CAN I BRING MY FIANCE TO THE UNITED STATES?
Citizens of the United States may bring their foreign fiancées (foreign nationals they intend to marry) to the U.S. for the wedding, with a K-1 visa.
K-1 visa is a temporary nonimmigrant visa, allowing the individual to come to the United States and stay here for the period of 90 days, during which the individual either marries the U.S. citizen or is supposed to leave the country if the wedding doesn’t occur. Fiancées are fortunate in that there are no annual quotas on K-1 visas and therefore no long waiting periods.
Please note that if you are in the United Stated already or if your fiancé lives abroad with you, the fiancé visa is unnecessary and you should just get married and apply for green card after the wedding.
Also, it is important to mention that the K-1 visas are not available to fiancées of U.S. permanent residents (green card holders).
To qualify for a fiancé visa, a person must:
- Be legally able to marry ( be single and of legal age);
- Intend to marry a U.S. citizen (not a permanent resident or green card holder);
- Have met and seen their U.S. citizen fiancé in person within the past two years. (Waivers of this requirement are available in certain cases, where the parties cannot meet before the wedding for religious reasons or where such meeting would cause and extreme hardship on the U.S. citizen.)
Fiancé visa application process consists of four steps:
- The U.S. Citizen needs to file form I – 129 “Fiancé visa petition” with the USCIS.
- After the fiancé visa petition is approved, USCIS will transfer the file to the National Visa Center, which then transfers it to the U.S. Consulate serving the immigrant’s home country. The foreign national fiancé will be given instructions on what forms to prepare and what documents to collect in order to proceed in the process and will be provided with a date for a visa interview.
- The immigrant fiancé will attend the interview and if all goes well, is approved for a fiancé visa.
- The immigrant fiancé uses the K-1 visa to enter the United States within 6 months after the visa issuance date.
The parties must marry within 90 days after the immigrant fiancé enters the country. It is strongly recommended to schedule the wedding as soon as possible after the arrival of the immigrant fiancé keeping in mind that a separate application for green card must be filed in order for the immigrant fiancé to maintain the legal status after the 90 day period expires.
For more details on the process of bringing your fiancé to the United States, lists of documents required and assessment of your special circumstances, please contact Immigration Attorney Milda Goeriz at (925) 262 – 3884.