Applying for the K-Visa in Maryland
A K-Visa is a form of visa used specifically for fiancés who are applying for their foreign fiancés to legally enter the US from abroad. It is also available to spouses of US citizens. Most commonly, it is used when adjudication time for an I-130 is too long, to get your Green Card for a spouse.
There are many considerations to take in the application process, such as potential roadblocks in the application and length of the wait time. A Maryland K-Visa lawyer can help you go through all the necessary application steps and ensure that you are prepared at each step of the application process.
Application Process
Fiancés will obtain permanent residence status by having the US citizen petitioner file with form I-129 S. Once that is approved in the US, they can enter the US and their K-Visa will be valid for 90 days. They have to get married to the US citizen petitioner within 90 days from entering the US As soon as the marriage is valid, they will proceed as with any other type of family-based petition. That is by filing the I-130 in conjunction with I-485 and work authorization, and in most cases, I-131 applications for advance parole, which is the travel document. They will apply for all those applications and receive their Green Card in the US.
Considerations
The most important thing for someone to do to ensure that their fiance’s visa will not be denied is to provide documentary evidence of their relationship. They want to prove that the relationship goes back as far as possible. If they have been talking online for a couple of years, they want to make sure that they do things to demonstrate their status that this is a real relationship and it is not entered into just for immigration purposes. The suspicion that it is entered into just for immigration purposes, in the K-Visa context, can be higher than that when there is a spouse involved.
The child of a fiancé may enter the US under the K-Visa as well, but the child has to be under 21 and the K-Visa beneficiary needs to prove that they have legal custody of the child and permission to bring the child abroad.
Potential Roadblocks
The most common roadblock is proving a bona fide relationship. In many cases, these can be internet-based relationships where couples met online or there may have been a marriage broker involved or some sort of international dating service. They are commonly used for these types of applications.
In all of those kinds of non-traditional types of applications, they are stringent about evaluating the bona fides of their relationship. An applicant really wants to make sure that they have enough documentary evidence to prove that it is a real relationship even though it has not yet resulted in a marriage.
Factors of Location
Someone’s fiancé can work in the US while on a fiancé visa, but it is not automatic and they need to apply for a work authorization document as soon as they enter the US. They are not automatically eligible for employment just because they entered with a K-Visa. In many cases, it is not worth applying for because it will most likely take several weeks, if not months, to get work authorization and by that time, they will have to apply for their Green Card. Most people do not bother applying for their fiancé’s work status.
If someone’s fiancé is already in the US on another status and they decide to get married early, they should marry in the US and apply for adjustment of status application. The fiancé visa will not be necessary.
Time Considerations
The process to get the K-Visa depends on the USCIS adjudication time. Now it is about 5 months to have it approved domestically. Someone will have to go through another few weeks of National Visa Center processing and wait for their local Consular Embassy to schedule them for an interview. If they do not get married within the 90 days allotted to them, their K-Visa status will be terminated and they will be out of status within the US and will need to depart immediately.
Conditional Permanent Residence Status
A Conditional Permanent Resident Status is a status that people are put into if they have been married to the US petitioner for less than 2 years at the time of filing. If someone has entered on a K-Visa, married, and applied for their Green Card after entering the US, they will be placed under Conditional Permanent Residence Status.
To revoke a status, two years after someone receives their Conditional Permanent Residence Status, they will have to file an application to remove conditions on your residency. That is through the USCIS form I-751, and they will have to prove that the relationship was bona fide at the time it was entered into. It is straightforward if the couple is married, but if they have been divorced during that two-year period of their conditional residency, they will have to re-litigate the bona fides of their relationship and show that even though the marriage has disintegrated, it was valid at the time when it was entered into.
Same-Sex Couples
An attorney can play the same role in a same-sex family-based petition as they can in any other family-based or marriage-based petitions. The most important thing is documenting the bona fides of their relationship. One challenge with people in same-sex marriages who have previously been married to a spouse of the opposite sex is that sometimes there is a requirement to prove bona fide relationships in these cases. The requirement is that you need to prove that your relationship is real and it is not being entered into solely for immigration purposes. That rule is same for everyone. An immigration attorney in Maryland can help when any potential roadblocks that come up in a K-Visa application.