10 Important Points to Keep in Mind for Successful K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa Application

1. 10 Important Points to Keep in Mind for Successful K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa Application https://globallawcenters.com/ Finally, you are ready to sponsor your fiancé so that he or she can reunite with you in the U.S. It means that wedding is on your mind and you are making all great preparations for the same. In all the excitement, you must not take the K-1 fiancé visa application casually. This is because the denial rate for the K-1 has increased in the past couple of years. The statistics show that while the 90.5% of the K-1 visa petitions were approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the FY 2016, the percentage dropped to 66.2 a FY later. The visa program fell under scrutiny following the involvement of K-1 visa holders in the 2015 San Bernardino mass shootings. However, it was under President Trump’s administration that strict vetting of K-1 visa petitioners has begun to happen. In order to make fiancé visa application and approval free of hassles, you must be familiar with every important detail of the process. Here are some very useful things you should be familiar with. 1. Know the Timeline Are you planning to see your fiancé in the U.S. few months from now? Make sure you know the timeline and processing time of K-1 visa and file the application accordingly. In general: The USCIS may take 5-7 months before your case file is transferred to the National Visa Centre (NVC). A month or so would take the NVC to complete the required formalities before the petition is routed to the U.S. Embassy in your fiancé’s country. The processing at the Embassy may take up to 2.5 months. You can expect up to 10 months of time period before the visa is finally issued. So, make your wedding preparations accordingly. 2. 90 Days to Marry At the same time, you must also remember that you would have 90 days (from the date of his or her arrival in the U.S.) to marry your fiancé. Failing in that, your fiancé would have to leave the country and go back to her home country after 90 days. So, be sure that you intend to marry him or her within the prescribed period before filing the visa petition. The USCIS would require you and your fiancé to submit the intent to marry in written.

2. 3. Your Social Media Life under Surveillance The USCIS, the U.S. Embassy or any other authority involved in the visa approval process may go through your social media profiles or those of your fiancé. According to the U.S. government’s policy, they are authorized to screen the petitioner’s and his or her fiancé’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram profiles and posts to decide the petition’s approval. Be careful what the two of you (and also your social media connections) post about your relationship. These authorities may deny the visa approval if they find something not in accordance with what you claim. 4. Last Meeting with Fiancé The USCIS requires that you must have met your fiancé personally or face-to-face at least two years before the date of K-1 visa application. Make sure that you have fulfilled this requirement and have enough evidences to prove the same. One great idea is to document you last visit to your fiancé well. Preserve the copies of flight tickets, restaurant bills, credit card statements, photographs and other possible proofs. Also, visit the common relatives and friends who may later attest the affidavits confirming the meeting. 5. U.S. Citizenship or Green Card You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for a K-1 fiancé visa and sponsor your fiancé to enter the U.S. The U.S. green card holders are no eligible to file the petition for fiancé visa program. Check if you are only a green card holder, but eligible to be granted the U.S citizenship. If yes, you must obtain the U.S. citizen status before starting the process of K-1 visa application. 6. Children of Your Fiancé If your fiancé has children from his or her earlier marriage, K-1 visa doesn’t authorize them to enter U.S. with their parent. Once the K1 visa is approve for your fiancé, he or she would need to apply for K-2 visa for his or her children to come along. Some important requirements for it are: The child/children should be below 21 years of age (till the K1 or K2 visa is approved). The child/children should be unmarried. Your fiancé should have the legal custody and permission to take the child/children out of the home country.

3. 7. Are You Both Single? Both the K-1 visa petitioner and his or her fiancé should be eligible for marriage under the U.S. laws. In other words, each one of you must be single at the time of filing the petition for the fiancé visa. If you or your fiancé has a divorce pending, wait for it to finalize. Remember that even if you are sure about the issue of divorce by the court of law, don’t take the decision to forward the visa application at this premature stage. The USCIS will require the divorce or death certificate for any previous spouse to certain that the two of you are single and eligible to get married. 8. Sufficient Income Proof Whenever a U.S. citizen sponsors someone from other country, he or she must meet the sufficient income guidelines as stated by the federal government. You must be aware of the fact that these guidelines keep on changing and you must be aware of the latest ones while applying for K-1 fiancé visa. As per the present scenario, the petitioner’s income should be at least 100% of the federal poverty guidelines. It is to ensure that the applicant would be able to financially support his or her fiancé on arrival in the U.S. Once you get married and your partner applies for the green card, your income should be at least 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. 9. Multiple K-1 Petitions If you had filed two or more K-1 petitions in the past, you must apply for a waiver to become eligible for a fresh L-1 fiancé visa petition. In case one of your past petitions was approved in the past two years, again you would need to apply for a waiver. Requesting a waiver is very simple. All you need to do is write and application to the USCIS, providing details about the past petition. You would also mention that your relationship with the intended beneficiary didn’t work and the marriage was not pursued. 10. Know Your Fiancé Lastly, make sure that your fiancé is absolutely eligible to be granted the K-1 visa. He or she should not have serious criminal records, drug addiction and serious communicable disease or dangerous disorder. He or she should not have committed any immigration violations to enter the U.S illegally in the past. Rather than getting denied for K-1 visa due to any of these reasons, it would be appropriate to find a solution in advance to filing the petition. It is better that you fill in the K-1 application after consulting with an immigration consultant or attorney. Alternatively, get your application reviewed from an expert before you file it with the USCIS.