K3 Nonimmigrant VISA

Hello everyone! In this post, I will be explaining another option for obtaining residency in the United States through marriage:

K3 Nonimmigrant VISA

This option requires you to get legally married in the country of the foreign spouse and apply for the K3 VISA through the U.S. consulate in that country. But remember! After getting married, the U.S. resident must file an I-130https://www.uscis.gov/i-130 (this is basically a paper petitioning for the foreigner to become a resident of the U.S. on behalf of his or her spouse) and I-129F https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f petition for the foreign spouse. Once you get this VISA you can go to the U.S where your “status” will be adjusted to a resident instead of a foreigner.

*Note: there is a separate process for adjusting status (a.k.a. applying to become a resident) that is not explained in this post.

As always, feel free to ask me any other questions you may have and I will do my best to answer them! Ready? Let’s get started….

1. Out of all the options for obtaining residency in the U.S. through marriage, which is the cheapest? Applying for the K3 VISA.
2. How much do the filing fees for a K3 VISA cost? The answer to this question is still unclear to me, but I will do my best to answer. There are many fees that come along with any type of VISA (medical examination, printing of all required documents, etc.). The number that my lawyer gave to me was $420 for the filing fee. This is on top of the $500 attorney fee that she charges in order to file the VISA.
3. How long does it take for someone to get the K3 VISA? Since this VISA will be processed in the U.S. consulate of the Foreign Spouse’s home country, processing times will vary. My lawyer told me that in Argentina it takes an average of 10 months, but could take up to a year and a half.  
4. Is there an interview required for the K3 VISA? Yes. The foreign spouse will be interviewed at the U.S. embassy or consulate in his or her country. If there is no U.S. embassy or consulate in the foreign spouse’s country, he or she will be required to go to the nearest one outside of the country. In Argentina it is located in Buenos Aires.
5. How soon can the foreign spouse start working once he or she arrives in the U.S.? It depends (just the answer you wanted, right?;)) According to my lawyer you can start working almost immediately, and do not need to be a resident in order to do so. One needs to file form I-765 https://www.uscis.gov/i-765, application for employment authorization, in order to start legally working. This form generally takes 90 days to be approved.

In my lawyer’s opinion this is the best option in order to become a U.S. resident through marriage. Although this option is not the shortest, it does allow for the non-U.S. resident to stay living and working in their country while all of the paperwork for the VISA is being processed. If after reading this you still have doubts or questions follow this link to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for more information. If that is a little confusing (I know it is for me), follow this link for a simpler step by step “How to” for the K3 VISA. In my next post I will be talking about the final option for becoming a U.S. resident through marriage: the K1 Fiance(e) VISA. Yep! You guessed it! This is the option that my boyfriend and I (or should I say Fiance) decided to take.

Becoming a U.S. citizen takes a lot of work, as I’m sure you have already realized. There are many steps that come with each option, and I have not gone into every last detail on these posts. While researching immigration to the states, I have learned that although it is good to be prepared, there are also some things that you simply will not understand until you yourself actually get to that step in the process. As much as I don’t like it, getting a lawyer is truly helpful. They can help to decode all of the technical terms and make sure that you are turning in all of the paperwork on time. I am by no way advocating that everybody go out and get a lawyer to help with this process, because it can be done without them. After researching everything, and for my particular situation, it seemed like a good idea, but not necessary, to hire a lawyer. See you next time!

Marry in the United States and Apply for Residency

Hello everyone! Even though I haven’t written in months, I didn’t forget about you all. As you know, my original plan was to keep everybody updated as I got new information. I decided it would be best to wait a while before explaining the process, so I could make sure I fully understood what I was explaining and therefore give more precise answers.

In this post, I will talk about one of the options for becoming a United States citizen through marriage:

Marry in the U.S. and apply for residency

On the surface, this may seem like the best way to go. You don’t have to get any VISA before marrying, or wait a certain amount of time before coming to the U.S. You just come, and get married! BUT one very important factor to note is that you must NOT have the intention of getting married when you enter the U.S. in order to later on get approved for residency. Here are two hypothetical situations of couples getting married in the U.S., one couple being approved for residency, and the other not:

Situation # 1: John (a U.S. citizen) met Maria (a Colombian citizen) while studying abroad in Colombia. During John’s year abroad, he fell in love with Maria and proposed to her before he returned to the states. Within a month Maria was on her way to the U.S. to marry the man of her dreams. John and Maria easily got married in the local courthouse, but when they were applying for residency, their lawyer said that they were unable to… Why?

 

Situation # 2: In this situation, John still met Maria while studying abroad, but did not propose to her in Colombia. After John left for the States, Maria came to visit. While the two were touring the U.S. together, John proposed to Maria. Within two weeks they went to the local courthouse and got married. After this, they hired a lawyer to apply for U.S. residency for Maria. In this situation, given that they met all other factors, Maria was approved for residency.

Why couldn’t Maria legally apply for residency in situation # 1, but could in situation # 2? The answer is simple: in situation # 1, Maria entered the U.S. with the intention of marrying John, while in situation # 2, Maria entered the U.S. with the intention of visiting John. In order to legally apply for residency in situation # 1, Maria would have had to apply for a Fiancé VISA before entering the U.S. (I will get back to this option in a later post).

Let’s bring this example back to my situation: My boyfriend proposed to me in the United States. All good and dandy, right? We can get married in the U.S. and easily apply for residency, right? WRONG. If we had married BEFORE he left to Argentina again he could have legally applied for residency through marriage, but we didn’t. So now here we are in Argentina knowing very well that we want to get married and apply for his residency in the States. We can do this, but just not through the option I am explaining in this post. I will get back to what we have done in a different blog entry, but for now let me explain the “Marry in the U.S. and apply for residency” option, as it may be a viable way to apply for residency through marriage for some couples.

*note: My boyfriend has not yet started to apply for U.S. residency, so while the remainder of this post will not mention too much of the ins and outs of applying for residency, it will answer some practical questions that you may have about marrying and life in the U.S. before being approved for residency.

1. Out of all the options for getting residency through marriage, which is the easiest/least time consuming? Getting married in the U.S. and applying for residency.
2. What documents are needed in order to get married in the U.S? The documents needed to marry in the U.S. are different in every state. Click here to find out the requirements for each state. 
3. What is the difference between a getting a K3 immigrant VISA and directly applying for residency? After marrying in the non-U.S. country, the foreigner can apply for a K3 VISA in the U.S. consulate in his or her respective country. If approved, he or she will become a U.S. resident upon entering the states. A K3 VISA requires one to get married in the foreign country, while directly applying for residency requires one to have gotten legally married in the U.S.
4. How long will it take to get approved for residency? Once all of the paperwork is filed, it will take an average of 6- 12 months.
5. How long until the non-U.S. citizen can start working? After sending in the residency paperwork, it will take about 2 months until he or she can start working.
6. When can the non-U.S. citizen get a bank account and driver’s license? He or she can get both right away.
7. How long should we wait from the time we enter the U.S. to the time we get married? There is no rule for this, but one may want to wait at least 30 days… otherwise government officials may suspect that the foreigner came to the U.S. with the intention of getting married, which as I stated before, is not legal.
8. What is the price to apply for residency? The filing fees add up to $1,700.
9. What is the price to hire a lawyer to file the papers necessary to apply for residency? All lawyers’ fees differ, and some are of course cheaper than others. My lawyer in California gave me a price of $3,000. So paying the filing and lawyer’s fees would cost about $4,700. Yep. It’s not cheap.
10. How much income should I and my partner make in order to be eligible for residency? The joint income of you and your partner must be above the U.S. poverty guidelines. The price will depend on the number of people in your household, what state you live in (Alaska and Hawaii have different numbers than the rest of the states), and if the U.S. citizen is on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. Click here to check out the 2015 number.

Did you look at the income numbers? (now would be a good time to do so if you haven’t already). Now that you have looked at them, don’t freak out. Although this may be a lot of money for some people (I am one of those people!), you can have someone “sponsor” the foreign spouse. This means that someone (generally a U.S. family member, in my case my parents) who has this amount of income or more can sign a form saying that they will be responsible for this person, therefore letting your loved one be clear for residency, as far as money requirements go. Of course this sponsorship comes with it’s fair share of responsibilities. Check this site out where it says “Obligation Duration” for more information.

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Don’t worry, I would be concerned if you weren’t. Immigrating to the U.S. (through marriage, or other means) is no cake walk. It takes a lot of time and money. Although all of the forms and lawyer-talk can seem complicated at first, what I’ve realized is that after researching your options and getting multiple opinions, everything becomes a bit clearer. The process that I thought was completely confusing about a year ago, no longer seems that daunting. If you are truly committed and have the financial means to bringing your loved one to the U.S., it will happen!

I answered these questions with the help of my Lawyer and the internet. I hope you have found the information useful. Keep checking back for more information!

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!