New here and starting the K1 Visa journey I am a US citizen and Gisell is a citizen of the Domincan Republic

[W199 549]

1 hour ago, Ewpinky88 said:

Yes and I'm already planning for that. I don't personally care if I lose my Survivor's benefits I'm already in the process of completing my degree. As long as my assets can cover getting Gisell here with me in the States any job I get is significantly more income than Social Security will ever pay me. 

How could you afford her (and yours) health insurance, and a million other things she she will need when she comes here?

 

Seems like you should wait until you get your degree, and get a job if you want to be successful in getting a K1 and having a happy marriage. Its a really terrible plan to do a K1 knowing you will lose your benefits and using your mother's house as collateral.  Losing your benefits when you get married, being disabled with no job, living with a jobless disabled mother is going to put a big strain on the marriage giving it a high probability of it not lasting very long .. despite her claimed love for you.  IMO, if you love her, wait until you have a job or you will put her through hell under the above conditions. 

[yuna628 9,969]

From personal experience: we used a well-qualified joint sponsor for our K1 process and that wasn't the problem. We were confident that we had a large amount of savings enough to handle the long waiting period to a green card. Alas, that ended up being quite the pickle. The long wait (employers didn't want to hire him until he had a green card vs an EAD), the job market at the time in our area, and the enormous cost of health insurance significantly drained our finances. We were mere months away from losing it. He was hired out of a miracle chance, so our income stabilized, but that did not mean he was offered health insurance. That was another year for a promotion to get that.

 

That was ten years ago. Insurance costs are even higher now and immigrants are viewed with even higher scrutiny. It's important to have a long term stable plan and perhaps employment before starting down this road. That may be difficult to hear, and I hope no offense is taken.

[Ewpinky88 2]

1 hour ago, W199 said:

How could you afford her (and yours) health insurance, and a million other things she she will need when she comes here?

 

Seems like you should wait until you get your degree, and get a job if you want to be successful in getting a K1 and having a happy marriage. Its a really terrible plan to do a K1 knowing you will lose your benefits and using your mother's house as collateral.  Losing your benefits when you get married, being disabled with no job, living with a jobless disabled mother is going to put a big strain on the marriage giving it a high probability of it not lasting very long .. despite her claimed love for you.  IMO, if you love her, wait until you have a job or you will put her through hell under the above conditions. 

Hence my questions. You think I haven't thought of all that and that's why I'm here asking questions on the best avenues. 

[Ewpinky88 2]

1 hour ago, yuna628 said:

From personal experience: we used a well-qualified joint sponsor for our K1 process and that wasn't the problem. We were confident that we had a large amount of savings enough to handle the long waiting period to a green card. Alas, that ended up being quite the pickle. The long wait (employers didn't want to hire him until he had a green card vs an EAD), the job market at the time in our area, and the enormous cost of health insurance significantly drained our finances. We were mere months away from losing it. He was hired out of a miracle chance, so our income stabilized, but that did not mean he was offered health insurance. That was another year for a promotion to get that.

 

That was ten years ago. Insurance costs are even higher now and immigrants are viewed with even higher scrutiny. It's important to have a long term stable plan and perhaps employment before starting down this road. That may be difficult to hear, and I hope no offense is taken.

No I appreciate it wholeheartedly and I appreciate how you worded it. I think that is why we are going to go with the CR-1 because it sounds like the better option overall and that's why I came here was to ask questions and to learn from other people's experiences. We've already talked and decided that the CR-1 is the far more stable option. 

[Crazy Cat 46,182]

****I have moved this thread to the IR-1/CR-1 Spousal Visa forum area*****