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Do not get married here on a tourist visa. You are asking for trouble.
A K visa is an immigrant entry visa for fiances. It gets you in here, but doesn't automatically give you the right to permanently work or stay here. You need to "adjust status" after you K your way in here and get married.
Your can come in on K, get married within 90 days and file for adjustment of status to permanent resident so you can stay and get your employment authorization document (EAD).
We did the same thing and it was fine. It was two years ago and DH (from NZ) just got his conditions removed from his permanent residency. It went smoothly because we did things in the proper order and documented everything like crazy.
My advice is to do it in that order. There are ways you can get married in another country and then he can bring you in on a K3/K4... but a lot of times it ends up being longer and immigration will give you a harder time.
Do things the way that they prefer and USCIS will not give you a problem. Being from Germany, you will not have as hard of a time as if you were from the Phillipines, but get an American lawyer (referred to you by someone who has used him or her). I am an attorney and I still got someone else to file it for me, because I valued the person's specialized experience. Yes, I probably could have done it myself. There's lots of people who file it themselves. I was not willing to deal with the aggravation and time. The attorney's case management system alone was worth it.
It should cost you about $4000-5000 over the two years. $2500 for the attorney's fees and then the rest is all USCIS fees (biometrics, health clearance, immunization, chest xrays, and all the USCIS fees)
There are a lot of crooks that will take your money. Do your homework.
I believe that is not entirely correct. First I'm pretty sure there is no temporary work permit for a K Visa.
KaaBoom is correct. Most ports of entry will not stamp your K visa with a work stamp anymore. JFK was the last place you could get one, but they don't give them out anymore. After you come in on the K visa and get married, you will not be able to work until the Chicago USCIS office approves and send you your Employment Authorization Document (EAD) card. This can take months depending on the wait time. Come here with a good nest egg of money saved up and don't plan on working for at least 3-4 months to be safe.
The fact that the OP says she "just moved here" with her son could be a problem. If she came on a Visa Waiver - which German citizens get, to stay up to 90 days - that's for a temporary visit, only.
The Visa Waiver program was implemented to give citizens from countries which we essentially "trust" a streamlined way to visit the U.S. - i.e. people from countries who have no serious criminal record or intent, but also no reason to want to emigrate illegally because their own countries are stable enough economically and socially to make them only want to visit here. Most (if not all, by now) European countries get Visa Waivers. These are supposed to be people who are not intending to break any laws - like working illegally, staying here illegally beyond the Visa Waiver's duration of 90 days, or lying about their intentions when they enter. In short, the Visa Waiver is a privilege afforded to people who the U.S. believes will not break any rules or try to do anything we don't want them to do.
Suffice it to say that coming here as a WT (Waiver, Tourist) under the guise of "moving here" is an abuse of that privilege. I say this not to insult or point fingers, but because if the OP had told the CBP Officer at the border/airport that her purpose in entering was to "move here" and get married, she would have been denied entry. Again, not here to insult - she may not have known (some people don't).
But the best thing for her to do would be to go back to Germany before her 90 days expires and do things the right way: by going to the U.S. Consulate and getting a K visa - or, if German law allows it - having her fiance come to Germany and getting married there, then getting an Immigrant Visa. This will take a while, too, but there are no short cuts when half of the planet is trying to get into a country and the rules are being abused all day, every day. Sometimes law-abiding, well-intentioned people have to pay the price with patience. That's what security is all about; both physical security and anti-fraud measures like these.
RTgirl is right - I would NOT get married while here as a tourist of any kind. Adjusting status is a pain, but that's just when adjusting status from one visa to another. Adjusting status with a visa WAIVER is a pain, compounded ten times. And if you want to compound it even more, abuse the visa waiver privilege and try to adjust status when you essentially were not 100% truthful about your intentions when you entered. Chances are you'll end up going back first, anyway, but now you're going back with a false entry under your belt. Which will make getting the K Visa that much harder. You'll still be able to do it, but it'll take a lot longer and you'll go to the bottom of the pile - behind the people who, in the eyes of the Consular Officer, DIDN'T try to circumvent the system.
It sounds as though the process has changed somewhat, but when I was an Immigration Inspector, we gave K-1 visa holders a stamp in their passport which was essentially an I-551, or green card, which allowed them to obtain a social security number and work until the actual card showed up in the mail. I guess that's no longer the policy, which makes me think that this process, too, was abused way too much in the past.
Doing things the right way is almost ALWAYS harder than doing them the wrong way.
Hello,
my name is Julia. I moved over from Germany to USA 6 weeks ago with my son.
Me (german) and my boyfriend (american) would like to get married.
We applied already for the "K" Visa a couple of months ago like our lawyer told us to do.
But still after months nothing happend. No reply or anything. At the moment we are in the Staates with a 90 days "Visitor Visa".
A few days ago we contacted another lawyer. He told us we dont need a "K" Visa to get married, because Im from Europe. It would take just some paperwork.
So, which lawyer is right ? Do we need a "K" Visa or not ?
Greetings and Thank you in anticipation!
I am not a lawyer, you're not my client, I may be talking out of my rearside. I am, however, a European K-1 import.
Advice: Do not get married on a Visa Waiver, and doubly so if you have applied for a K-1. The USCIS will look at that K-1 application as an indication that you entered the US with intent to marry, and that's fraud. If you get a nice case worker, they may let it slide. If not, they can make your life pretty miserable.
Generally speaking, it is hard to get any replies out of the USCIS, but you should check to see if the checks that accompanied your application have cleared. If that has happened, then the paper mill is grinding along.
However: You will be expected to show up at a US consulate in Germany for your interview (Frankfurt, when I went through the process). If they approve, you'll get your K-1 stamp and in a few weeks the strange envelope you're expected to carry but never open, and then you can enter the US on a K-1 visa, marry and apply for change of status right away.
We did the entire shebang ourselves, and it was hard, but doable. Read everything you can, double-check everything (we were sent outdated forms), have copies of everything, translations of everything, document everything, and be prepared for friction even so.
I proposed on New Years and we got married in May - but I understand that was an exceptionally easy case.
Man... all these threads are demotivating me and making it seem hopeless.
I've just received my K-1 paperwork and working on getting all my information together, I was sent outdated forms too, but I planned on getting them online to type them in on the computer anyway, so it's no biggie.
Man... all these threads are demotivating me and making it seem hopeless.
Sorry! - hey, I did it, so it's not at all hopeless. Takes some persistence, is all.
Quote:
I've just received my K-1 paperwork and working on getting all my information together, I was sent outdated forms too, but I planned on getting them online to type them in on the computer anyway, so it's no biggie.
See? You caught their mistake, corrected it and moved on. The system is slow and uncaring, but it's not malevolent.
Sorry! - hey, I did it, so it's not at all hopeless. Takes some persistence, is all.
See? You caught their mistake, corrected it and moved on. The system is slow and uncaring, but it's not malevolent.
Hehe, yeah, by accident, and only cause I don't like to handwrite
No, I know it's by no means impossible, it can just be a little daunting at times, especially when I think about our ages (Me, 25 and her soon 22), it goes without saying that we're not nearly as resourceful and well versed in the world of bureaucracy as say, a 35 or 40 year old. (As an example: My way of doing my taxes is generally just to sign the papers and assume they got it right. )
No, don't be discouraged!
It's not hopeless at all- it just takes time.
And money of course
You just need to jump through the right hoops in the right order and not give USCIS any reason to think that you're too impatient or trying to cheat the system.
Do it the right way and everything will be fine.
Try to cut corners and they have no mercy.
A few extra weeks or months will not matter when you have a lifetime ahead of you with no worries about visa problems!
Hello,
my name is Julia. I moved over from Germany to USA 6 weeks ago with my son.
Me (german) and my boyfriend (american) would like to get married.
We applied already for the "K" Visa a couple of months ago like our lawyer told us to do.
But still after months nothing happend. No reply or anything. At the moment we are in the Staates with a 90 days "Visitor Visa".
A few days ago we contacted another lawyer. He told us we dont need a "K" Visa to get married, because Im from Europe. It would take just some paperwork.
So, which lawyer is right ? Do we need a "K" Visa or not ?
Greetings and Thank you in anticipation!
No offense, you sound like a sincerely in love and genuine person who wants to be with her beloved. However, many Americans, I'm one, have been defrauded by foreignors who we discovered too late were more in love with a green card than with us.
I'm not sure what the laws are in the state you are in, but when I was married to a foreignor, it was so easy. I would think your first step would be to look into ways to extend your visa or apply for another type of visa, such as a student visa. That will give you time.
Maybe some states are revising laws due to so much marriage fraud. If you truly love your boyfriend, and I believe you do, be content with time it will take to work out "kinks" in your situation.
May you and your boyfriend have a very long and very fulfilling life together.
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