Summary of U.S. Residency Options

As all of you know, lawyer#1 and #2 had conflicting advice, so I was very curious to see what lawyer#3 had to say. As it turns out, lawyer#3 said that lawyer#1 and #2 were both correct, and was overall very helpful, receptive to my questions, and patient. I’m not sure if this was the case because I was paying 150$ for her services or because she worked in a completely different county than the previous two. Perhaps because lawyer#3 worked in a smaller town than the first two lawyers, she was less intimidating, or perhaps the money I paid at the beginning of my consultation lead her to be more helpful.  My guess is it was a bit of both. This is where my first piece of advice in this blog post comes in: don’t get a free consultation if you are only planning on seeing one lawyer. Sure, it may be good to get a free consultation at first, but once you start to understand and get more serious about the immigration process, it is worth it to pay. The differences I noticed between the first two lawyers, and lawyer#3 is that she was less rushed than the other two and did not seem to be holding back any information. For example, laywer#2 would not tell me the names of the paper work that needed to be filed in order for my boyfriend to obtain residency in the U.S. (even though this information is readily available online... Click here to take a look), while laywer#3 was more than generous with her information; she even told me that it is possible to do this paper work without a lawyer, but that hiring a lawyer can give one a piece of mind that all of the necessary information is being filed.

After searching on the Internet and taking notes from each of the lawyers I saw, I have discovered that there are three options to becoming a resident of the U.S. through marriage (these are MY options... they may differ in other situations):

Marry in the U.S. and apply for residency

Note that this option could get tricky during the interview part of the immigration process. It is technically fraud (as lawyer#2 had mentioned) to come to the U.S. with the intention of getting married. But what does intention really mean? Dictionary.com defines it as “an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result” while another online dictionary defines it as “an aim or plan”. In other words, it is just another word for purpose. One could say that his or her purpose was to be with his or her significant other, but this does not necessarily mean that the purpose of one’s visit to the U.S. was to get married. This option is a really grey area and should be handled carefully. It should also be mentioned that in order to successfully complete this option, the foreigner must enter the U.S. legally (ie. with a tourist visa).

Marry in the country of your significant other, and apply for a K-3 (immigrant) visa, while applying for residency at the same time

This option will allow you and your significant other to move to the U.S. together, with the foreigner immediately becoming a resident upon entry to the U.S. Although this option may sound like the way to go, note that the paperwork can take anywhere from 10 months to 1.5 years to be processed.

Apply for a K-1 (fiance) visa, after getting approved get married within 90 days of arriving in the U.S., and apply for residency

This option will allow for you and your significant other to move to the U.S. together and complete the residency application process within the U.S. The K-1 application is said to take about a year or a little less than a year (generally less time than a K-3 visa) to get approved.

     There are positive and negative aspects to each option, and the “correct” choice will vary depending on each person’s situation. For example, while the first option seems like the simplest, I have read of cases where the government does not approve residency, as the marriage is seen as rushed, and therefore must not be for the “right reasons”. Each option takes preparation, which is why it is very important to do your research before making the decision on which choice to take.  

On future posts, I will describe each option with more detail, as I didn’t want to get into the nitty gritty here. For now I will leave you with my suggestions for the day:

1. You may have to pay for a consultation to get all of your questions answered
2. Shop around a bit before choosing a lawyer (especially if you are paying for the first consultation)
3. Know that while it is possible to file the immigration process without a lawyer, it will get tricky and stressful (something that I have realized from day 1 of researching the immigration process)
4. Plan ahead so you and your significant other have time to think about how you would like to go about the immigration process. Each case is different and will therefore need a different plan of attack 

This is where I will end for today. If you have any questions, just leave them in the comment section below. Although I am by NO means a lawyer I will do my best to answer your questions!! Also, I am planning on translating posts into Spanish soon, which may be of help to people. For now, feel free to ask questions in Spanish or English!