S
Skyojedi
Guest
What is the name of your state? Texas
I've searched the forums already and found some answers to parts of my situation, but have not found anything that really fits the whole situation, so I'd like to ask here for any advice anyone can give me.
I am engaged to a Japanese citizen, and we filed an I-129F for her fiance visa on April 1, 2003. I was told by BCIS and others that the process would take about 4-6 months to complete, which would mean her visa would be issued by September, 2003. Based on this, we scheduled a wedding for November 1st, 2003 and have already booked and paid for some of this. During a recent status check on her visa earlier this week, I was told that Texas is so heavily backlogged that it is now averaging 7 months for processing the first step and then sending it on the US Embassy in her country (Japan in this case) and proceeding on the actual K-1 procedure, including medical exam, documentation and the personal interview. This will take much too long and cause us to miss our scheduled November wedding and lose several thousand dollars as some of this money is non-refundable. We are trying to see if there is anyway to either expedite (speed up) the processing of her visa or some legal way we can get married here while waiting for the process to finish. The following, then, are my questions, and I would appreciate any answers anyone can give me.
1.) Is there any way to speed up the processing of the I-129F or the visa process?
2.) Can she enter the US as a tourist so that we can get married in November as planned? If so, will getting married before her fiance visa is finalized cause her fiance visa to be denied?
3.) If she comes into the US before her fiance visa is finalized, is there any way for her to remain in the US, and possibly perform some steps in stage 2 of the process, while she is waiting?
4.) If we get married in the US in November, while she is here as a tourist, and she then returns to Japan afterwards to fulfill the step 2 obligations (medical exam, personal interview, etc.), will she still be able to get her fiance visa approved even though we would be married?
5.) If we do get married in November, can we then file for change of status on her visa application to a spouse visa instead of a fiance visa (since she will be married before the fiance visa is approved)? Can she remain in the US while this adjustment is made, and while the new type of visa is processed?
6.) Otherwise, does anyone have any other suggestions for us as to how to still get married in November and do so legally without tremendously complicating her visa process and maybe getting it denied?
Thanks!
Jon
I've searched the forums already and found some answers to parts of my situation, but have not found anything that really fits the whole situation, so I'd like to ask here for any advice anyone can give me.
I am engaged to a Japanese citizen, and we filed an I-129F for her fiance visa on April 1, 2003. I was told by BCIS and others that the process would take about 4-6 months to complete, which would mean her visa would be issued by September, 2003. Based on this, we scheduled a wedding for November 1st, 2003 and have already booked and paid for some of this. During a recent status check on her visa earlier this week, I was told that Texas is so heavily backlogged that it is now averaging 7 months for processing the first step and then sending it on the US Embassy in her country (Japan in this case) and proceeding on the actual K-1 procedure, including medical exam, documentation and the personal interview. This will take much too long and cause us to miss our scheduled November wedding and lose several thousand dollars as some of this money is non-refundable. We are trying to see if there is anyway to either expedite (speed up) the processing of her visa or some legal way we can get married here while waiting for the process to finish. The following, then, are my questions, and I would appreciate any answers anyone can give me.
1.) Is there any way to speed up the processing of the I-129F or the visa process?
2.) Can she enter the US as a tourist so that we can get married in November as planned? If so, will getting married before her fiance visa is finalized cause her fiance visa to be denied?
3.) If she comes into the US before her fiance visa is finalized, is there any way for her to remain in the US, and possibly perform some steps in stage 2 of the process, while she is waiting?
4.) If we get married in the US in November, while she is here as a tourist, and she then returns to Japan afterwards to fulfill the step 2 obligations (medical exam, personal interview, etc.), will she still be able to get her fiance visa approved even though we would be married?
5.) If we do get married in November, can we then file for change of status on her visa application to a spouse visa instead of a fiance visa (since she will be married before the fiance visa is approved)? Can she remain in the US while this adjustment is made, and while the new type of visa is processed?
6.) Otherwise, does anyone have any other suggestions for us as to how to still get married in November and do so legally without tremendously complicating her visa process and maybe getting it denied?
Thanks!
Jon