Fiancé/Fiancée Visas: K-1

Fiancé/Fiancée Visas: K-1

If you are planning to marry a U.S. citizen and will be joining him/her in the United States, your U.S. citizen fiancé(e) should file a Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), also known as a K-1 petition, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), Service Center with jurisdiction over his/her place of residence. It will either be the California Service Center or the Vermont Service Center. Upon approval of the K-1 petition, your case will be transferred to the U.S. Department of State’s National Visa Center (“NVC”). The NVC will perform a name/security check and will then forward your case to the U.S. Embassy in your home country or the country where you legally reside.

The U.S. Embassy will then process your fiancé(e) visa application. There will be a number of forms which must be completed and returned to the Embassy. Once the Embassy has received your completed forms, you will be scheduled for a personal interview at the Embassy. You will also need to undergo a medical examination by an Embassy-approved physician. If your fiancé(e) visa application is approved, you will have six months in which to enter the U.S. with that visa. You must then marry the U.S. citizen, by whom the K-1 petition was filed, within 90 days of your entry to the U.S.

After you are married, you must file a Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Resident or Adjust Status, also known as an application for adjustment of status, with the USCIS National Benefits Center (“NBC”) using a lockbox in Chicago. The NBC will either adjudicate the I-485 application or it will transfer the I-485 application to USCIS Field Office with jurisdiction over your place of residence. You and your U.S. citizen spouse will then be scheduled to appear for a personal interview at the USCIS. If your I-485, application for adjustment of status is approved, you will become a U.S. conditional permanent resident, which will be valid for 2 years.

You and your U.S. citizen spouse must jointly file a Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence within the 90-day period prior to the second anniversary of your becoming a U.S. permanent resident. The I-751 petition should be filed with the USCIS Service Center which has jurisdiction over your place of residence. It will either be the California Service Center or the Vermont Service Center. The USCIS Service Center will either adjudicate your I-751 petition or transfer it to the USCIS Field Office with jurisdiction over your place of residence. If the I-751 petition is transferred, you and your U.S. citizen spouse will likely be scheduled for a personal interview. Upon approval of the I-751 petition, the conditions on your permanent residence will be removed.

If your marriage does not last until the conditions on your permanent residence are removed and you wish to remain in the United States, you will still need to file an I-751 petition, but you will have to request a waiver of the joint filing requirement. There is a much higher standard of review when this type of waiver is requested.

How We Can Help You:

At Ferman Law we will assist you with the preparation of the K-1 petition, including the collection of all of the supporting materials, and determine with which USCIS office to file it. Our goal is to make the entire process as simple and as quick as possible for you. Thus, while your petition is pending, we will prepare as much of the fiancé(e) visa application as possible. We closely monitor our cases, and after your K-1 petition is approved, we will submit the forms for your fiancé(e) visa application to the U.S. Embassy. We will assist you with collecting the required documentation for your personal interview and prepare you for that interview. If an application for a waiver of inadmissibility is required due to a prior criminal conviction, past immigration violation, a communicable disease, etc., we will discuss with you the feasibility of that application and assist you with the collection of the materials which will be needed for it.

Once you enter the U.S. on your fiancé(e) visa and marry the U.S. citizen by whom the K-1 petition was filed, we will assist you with the application for adjustment of status and prepare any further submission needed at the time of your personal interview at the USCIS.

If applicable, during the 90-day period prior to the second anniversary of your becoming a U.S. permanent resident, we will prepare and file your I-751 petition to remove the conditions on your U.S. permanent resident status.