Fiancé Visa

Waiving the Meeting Requirement for an K1 Visa Application

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I am trying to secure a fiancee visa. The problem I have is that I can not obtain a passport due to owing child support. The question I have is there any other way I can get her here without traveling to her country? She lives in Uzbekistan. Is there another type of visa we can get so that she may travel here.

The law allows USCIS to waive the meeting requirement where there is extreme hardship or a long established custom. To put this in perspective, in 2003 the USCIS Office of Administrative Appeals (AAO) ruled that there was no extreme hardship in a case where the US sponsor refused to meet his fiance during the Afghanistan war because they could have met in a third country.  I don’t think your failure to pay child support would make you eligible for a waiver.

Six Month Waiting Period Before Fiance Can Remarry

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I had a question about getting a fiance visa. I recently got divorced from my exwife. My ex and I have been separated for quite some, but for financial reasons we just finalized the divorce on August 31st. I live in the state of Oklahoma. I did not realize that in this state there is a six month waiting period after the divorce is granted that they do not allow you to marry someone else. Will this stop me from filing for a finace visa until the six month period is up, since she would not even be here for me to marry until after the six month period was complete or can I go ahead and file it?  My fiance lives in Thailand and yes we have met.

You must be “free to marry” at the time you file the petition so in your case, you will need to wait until the six months are up.

Fiancé Visa Processing in Guangzhou, China

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In recent months, we have been seeing the US Consulate in Guangzhou China take a much harder line on K-1 visa applicants.  In the past, the vast, vast majority of cases being approved on the day of application.  Now we are seeing applicants turned away with requests for further documentation.  This is becoming a hardship on some of our K-1 clients as many do not live in or near Guangzhou and most have to take 1-3 day train ride or fly to the city for their visa interviews.  The Consulate does allow applicants to mail in additional documentation but they require the applicant to return personally or hire a local to pick up the passport with the K-1 visa stamp.  Moreover, the Consulate is quoting a response time of 6-8 weeks to make a decision on the K-1 visa after submitting the additional documentation.

We have also been receiving many reports and requests for help from pro se filers who have received these requests for documentation or even for denials.  While it appears that, after review, many of the denials were the result of poor interviews, many requests for documentation were the result of the Consulate’s insistence extreme documentation of the relationship between the parties.  The Consulate’s requests have been quite uniform in these cases and we are now able to better advise of clients when preparing the K-1 visa applications.  In addition to these new documentation requirements, we are educating our clients and are performing mock interview sessions to prepare for the real interview.  It is very important that applicants avoid a denial at all costs because once the case is denied, it makes further applications extremely difficult and time consuming.

While these new K-1 visa policies ar Guangzhou make the application more difficult and time consuming, we have adopted and our clients are more prepared than ever and most are getting their visas the same day as the interview.  For the few that get the request for documentation, we have been able to get final approvals in 1-2 weeks instead of the 6-8 weeks quoted by the Consulate.

K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa: IMBRA Limitations and Waivers

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The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) created harsh reporting requirements for US persons who seek to meet foreign nationals through dating services.  IMBRA requires that potential US petitioners disclose certain criminal and marital history to matchmaking service companies before the companies may assist them in finding foreign natioanls interest in American suitors.   If the US petitioner does not disclose this information to the matchmaking company, he or she must still do so on the fiancé(e) visa application form (Form I-129f).  Additionally, when the foreign fiancé(e) applies for the visa at the US Consulate, the Consular officer will ask if the couple met through a matchmaking or dating service and where he or she was made aware of the US petitioner’s criminal and marital history.  Failure to disclose will result is a denial of the fiancé(e) visa and can also lead to civil and criminal penalties of up to $25,000 per violation and 5 years in prison.

US petitioners must disclose:

1.  Domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and neglect, dating violence, elder abuse, and stalking.

2.  Homicide, murder, manslaughter, rape, abusive sexual contact, sexual exploitation, incest, torture, trafficking, peonage, holding hostage, involuntary servitude, slave trade, kidnapping, abduction, unlawful criminal restraint, false imprisonment, or an attempt to commit any of these crimes.

3.  Crimes relating to a controlled substance or alcohol where the petitioner has been convicted on at least three occasions and where such crimes did not arise from a single act.

IMBRA also mandates certain filing limitations be US petitioners.  If the US petitioner has filed two or more K-1 visa petitions at any time in the past, or previously had a K-1 visa petition approved within two years prior to the filing of the current petition, the US petitioner cannot obtain an approved Form I-129f without obtaining a waiver of these limitations.   These limitations do not apply to petitioners for a K nonimmigrant visa for an alien spouse (K-3 visa).

In order to obtain an IMBRA waiver, the US petitioner must demonstrate why a waiver would be appropriate along with evidence in support of the waiver.  If the US petitioner has committed a violent offense, a waiver may also be obtained if extraordinary circumstances exist which show that the US petitioner was acting in self defense or that he or she was not the primary perpetrator of violence in the relationship or that there was no serious bodily injury in the offense committed.

IMBRA also requires USCIS to maintain a database to track K-1 visa and K-3 visa applications.  If a US petitioner applied for a second or subsequent K-1 visa or K-3 visa, the USCIS will notify the US petitioner and foreign beneficiary of the number of previously approved petitions listed in the database. USCIS will also send the beneficiary a pamphlet containing information on legal rights and resources for immigrant victims of domestic violence.

Since enacted, IMBRA has created a burden on US petitioners as well as international matchmaking service companies.  It has also led to many denials of K-1 visa and K-3 visa applications.  It is not uncommon, especially for unrepresented applicants, for Form I-129f cases to be approved by USCIS but later denied at the US Consulate for minor, unintentional errors.  Because IMRA imposes filing limitations where a Form I-129f was approved within the last two years, the US petitioner cannot simply reapply if the first application was denied at the US Consulate.