Hi all, I'm looking for a little bit of guidance on my situation. I am a US citizen with a Thai girlfriend, looking to get married and hopefully live in the US in the future. I am leaning towards the CR1 after reading here, but just want to make sure I'm not missing anything that would make the K1 more appealing. For background, I have lived in the US my entire life. I quit my job to travel extendedly in Jan 2023 and then met my gf. During this time, I have been quasi-living in Thailand on visa exemptions, but have maintained a residence at my parents' address. My income is currently under the poverty line since I have been mostly unemployed during this time, earning only around 1k monthly via investments. Prior to this, I was earning over 100K annually. My plan was to try to get married here before I need to leave on April 30th, then apply for the CR1 from the US, then return to Thailand in a few months while waiting for the application.
I understand the advantages of the CR1, such as: the spouse enters the US with her greencard and is able to start working immediately, open bank accounts, travel outside the US, cost is cheaper than K1, and currently timeline is roughly the same as the K1. Perhaps K1 is a good option if you are unable to travel and marry your spouse in her country, but that is not the case for me. Are there any advantages to the K1 that I'm missing? The only one I can think of is simply the reduced risk in the event she absolutely hates the US and decides she doesn't want to live there - then we don't need to get married at all.
A few specific questions:
For the affidavit of support, I understand I can supplement my lack of income with assets. After reading the instructions on the USCIS site, I am a little confused if I would need 3x or 5x of the difference? Is this 3x/5x rule the same for both the K1 vs CR1 (I know about the 100/125% poverty line difference). I have around 120k investments in a brokerage account and another 120k in retirement accounts. Based on this, would I have any issue if I only made 15k last year? Are stocks valued at their current price or is there some assumption of risk/depreciation?
If a co-sponsor is required, do they need to live in the house with me? It says I would need proof of their residency in my house, so I assume I would not be able to use my brother who has a different address? I'm confused because I've read elsewhere it could be a friend of other family member.
If a co-sponsor is required, at what point in the process will I be asked for this and will it delay the timeline?
For proof of domicile, regardless of if I choose K1 or CR1, I would prefer to continue spending significant time in Thailand until the Visa was ready. If we got married in Thailand, I would likely continue living here full time until that point. Would this cause any issue with my proof of domicile, given I would still maintain an address in the US, have bank accounts, car insurance, storage unit, etc? Given that Thailand is so cheap for me to stay, I would prefer to remain together rather than be separated for 1.5 years waiting in the US.
Gf has a 7 year old son from a previous relationship (never officially married). I understand that he can come with us on either visa and it would increase the household size. If we chose for him not to come with us immediately, could he come a year of two later (due to school and other factors)? If so, which visa would we use for this and how would that process work?
