A bit complicated - How complicated will this CR-1 process be?

[S2N 253]

16 minutes ago, Theersink said:

All of this is moot if the OP has not or cannot physically visit after the marriage

She’s in the UAE currently. It’s not on the ban list, not hard to fly there, and it’s not exactly a dangerous country. OP will have plenty of time to develop more evidence of bona fides between filing and the interview date at the consulate. There’s really no disadvantage to filing the I-130 once married (and having met in person after if online.)

 

USCIS usually doesn’t dig deep into consular bona fides so long as there is some proof, preferring to leave it to the consular officer, but if that is a concern they can certainly do more visits while the I-130 is pending and upload them as unsolicited evidence. There obviously needs to be evidence at the time of filing, but with the timeline they have it shouldn’t be hard to accumulate additional evidence after filing the petition.
 

16 minutes ago, Theersink said:

My recommendation would be to wait and see if the UK Asylum claim works out and then file

If you wait on the UK asylum claim and it gets rejected you’re looking at 6-7 years from today when they could be together. Most people don’t want to risk adding 2-3 years to an already long process, and OP’s is probably already  going to be longer than most even if the future wife ends up in London.

Edited June 17 by S2N

[Theersink 39]

9 minutes ago, S2N said:

She’s in the UAE currently. It’s not on the ban list, not hard to fly there, and it’s not exactly a dangerous country. OP will have plenty of time to develop more evidence of bona fides between filing and the interview date at the consulate. There’s really no disadvantage to filing the I-130 once married (and having met in person after if online.)

This is true but OP has not specified if or when a visit is planned. There are alot of holes in the information as others have stated. The means to do something often outweighs the ability. This ultimately was the point I was trying to make. It will cost the OP likely a substantial sum of money in addition to the 130 filing. My impression was it sound almost like OP was rushing for a solution quickly. My point was that is not going to happen and needs to be planned, especially with OPs situation. 

 

16 minutes ago, S2N said:

If you wait on the UK asylum claim and it gets rejected you’re looking at 6-7 years from today when they could be together. Most people don’t want to risk adding 2-3 years to an already long process, and OP’s is probably already  going to be longer than most even if the future wife ends up in London

Good point. I would agree. I withdraw my previous recommendation of waiting on asylum. 

[S2N 253]

1 minute ago, Theersink said:

This ultimately was the point I was trying to make. It will cost the OP likely a substantial sum of money in addition to the 130 filing.

My read of the situation was that money wasn’t a huge concern here as OP mentioned moving up the marriage wasn’t a concern if needed, the ability to travel to third countries, the father working for a significant amount of time in the UAE, and the family engaging a solicitor in the UK to help with the asylum claim. All of that points to a stable economic situation on at least his future wife’s part. It also sounds like he knows the family as well, which is usually a good sign.
 

I agree it will be expensive and OP will need to continue to accumulate evidence, but a lot of us do that. Immigration is quicker and easier if you have the money to visit your spouse on the other side of the globe regularly. I also get that the cost of travel is a burden for a lot of people here, but that’s also usually one of the first things they say in a post.

 

OP — apologies if my read of this is wrong, and what everyone else is saying is correct re: time together. Assuming you have evidence of bona fides now (trips with passport stamps/boarding passes, pictures, etc.) you should be good to file once there’s a marriage (and having met in person if online.)

 

But it would be in your best interest to visit frequently after that and upload the proof of travel as unsolicited evidence for USCIS while the petition is pending.

[centric23 108]

I think what's also important to note here is whether her getting married will impact the asylum case. Some family sponsorships are only allowed if the children remain unmarried. As others have said, this isn't some cut and dry answer - lots of moving parts to consider.