The Main Requirements For The Fiancé Visa Or The K1 Visa

In this article, you will learn:

• Important information about Fiancé and K1 Visas
• How these visas affect possible children involved
• Options to take if an application was denied and general timelines

You have to be a US citizen to sponsor your fiancé, and you have to prove that it’s a real relationship that you intend to get married within 90 days of your partner coming to the United States. So the process is strict about requiring you to prove that it’s a real relationship and that this isn’t just something you’re doing for immigration purposes.

How Long Fiancé Visas Are Valid

You have to get married within 90 days of arriving in the United States, and you have to come to the United States in theory within six months of the visa being issued. There have been some extensions to that during the pandemic because there’ve been travel bans, and it’s sometimes been impossible actually to comply with the six months’ requirement. But, still, in general, you have six months to come to the United States and then 90 days to get married once you get here.

How Long The K1 Visa Could Take To Be Approved

Lately, the process has generally taken two years. It used to be faster, but the pandemic has slowed it down. However, it may go back to normal for a timeline of about a year in the future.

Your Fiancé’s Ability To Travel To The United States And Live Here While Waiting For The K1 Visa

They cannot live here while waiting for the visa unless they have some other visa that allows them to do that. Still, if they qualify for a visitor’s visa, they can visit according to whatever terms the visitor’s visa will allow them.

Automatic Rejections For A Fiancé Or K1 Visa

There are various reasons someone might be ineligible. So, the first thing is that the sponsor has to be a US citizen, and you have to have the intent to get married. You have to have met each other at least once in person within the last two years before filing unless you have certain exceptions like extreme hardship to the US citizen or that would violate your cultural or social practices. Then, the common reasons someone may be ineligible for a visa are having a certain kind of criminal record, having been in the US illegally before, or having committed immigration fraud before. Any of those can also be disqualifying.

Your Ability TO Bring Your Fiancé’s Children To The US

If they are under 21 and not married, they may be eligible to come to the United States.

Options If Your Petition For A Fiancé Visa Or K1 Visa Was Denied

It depends on the reason for the denial. The first thing is you can choose to file it again, particularly if the evidence of the relationship was weak, the best thing might be to generate more evidence and refile it. So see each other more often, take more pictures, text each other more often, and submit your text logs when you file again—those kinds of things. But sometimes, you want to appeal the decision because if they’ve made a finding of fraud, you don’t want that finding in your record, and you want to get that overturned because it can prevent you from getting it in the future. So you can file within 33 days. It’s not technically an appeal; it’s a motion to reconsider, but you can file that and ask them to review the decision, and you can submit new evidence with that motion. Additionally, you can skip the fiancé visa process, get married in a foreign country, and then petition for a green card for your spouse.

Other Important Information About The K1 Visa Process That You Expect To Happen

People sometimes underestimate how much evidence is necessary to prove a real relationship. Or they’re confused by what that evidence might be. So it would be best if you remembered that it’s a common-sense standard, but it’s common-sense from the perspective of someone that has never met you, doesn’t know anything about you, and doesn’t have any reason to trust you. So, you can use whatever evidence would be persuasive, but you do need to have a lot of evidence.

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