K-1 Fiancée Visa

In order to provide legal visit of your loved one to the USA you have to know about K-1 visa type. It’s called fiancé (fiancée) visa and is meant to be the permit for your girl to visit the USA for up to 90 days prior to making all arrangements for wedding. It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to marry the girl, though. K-1 visa is needed for all citizens of CIS countries and East Europe for visiting the States with the aim to marry the USA citizen.

How to help your girlfriend open a fiancée visa?

If you won’t help your fiancée with this kind of document, she’ll never get it. In order to obtain such permission the girl from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other countries needs your invitation. Also it’s important to remember such details:

You need evidence that both of you met at least once before applying for such type of visa.

It’s the American citizen who starts the process by filling in the form of Petition For Alien Fiancée.

There is no need to hire an attorney or pay any other company – just visit the nearest USCIS office.

After your girl approves the petition, it goes to National Visa Center and goes through all kinds of examinations.

Also the woman will need to visit American embassy in the country of her origin and apply for K-1 visa there.

All the process usually takes up to 1 month. If there are no troubles in travel history of your fiancée, it’s likely she’ll get the permission to travel to the US for 90 days. This period gives you opportunity to check your feelings, agree on all points and organize a wedding. After the marriage the woman will automatically get American citizenship and she won’t need to return to her motherland anymore.

Are there any restrictions for K-1 visa?

During the time of examinations and checks the embassy and the National Visa Center will check the eligibility of both people to get married. If it comes out that your girl has a husband, the visa won’t be granted. Also they check crime register for a petitioned person and other law problems which can be a trouble for entering the US.

Also the USCIS may decline the petition in the first steps if the applicant is unemployed and can’t provide evidence of having enough money to support his fiancée. In this case the petition won’t go much further the first officer.

There are usually some problems with document translation. You may want to ask your fiancée to translate her passport, certificate of birth, divorce documents (if there are any). Otherwise it can make a big hold up in all the process. Prior to applying for K-1 visa make sure all documents are ready to be filed.

Is the fraud possible with K-1 visa?

Make sure you both feel real desire to get married. Otherwise better don’t go for K-1 visa as it’s highly observed by the US government. The fiancée can immediately immigrate to the United States after getting her approval. But if there is a divorce within 2 years after getting married, the girl will automatically lose her status of permanent resident.

Such situation is painful for the US citizen, too. Applying for the second time to get K-1 visa to any other person will be much harder and longer. Also fines for fraud are possible if there are any signs of it.

What if the woman has children under 18?

It’s still possible to get the K-1 visa in this case. But make sure you are able to provide financial support and optimal living conditions for all the members of your future family. Also the kids need to get appropriate education. Children won’t be any kind of obstacle for getting K-1 visa. But it makes the applicant think more carefully and evaluate the incomes before applying.