Chicago too? Small world! Maybe we could meet when you get here. Anyway good luck again!

By the way, in the end we were approved, but after this while process took so long, and after the whole world changed around us, we never went forward with the rest of the process because we were not sure if it would be a good time to move to the US in the midst of the pandemic.  So we will probably apply eventually but use another route, the marriage visa instead of K1.  The idea of moving to the states and my fiance not being able to work for a long time before getting a work permit scared us a bit considering the economic conditions at the time.  We applied in January 2020 before the pandemic spread and after things changed so much we just decided to wait and see.  with K1, once you are approved the clock starts ticking you have a limited time to move to the states before it expires etc. 

[Kay & Evan 60]

39 minutes ago, KLL said:

By the way, in the end we were approved, but after this while process took so long, and after the whole world changed around us, we never went forward with the rest of the process because we were not sure if it would be a good time to move to the US in the midst of the pandemic.  So we will probably apply eventually but use another route, the marriage visa instead of K1.  The idea of moving to the states and my fiance not being able to work for a long time before getting a work permit scared us a bit considering the economic conditions at the time.  We applied in January 2020 before the pandemic spread and after things changed so much we just decided to wait and see.  with K1, once you are approved the clock starts ticking you have a limited time to move to the states before it expires etc. 

I had to move here during the pandemic with the K1 and actually I have my green card interview this Thursday (I moved here in June and applied in September so it did take a long time!). As someone that had to do it I would rate this experience like 0/10 haha. I mean of course we are together now so that’s amazing but if we could’ve done this a different way we would. and since you can be together anyway and you’re not separated I 100% think you made the right choose to not move forward and do a spouse visa later! Good luck!