If your partner is American and you are planning to get married, you should definitely resort to the fiance visa or k1 visa, with the fiancé visa the spouse will be able to apply for permanent residency.
Introduction
The K-1 “fiance visa” is a non-immigrant visa for the foreign national fiancé of a U.S. citizen. The K-1 visa allows the foreign national fiancé to travel to the United States and marry his U.S. sponsor within 90 days of arrival.
What is a K1 visa?
If you are a U.S. citizen who wants to marry a non-citizen, you may be eligible to use a K-1 visa to bring your partner to the U.S. for your wedding. With this type of visa, commonly called a fiancé visa, your future spouse can enter the U.S. within 90 days of your wedding. After you are married, your spouse can apply for adjustment of status and apply for a green card.
Important note: You cannot self-petition for a fiancé visa in the U.S. Instead, your U.S. citizen partner must petition the government on your behalf. Only U.S. citizens are eligible to petition the government for K-1 visas – unfortunately, if you are a green card holder, you cannot sponsor your fiancé for this type of visa.
Visa K1 requirements
If you wish to use a fiance visa to bring your fiancé to the United States, you must intend to marry within 90 days of your arrival. In addition, you must meet these requirements:
You must be a U.S. citizen. Lawful permanent residents with green cards are not eligible to sponsor fiancés to come to the United States.
Both of you must be eligible to marry. If either of you were previously married, you will need to prove to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that your previous marriage was legally terminated. That means you will need a divorce decree, proof of an annulment, or a death certificate.
You must prove that you are in a bona fide relationship. You will need to show USCIS that you and your future spouse are not married in order for one of you to get an immigration benefit.
You must show that you have met in person at least once in the last two years. However, if meeting your prospective spouse would create extreme hardship or if it would violate cultural, religious, or social norms, you may be eligible for a waiver to this requirement.
The U.S. citizen petitioner must earn enough money and prove it with a tax return to meet or exceed 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. If the U.S. citizen petitioner cannot meet the requirement alone, he or she must find a joint financial sponsor to file an Affidavit of Support.
Approved K1 visa which follows
Once you have received your immigrant visa, you must enter the United States within the validity period of the visa in order to obtain your registration number or Form I-551 (green card) that will allow you to reside and work in the United States.
- You will receive your visa and a sealed package through the mail service.
- Your visa will be affixed to your passport. Please check the information on the visa and on the letter affixed to the package to ensure that the information is correct. If not, please contact us.
- Do not open the unopened visa package, you must hand it unopened to the immigration officer at the port of entry.
- You must pay the USCIS fee (except for K visas and returning resident visas) before traveling to the United States. For more information, please see below.
- Please pay attention to the visa expiration date. You must enter the United States before that date.
- At the port of entry, the Immigration officer will take your immigrant visa packet and assign you an “alien number”. The officers will stamp your passport with this number and note that you have registered for an alien registration card.
- It usually takes several months for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to process and send you the card. In the meantime, the stamp in your passport will allow you to work and travel until you receive your card. You will be able to leave and enter the U.S. before you receive it as long as your passport stamp has not expired. However, if you wish to leave the U.S. and your passport stamp has expired and you have not received your green card yet, you must contact the DHS office in the U.S. BEFORE your departure to secure permission to return. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to board the flight to return to the United States.
- If in the future, you plan to reside outside the U.S. for more than 12 months, you must apply for a reentry permit in the U.S. BEFORE you leave. The maximum validity of this document is two years. If your departure from the U.S. is permanent, you must formally abandon your permanent resident status by completing and submitting Form I-407 (PDF-653KB) with your green card at the Consulate. Without the reentry permit, any absence from the U.S. for 12 months or more, or an established residence outside the U.S., will be grounds for loss of your permanent resident status.
- Please check the rights and responsibilities of being a lawful permanent resident of the United States.