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.