What is the legal status of beneficiary upon marriage?

[payxibka 10,044]

53 minutes ago, Carolyn&Craig said:

I am American and my fiancé is South African (we live in SA) and I have a similar question about the option of getting married while we are visiting the US with My fiancé on his tourist visa.
 

We are busy trying to get married here in SA to then eventually apply for the spouse visa to move to the US next year. Unfortunately, it’s proving to be harder to get a home affairs marriage than we anticipated.. and now with the country in lockdown we have missed both our home affairs marriage appointments. When we can finally get back in the marriage queue we will likely have to wait a handful of months for a next available appointment, best case scenario, which is seriously eating into our ‘get visa and move to the USA’ timeline.
 

We are busy brainstorming options and wondering what it would mean if we decided to fly to the US to visit my parents and then got married while we are there before returning back to SA. My question is how will a marriage certificate from a US courthouse compare with a marriage certificate from a South African home affairs office in regards to ultimately applying for a spouse visa to get us to the US. Would it make the process any different? Would it help the process, hurt the process or be a lateral move just with the addition of expensive flights?
 

If all was going according to plan, the spousal visa was going to be the best option, but given the state of the world right now with lockdowns and travel restrictions, we are also just wondering if it may turn out to be more worthwhile to just wait until we can travel/ move and apply for the fiancé visa?! Our South African wedding (celebration) is likely postponed or cancelled at this rate so just trying to focus on and figure out a plan B for marriage and visas. Any advice would be tremendously appreciated. 

Immigration doesn't give a hoot where you get married.   You could get married in thailand, mexico, anywhere.   

[Dima Gordeyev 1]

On 5/1/2020 at 4:40 PM, Paul & Mary said:

Only the first one counts. If you really want two then do the K1 get married and leave and end up paying twice for VISAs.

See, I'm not opposed to doing the process twice (one for fiance, one for spouse) or paying twice, as long as it CAN be done.

 

If I understand you guys correctly, I just need to get her here SOMEHOW, doesn't matter how, right? Some say I can marry on B2 visa, considering we will leave, but considering that B2 visa is challenging to get, I'm curious if there are no legal issues with applying for a K1 visa (because that one is more likely to be approved), getting married in the US, leaving to Ukraine, and applying for spousal visa from there. Am I thinking about this correctly?

[payxibka 10,044]

23 minutes ago, Dima Gordeyev said:

See, I'm not opposed to doing the process twice (one for fiance, one for spouse) or paying twice, as long as it CAN be done.

 

If I understand you guys correctly, I just need to get her here SOMEHOW, doesn't matter how, right? Some say I can marry on B2 visa, considering we will leave, but considering that B2 visa is challenging to get, I'm curious if there are no legal issues with applying for a K1 visa (because that one is more likely to be approved), getting married in the US, leaving to Ukraine, and applying for spousal visa from there. Am I thinking about this correctly?

No legal issues 

[Ontarkie 13,904]

~~Moved to What Visa Do I Need, from K1 P&P - the OP has not started anything and still figuring out things.~~

[geowrian 22,335]

45 minutes ago, Dima Gordeyev said:

See, I'm not opposed to doing the process twice (one for fiance, one for spouse) or paying twice, as long as it CAN be done.

 

If I understand you guys correctly, I just need to get her here SOMEHOW, doesn't matter how, right? Some say I can marry on B2 visa, considering we will leave, but considering that B2 visa is challenging to get, I'm curious if there are no legal issues with applying for a K1 visa (because that one is more likely to be approved), getting married in the US, leaving to Ukraine, and applying for spousal visa from there. Am I thinking about this correctly?

I would try the B-2 first. It's $160 to see how it goes. If that fails, then you can look at the K-1 path. Time and cost-wise, the $160 loss (plus any travel expenses to interview) is minimal compared to the K-1 process.

 

No legal issue getting a K-1 to marry then leave all within 90 days. You can always do a spousal visa afterwards.

[Dima Gordeyev 1]

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

I would try the B-2 first. It's $160 to see how it goes. If that fails, then you can look at the K-1 path. Time and cost-wise, the $160 loss (plus any travel expenses to interview) is minimal compared to the K-1 process.

 

No legal issue getting a K-1 to marry then leave all within 90 days. You can always do a spousal visa afterwards.

We've already tried applying her for the B2 visa once, which got denied. I'm all for applying a second time, but will the 2 (potentially) unsuccessful attempts serve as any sort of grounds for the denial of K1 visa?

[geowrian 22,335]

4 minutes ago, Dima Gordeyev said:

We've already tried applying her for the B2 visa once, which got denied. I'm all for applying a second time, but will the 2 (potentially) unsuccessful attempts serve as any sort of grounds for the denial of K1 visa?

Ah, I forgot that part. Whoops.

Your call in the end, but a B-2 seems even more unlikely after a prior refusal. Personally I probably would not go that route.

Edit: But no, no number of refused visas is a basis to deny a K-1. If it were a lot of different visas, it could look like visa shopping, but not multiple B-2 applications.

Edited May 4, 2020 by geowrian