K-1 vs IR-1 / Cr-1

[EmilyandJason 0]

Would anyone mind giving me a plain English (brief) description?

I've read the comparison guide and the various flow charts .. I'm pretty new to all this lingo and could use a hand.

Our situation is:

I'm a Canadian citizen, living and employed in Canada, my fiance is an American citizen, living and employed in the US.

I am an accountant and would plan on working in the US (legally of course).

We can easily arrange to get married if that will speed anything up.

I'm just not sure which route to follow.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!

[Dan J 277]

Would anyone mind giving me a plain English (brief) description?

I've read the comparison guide and the various flow charts .. I'm pretty new to all this lingo and could use a hand.

Our situation is:

I'm a Canadian citizen, living and employed in Canada, my fiance is an American citizen, living and employed in the US.

I am an accountant and would plan on working in the US (legally of course).

We can easily arrange to get married if that will speed anything up.

I'm just not sure which route to follow.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!

K-1 = Fiancee Visa. A visa to bring your fiancee to the US to get married and immigrate.

K-3 = Spousal Visa. Allows your spouse to come to the US to immigrate.

CR-1/IR-1 = Spousal Immigrant visa. You are automatically an LPR as soon as you enter, while you have to apply for LPR status with the other two visas.

Generally K-1 is the fastest. CR-1/IR-1 is usually the slowest. Each have advantages and disadvantages, it depends on your particular situation.

[YuAndDan 153]

K-1 is quicker to process, but has the down side of requiring the Adjustment of status and can wait a long time to get Green card and work authorization can take up to 90 days to get after filing to adjust status as well as having to file for permission to travel out of the country while waiting for the green card, being from Canada that can be a pain if you want to take a trip home for some reason. AOS costs $1010 to file.

CR-1 takes longer, the couple need to marry first before filing for the visa, but has the plus of an imediate green card issued as soon as the visa holder enters the USA, the green-card allows work, and travel out of the country. Costs much less NO AOS

You may want to look at this page.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;page=compare

Edited August 3, 2007 by YuAndDan

[EmilyandJason 0]

Thanks for the info.

Just to clarify a few things:

1. DCF is not an option unless spouse lives here in Canada with me

2. K3 is not any faster or cheaper than K1 (both require AOS)

3. IR-1 / CR-1 is much slower than K1 or K3, but is cheaper, because no AOS required

I think ... I may be catching on ... after reading that comparison 3 times