Fiancé(e) Visa Lawyer

Documents Required for K-1 Visa Petition

Quite a bit of documentation is necessary for your K-1 Visa petition. It may seem overwhelming, but every document serves as a piece of evidence for USCIS. Below is a general list of what kind of evidence is necessary for your petition and what types of documents will suffice as evidence. These can all be submitted in copy form.

For the U.S. Citizen Petitioner, you will need:

• Evidence of your U.S. Citizenship
  • Sufficient documents:
    • U.S. Birth Certificate
    • Naturalization or Citizenship Certificate
    • Current U.S. Passport
• Evidence that any prior marriages have ended (If Applicable)
  • Sufficient documents
    • Divorce Decree
    • Annulment Order
    • Death Certificate
• Two Passport style photos

For the Foreign Fiancé, you will need:

• Two Passport Style Photos
• Evidence that any prior marriages have ended (If Applicable)
  • Sufficient documents:
    • Divorce Decree
    • Annulment Order
    • Death Certificate
• Current passport

From both, you will need:

• Signed Statements of Intent to Marry
• Documentation of upcoming wedding plans (If Applicable)
• Evidence that you have met in person in the past two years
  • Sufficient documents:
    • Photos
    • Correspondence (Email, text, phone, etc.)
    • Travel itineraries
• Evidence of your legitimate relationship
  • Sufficient documents:
    • Photos
    • Correspondence (Email, text, phone, etc.)
    • Statements from friends and family
    • Etc.

How Long does it take to get a K-1 Visa?

Because petitioning, applying for, and receiving a K-1 Visa is a multistep process, and the timing can vary during each step, it is difficult to know exactly how long it will take to receive your K-1 Visa and when you can travel to the United States.

Typically, you can expect to wait around six months for your petition, Form I-129F, to be reviewed and approved by USCIS.

However, approval of your petition is only the first step in the process of obtaining a K-1 Visa.

Once your I-129F is approved, it takes about a month (or more) for the National Visa Center to contact your fiancé’s local consulate.

The timing for your consulate to schedule an interview with your fiancé can vary greatly.
Because of ever-changing political circumstances across the world, waiting times at your closest consulate can vary greatly.

Preparing for the Interview

The K-1 Visa interview may seem like a daunting step in the process of obtaining your visa. However, as long as you are prepared there should be nothing to worry about. After your I-29F has been approved and you have filed your Form DS-160, the Department of State will schedule your interview at the nearest U.S. Consulate. The purpose of the interview is to ensure the validity of your relationship. Only the foreign fiancé will attend this interview.

Make sure to bring your DS-160 confirmation page, your current passport, your birth certificate, your medical exam, your affidavit of support (Form I-134), two passport style photos, and any evidence you have showing the legitimacy of your relationship to your interview.

During the interview, the officer will ask questions to help them determine the legitimacy of your relationship.

Be prepared to explain how you and your fiancé met, your first dates, when you got engaged and how long you’ve been engaged, and what your plans for married life are.

It is very important not to lie during the interview.

If all goes well, the officer will approve your K-1 Visa and you will soon be on your way to the U.S. to get married!

Cost of a K-1 Visa

Immigration to the U.S. is not cheap. The filing fee for Form I-129F, the first step in the process, is $535. The next step, filing the DS-160, costs $265. The cost of the medical exam varies by provider, however, be prepared to spend a several hundred dollars for that, as well.

There are other miscellaneous fees that can vary—like the cost of getting passport style photos, vaccination fees, travel expenses, etc.

Therefore, it is important to be financially prepared for this process.

Finally, once you are in the U.S. and married, the filing fees for your adjustment of status application are $1,140, plus a biometrics fee of $85.

What’s the difference between a K-1 Visa and a K-3 Visa?

A K-3 Visa allows the spouse of a U.S. citizen to enter the U.S. while waiting for their green card. The couple must be married, and the U.S. based petitioner must be a U.S. citizen, not a legal permanent resident.

However, K-3 Visas are rarely used due to their longer processing times and redundancy.
The spouse of a U.S. citizen is eligible for a CR-1 Visa, which is obtained by filing a Form I-130 Petition, and CR-1 Visas tend to have faster processing times than K-3 Visas.

The process of obtaining a K-3 Visa is essentially the same as obtaining K-1 Visa.

The major differences are that there is no filing fee associated with the petition for a K-3 Visa, the couple must be married, not engaged, and the longer processing times.

What is the Meet in Person Requirement and How Can I get it Waived?

Generally, you and your fiancé must have met in person in the two years prior to you filing your petition. There are two exceptions to this rule. The first is if meeting in person would violate strict and long-established social, cultural, or religious norms.

The second is if meeting in person would result in extreme hardship to the U.S. petitioner.

The first exception can be established easily—however, the second exception is much broader and more difficult to prove.

It is up to USCIS’s discretion to grant a waiver of the meet in person requirement.
Further, the extreme hardship the petitioner would face if forced to meet in person must be properly and adequately documented. This can be difficult.

For example, in June 2021, the Administrative Appeals Office of USCIS denied the appeal of a
petitioner who claimed he would face extreme hardship if required to meet his fiancé in person.

The petitioner claimed that meeting this requirement would cause extreme hardship because he is blind and that he would be arrested in Iran for failing to serve in their military. USCIS denied his appeal because the petition failed to adequately support these claims would result in extreme hardship.

The petitioner did not provide evidence to USCIS that being blind limited his ability to travel, nor did he provide support for his claims that he would be arrested for not serving in the Iranian military.

Finally, the petitioner ignored or failed to provide evidence that meeting in a third country would result in extreme hardship.

This administrative decision is a great example of how difficult it can be to prove the extreme hardship waiver to the meet in person requirement. Not only does the petitioner have to face extreme hardship if forced to meet in person, but they also must be able to thoroughly document that extreme hardship.

Finally, there can be no other feasible alternatives for that extreme hardship to satisfy the waiver requirement. Even if you can meet all the requirements for the waiver, it is still up to USCIS’s discretion to grant the waiver. Therefore, if meeting in person is at all feasible, it is best do so.

Criminal Convictions that Can Cause Issues

Certain criminal convictions cause one to become inadmissible to the United States.

Before the K-1 applicant can schedule their consulate interview, they must submit a police certificate from every place you have lived for more than six months.

This is to show USCIS that you are not inadmissible to the United States due to criminal charges.

You can find out how to request police certificates from different countries at this Department of State site. In general, crimes involving “moral turpitude” or crimes involving theft can amount to inadmissibility.

Please seek the advice of an experienced immigration attorney if you have criminal charges that may cause issues with your fiancé visa.

Further, there are certain convictions a U.S. petitioner may have that can disqualify them from petitioning for their foreign fiancé.

In general, any offenses against a minor will automatically disqualify one from being able to petition for their fiancé.

However, there are other criminal convictions that, while not automatically disqualifying, will likely lead to challenges to your petition.

Domestic violence charges can be problematic for a petitioner. If the petitioner has a history of domestic violence, those convictions may alert USCIS to a potential pattern of behavior.

How do I gather evidence of the termination of my previous marriage?

If either you or your foreign fiancé has been married previously, you must show proof that that marriage has ended when filing your fiancé petition.

The evidence showing the termination of your prior marriage varies depending on how your prior marriage ended.

If your marriage ended because your spouse passed away, then a copy of their death certificate is sufficient evidence to show that your marriage has ended.

If your prior marriage ended in divorce, then a copy of your divorce decree will suffice.

Obtaining a copy of your divorce decree or a copy of a death certificate differs depending on the location.

Usually, states in the U.S. have a vital records office where birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, and divorce decrees can be obtained.

For those looking for copies of divorce decrees or other similar documents abroad, there should be a civil registrar where those documents can be found.