KEL&STEPH

This is kind of a repost - already asked for opinions in the CR1 section, and came to a conclusion that this would be the smarter path for my fiance and myself.

I am a US citizen, and my fiance is a South African citizen. He's currently working on a island as a dive instructor. I have been doing research on the different visas, and i've come to a conclusion that the K1 is probably the best one for our situation. The waiting period seems to be much shorter than filing with the CR1. Is there anyway he could come any sooner while everything is being processed? Any suggestions? Thank you soooooo much, this is starting to become very overwhelming. Also, has anybody hired a attorney/lawyer to do the filing for their k1? Did it slow down the process at all?

Thanks for everyones time.

Hi Stacy,

We used a lawyer- and although I didnt have to worry about anything- she handled everything and just told me what documents to provide and fill in, she wasnt the best and ultimately one of her mistakes cost us 3 additional months apart. I had to nearly harass her for updates and info- once you pay your retainer- they dont seem to rushed to do much.

We had a similar situation, South African husband was living in another country- mine was living in the UK- got married in Denver while he was visiting, applied for everything when he was back in England. Our process started in June 08 and its still not complete, though I think he will finally arrive in the US in 2 weeks!

A couple words of advice:

1) Its going to take forever regardless of the visa you choose I think.. sorry! There are always unexpected delays. If I did it over again, I would choose the route of being apart the least- meaning I would rather we be together in the US him not being allowed to work for some months, than him being abroad working, waiting, waiting waiting for his visa and to see you.

2) Best word of advice is to get everything together early- know what documents you are going to need for the 'next step' and have them organized early. For ex: background checks for packet 3. He must provide at some pt, background checks of every country he has lived in since age 16, we knew this and figured a couple of weeks max right? It took us 10 business days to request one from the UK, and 7 weeks to get one from SA! 7 weeks! We had no idea it would take this long, which delayed the whole application.

Good luck! Choose a lawyer carefully if you go that route, know the process and required docs very well beforehand and be prepared for a stressful roller coaster. Its not easy, but the price we pay for falling for foreigners.

Hi Stacy,

My husband is S.African and we were married in Denver while we was visiting with a tourist visa in 07- no problems.

He did leave after his time was up on the visa, and we finished applying for the paperwork for his green card from abroad together (we lived in England at the time). Be warned though, the process takes forever.. really. We started the process a year ago via an American lawyer this side, (actually a year and a half ago- our direct consular processing was denied, so we had to start over last November), and he is still not here today. We have been apart now 6 months, the process being frustrating and drawn out (If its not the US gov't dragging their feet, its the SA gov't). Good luck, and I hope you and your hubby wont have to be apart too long.

Any advice/support, Im happy to help!

Kelley