Fiance visa or marriage visa?

Once you and your partner have made the decision that you would like to cement your relationship and live in the US together, you have to decide which visa that you are going to apply for.  There are so many visas that it can seem like a daunting prospect.  

I thought that I would look at the options that were on offer from the USCIS for my wife and I, including whether to apply for a US immigrant visa or a non-immigrant visa, and also whether to go for a fiance visa or a marriage visa?  I will then explain how we came to our decision, in the hope that it might help other couples.

US Immigrant visa or US Non-immigrant visa?

The first thing that my wife and I found out was that US visas are split into two main groups: immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas.  Immigrant visas are for people who want to live in the US indefinitely, whereas non-immigrant visas are for people who want to live in the US temporarily for a specific purpose such as studying, or working for an employer.  

US immigrant visas are usually more expensive and time-consuming to obtain, as far as I am aware, but once you have gone through the process, you can usually become a lawful permanent resident, get your green card, and live and work in the US indefinitely, provided you keep to some basic conditions.

Although a non-immigrant visa is generally cheaper and quicker to get, there are problems if you wish to live in the US with your American fiancee, or fiance indefinitely, as a non-immigrant visa will almost certainly be temporary and you will also most likely be tied to a specific job, or study course.  Although they can often be renewed in some circumstances, it’s bound to be problematic in the long run. 

 

Fiance visa or marriage visa?

My wife and I decided that if we were to be together longterm, then we would have to get married.  This wasn’t a problem for us as we were already committed to being in a lifelong relationship.  The only question was whether we got married first and then I moved to the USA using a marriage visa, or whether I went to the USA with a fiance visa and got married there.    

We discovered that the main practical difference between the two types of visa was that with a K1 fiance visa, I had to move to the US with the undertaking that I would marry my fiancee within 90 days, whereas with the marriage visa, my fiancee and I would have to get married first and then apply for the visa.

The K1 Fiance Visa, which is what we eventually went for, is technically only a non-immigrant visa, but in practice it allowed me to enter the US and get married (we had to get married within 90 days of me entering the USA) and then, once I was married, I was able to apply for a Green Card in order to achieve LPR (Lawful Permanent Residency).  LPR means that you can live and work in the USA indefinitely, provided that you don’t breach certain basic rules.

The reason for our decision to go for a K1 Fiance Visa was that the research we did at the time suggested that the K1 Fiance Visa would work out to be both cheaper and quicker to get than a marriage visa.  The advantage of getting married first and then applying for a marriage visa, which we did not choose, is that I would have got a green card as soon as I arrived in the US, whereas with the fiance visa, I had to go through the I-485 Green Card Application process once I arrived.  

It is important to note, however, that you won't get a fiance visa without meeting the K1 Fiance Visa requirements.

Meeting the K1 Fiance Visa Requirements

Every US immigrant who wants a visa has to meet the specific visa requirements set by the US authorities.  In the case of my wife and I, it was the K1 Fiance Visa requirements that were the relevant ones.  We had to be sure that we met those requirements before we began the process that would eventually allow us to get married and live in the USA together.

Although getting a K1 Fiance visa is more expensive and takes longer than just getting a temporary visa for work or study, you can work and live in the USA more or less indefinitely once you have used your K1 Fiance Visa to enter the USA, got married and have gone through the I-485 green card application procedure.

There were four main K1 Fiance Visa requirements that my wife and I had to meet:

• Firstly, we had to show that we were legally eligible to wed under the laws of the US and my home country, the UK.  This was pretty straightforward for us as neither my fiancee nor I had been married before, so there were no messy ongoing divorces that could potentially get in our way, or anything like that.  (We were both well over the minimum age for marriage as well, I might add!)
  
• Secondly, we had to agree to get married within 90 days of me arriving in the US.  This also was no problem for us.  We were already engaged by that point and had decided upon a very small wedding ceremony, as the thought of trying to organize a big wedding would have been too daunting, distracting and, frankly, expensive for us.  We therefore opted for a simple civil ceremony attended by just a handful of friends.  Done this way, getting married in the US is pretty inexpensive and straightforward, I found, although the rules, costs and legalities do vary from state to state.  We were married in Florida and found the process quick and easy and not at all a strain on our wallets.
  
• The third of the K1 Fiance Visa requirements that I was required to meet was that I would use the K1 Fiance Visa to enter the USA with the sole intention of marrying my fiancee.  I am not a visa lawyer or a US immigration attorney, but I would guess that this clause is meant to help stop people misusing the K1 Fiance Visa.
  
• The fourth and final of the K1 Fiance Visa requirements was that my wife and I had met up during the two years before we filed for the K1 fiance visa.  We fulfilled this requirement and could prove that we had met up more than once over the time period mentioned with flight tickets, photographs, etc.  (I believe that this condition can be waived under certain circumstances, such as if your country or religion has customs that forbid a couple meeting up before marriage, or when the requirement might cause extreme hardship for the US citizen - but you would really have to check this up with the USCIS.)

Getting a Social Security Card as a US immigrant and non US citizen

In this post I thought I would talk about my experience of getting a social security card as a US immigrant and non US citizen, once I had arrived in the USA on my K1 Fiance Visa.  After all my troubles with trying to open a non US citizen bank account, I will not pretend that I was not a little nervous about trying to jump another bureaucratic hurdle.  But a US Social Security Card is essential in America for many things: the social security card itself can be used as proof of ID, plus you need the Social Security Number (SSN) that comes with it too.

The closest thing to a US Social Security Number in the UK, where I am from, is the National Insurance number.  However, we only generally use that for work, tax, and claiming benefits in Britain.  As I mentioned, you need a US Social Security Card and Social Security Number (SSN) for all sorts of things in America.  In the UK, you often have to use your passport as I.D. and occasionally your driving license as I.D.  In the USA, your Social Security Card and Driving License are requested constantly for I.D. purposes and there is no assumption that you have a passport (many Americans don’t have passports).

How do I get a social security card?

You need to find out where your local social security office is.  If you are unsure, look it up on the internet.  I went down to my local social security office with my wife shortly after getting married in Florida.  There was no appointment system, we were told just to turn up and join the queue.  I took along some I.D.: my passport with the I-94 in it and my marriage license.  I also took along a social security form applying for a US social security card and SSN that I had filled out in advance.  The Social Security Office had a lot of similarities with its British equivalent - if you have ever had to make a claim for unemployment or another welfare benefit, you probably won’t be phased by the experience, a waiting room full of bored and demoralized people kept waiting for a long period of time.  The only major difference from Britain was that we were checked over for guns by the security guard on the way in.

Eventually we were seen by one of the ladies at a hatch.  She dealt with my case efficiently and I was told that I would receive my card in about 2 weeks, which turned out to be an accurate.  My social security card was a standard one, apart from it stating on the front that it was "Valid for Work with DHS Authorization Only".  This was because I didn’t have a US green card or EAD.  Once you get your work authorization documents, you can go back to the social security office and they will swap your social security card for one without the legend on it (you need a US green card or EAD).  The SSN stays the same.  Unlike most of the K1 Fiance visa stuff, the social security process was completely free at every stage.

Arriving in the US Port of entry

Arriving in the US Port of entry

The K1 Fiance Visa is a single use visa, that means that you can only use it once and so you had better make the most of it!  Arriving in the US with all my possessions in two suitcases, my passport with visa paper in it, and my sealed envelope with whatever documents the US embassy had decided to put in inside there, I was keen for everything to run smoothly.  After arriving in the US port of entry I followed the crowd as normal to the US customs desks.  Unlike previous visits to the US, when I was a temporary visitor arriving on a visa waiver and it was clear what my status was, this time I was unsure as to which queue that I should stand in as I was neither a tourist, or an American passport holder.  When I asked a kindly US Immigration Officer about it and explained that I was a US immigrant on a K1 Fiance Visa, she started a new queue and put me at the front(!)

I was nervous when a finally got to see a US Immigration Officer at the US customs desk - there was nothing amiss, I was just anxious that having gone through all the trouble of getting my K1 Fiance Visa from the USCIS, nothing should go wrong at the last minute.  As it was busy (I arrived at Orlando, Florida) and the US Immigration officer has to process all of the documents inside the sealed envelope, which takes some time, he directed me through to the waiting area, where I sat around for maybe fifteen minutes before I was called back to the US customs desk.  It took another ten or fifteen minutes to process the contents of my sealed envelope and take my fingerprints etc.  The contents of the sealed envelope appeared to be mainly just the original application documents and evidence from the K1 Fiance Visa process, but I could be wrong.

Eventually it was over and the immigration officials wished me well.  I still had to collect my baggage and go through more security, but I was through the US immigration part.  From now on, I would be living in the USA.