Although not my original intent, I was married online through Utah. What I mean by "not my original intent", is that our intent was to get married in the Philippines. I have been retaining a residence there since 2011, and got my SRRV(a permanent Philippine residence visa) in 2017. In 2019, I moved to the UAE for work, while still maintaining my household in the Philippines. My girlfriend and I were going to get married, but COVID happened. The Philippines was locked down. Foreseeing them dropping the lock-down some time soon, in February 2021, I went online, and I got a CENOMAR from the PSA, because the barangay I was going to get married, required both the Philippine citizen and the foreigner to have a CENOMAR. Amazingly, the PSA was very efficient and delivered my CENOMAR via FedEx directly to my front door here in Abu Dhabi, relatively quickly. However, not so quick that I would have been able to get it done while on a short vacation.(that is important for what happens later).
Alright. Now I am ready to fly to the Philippines and get married as soon as they end the lock-down. They ended the lock-down for those of us with permanent residence visas a little while after I got my CENOMAR. However...... The Philippines had a red list of countries that still couldn't enter the Philippines. The UAE was on that list. So I couldn't go to the Philippines to get married. The CENOMAR is only valid for 6 months. By the time they took the UAE off the list, and I could travel, those six months had passed. Since I probably wouldn't have time to get a CENOMAR, an Affidavit in lieu of Legal Capacity to marry, and the other requirements, we needed another option. So I looked into the simplest way to get married. I looked at getting married in Abu Dhabi, but this was before they changed the law, so it wasn't possible then. I looked into flying to Seychelles, because an American co-worker flew there and got married. That sounded nice, but a little pricey, and I wanted something quicker and easier. Then I discovered the marriage online through Utah County. I flew my wife to the UAE, and on October 21, 2021 we got married online while we were both in our living room here in the UAE. No muss, no fuss.
I can't speak to any difficulty in obtaining residence in the Philippines, because as I mentioned previously, I already had a permanent residence visa years before I was married. However, there is a reciprocity agreement between the Philippines and the USA regarding recognition of marriages. Now, I have heard a rumor about the Philippines talking about not recognizing marriages if both parties were not present at the wedding. However, even though my marriage was online, we were both physically present in the same location when we got married. Only the justice of the peace was in a different location.
Now, I did have an issue with BPI wanting our marriage to be registered with the PSA, before they would approve our mortgage loan. Since we never bothered to register it with the PSA, we were SOL with BPI. So we went with BDO instead. They had no problem accepting our Utah marriage license to make me the co-borrower for the mortgage. In any case, the issue with BPI wasn't that it was an online marriage, but that it wasn't registered with the PSA yet.
In summary, a Utah marriage worked out fine for me. It wouldn't be my first choice, if I could have traveled to the Philippines at the time.
My suggestion, would be for the OP to either get married in the Philippines and get a spousal visa, or go for the K1 fiancé visa. If marrying in the Philippines, they should get all their requirements done ahead of time, and then fly to the Philippines and get married. You can find those requirements through a quick Google search. https://www.nuptials.ph/marriage-requirements-for-foreigners-philippines/ Even if most of the requirements are done ahead of time, I would suggest having at least 3 or 4 weeks available to be in the Philippines.
You can file for K-1 or CR-1 visa even though the tourist visa was cancelled. The fact the tourist visa was cancelled shouldn't make a difference.
Given that both timelines are about the same it sounds like CR-1 would be the way to go. K-1 visas used to process much faster and thus was the better choice to bring your gf/fiance to the US.
It can be difficult for a citizen of most south east Asian countries to get married in another country:
* their passports are weak, reducing the pool of countries in which to marry
* of the pool of countries that grant them a visa waiver, it can be difficult to process all the required red tape for two foreigners to marry before the authorized stay expires.
I would like to see specific examples of the Philippines government denying CFO to their citizens because a Utah County marriage certificate was presented.
It probably won't harm her chances for a CR1 or a K1 visa, but sadly it's safe to assume her prospects of another B2 visa at anytime in the future is virtually zero even though there isn't a ban. Reapplying in 6 months, or ever, for another B2 would likely just be a waste of $185. Since it seems you plan to marry anyway, I would wholeheartedly agree with Crazy Cat's suggested formula of "a Utah online marriage, a visit, then file papers for a CR-1 spousal visa" as the most practical way forward.
sgtm7 got a reaction from Richard Aaron in Tourist visa cancelled by CBP agent. Can we still get a CR1 or K1 Visa?
sgtm7 reacted to nickymicky in Emergency Visa interview