Tourist visa in place of a K-1 Visa

Visa – is permission to apply to enter the United States. Foreign citizens must apply for a visa at an American embassy or Consulate abroad, when desiring to travel to the United States. A consular officer decides whether you are qualified for a visa.

In adjudicating visa applications, the Consul at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate is guided by U.S. laws and regulations and not laws of your Fiancee home country. The issuance of non-immigrant visas is governed by the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

U.S. immigration law places the burden of proof on the visa applicant to show that he or she is not planning to immigrate to the United States by using a tourist visa. In other words, each non-immigrant visa applicant must prove to the Consul’s satisfaction that s/he will NOT travel to the U.S. in order to reside there permanently. Each applicant must demonstrate that s/he is traveling to the U.S. for ONLY a temporary stay and has strong ties to home country that will compel him/her to return home.

Documents that provide evidence of the applicant’s social, economic, and/or family ties to Russia, as well as correspondence from relatives or business associates you plan to visit, may facilitate the consular officer’s decision.

Some examples of documents that may be helpful include:

• Evidence of employment. A letter from your employer can be useful.
• Evidence of income (and in some cases evidence of your spouse’s income), such as earnings statements.
• Evidence of immediate family (spouse, children) in Russia.
• Evidence of ownership of property.
• Evidence of ongoing studies if applicant is still a student.
• Evidence of ongoing projects for those in entertainment fields.
• Your old passport bearing earlier visas and entry stamps indicating the date on which you returned to Russia (for those who have traveled to the U.S. previously).

As from my own experience, I did not have any problems in obtaining a private non-immigrant visa (B-2) when I wanted to check out how my future life would look like before I move to the U.S. permanently. And there are several reasons for that.

First, it was 1996 when I applied for B-2 visa. Of course, you say, it is a long time ago, when there were different laws, less restrictions and it was away before September 11 catastrophe.

Secondly, at that time I was a third-year student in law school in Moscow, Russia. I was involved in many international projects especially with U.S. attorneys who visited Russia quite often.

Thirdly, I was one of the lucky one! A lot of people were very surprised when they found out that I obtained my B-2 visa without any problems.

Now days, it is almost impossible for a young unmarried lady to obtain this kind of visa.

See the video here: http://www.siam-legal.com/US_Visa/k1-visa-thailand.php

K1 Visa Documents

There are a need for certain documents:

Proof of Having Met your fiancee in the past 2 years:

Copies of all airline boarding passes, train passes, itineraries, hotel receipts, passport stamps (make sure you can read the dates on the stamps)

Color Photo’s of you and your fiance(e) together. Make sure you write your names, date, and location on the back of every photo. Provide two to five photo’s

Sometime you can add more documents to boost the application such as copies of phone bills, cell phone bills, email etc

See:

• K1 Visa
• K1 Visa Application

K1 Visa Procedure

 K1 and K2 Visa Basic Outline:
Your K1 visa is only the first step in a process ending in a Green Card.

Step 1: 

•  Your file the I-129F petition for your fiancee with the USCIS.  In term so time you are looking at 4 months.

Step 2:

•  After the petition has been approved it is sent to the Department of State’s National Visa Center (NVC) where they process and forwarded it to the correct embassy and consulate.

Step 3:

• Once you have obtained the K1 Fiancee Visa it is good for only 1 entry into the US within 6 months of the issue date. A K2 Visa holder (child) may enter up to one year after the K1, but a K2 Visa holder may not enter America prior to the K1.

Step 4:

• Once in America you have 90 days to get married

Step 5:

• Once married  you must apply for her Adjustment of Status, Form I-485, to become a permanent resident.

Step 6:

• If your I-485 is approved prior to two years after you were married you will be issued a “Conditional” Permanent Resident status (green card) which is valid for only two years.

Step 7:

• If you were given a “conditional permanent residency”, after two years from the date you were granted this status, you will have to apply to have the “Conditional” status removed;

Step 8:

•  The final step is when she applies for American citizenship (naturalization).

See:

• K1 Process
• K1 Visa
• K1 Questions

K1 Fiance Visa – What is it?

What is this K1 Visa:

•  The K1 fiancee visa enables American Citizens to bring their foreign fiancee to the US for the purpose of getting married.

• The K2 visa is to allow unmarried children of the fiancee to move to America as well.

See:

• K1 Visa Procedures
• K1 Visa Application