Regardless of the country in which your fiancee resides, the K1 FIANCEE VISA is the only correct visa for immigrating to the U.S. to marry. The K1 is a single entry visa that is obtained after your fiancee attends an interview at a U.S. Consulate abroad where she resides. A K visa cannot be issued inside the U.S. (See, "Already in the U.S." if your fiancee is in the U.S.)

When a foreigner receives the fiancee visa, he or she has 6-months to use it to enter the United States. Upon entry, it converts to a 90-day stay. The couple must either marry within 90 days of arrival in the U.S. or return home. If the foreigner marries someone other than you "the petitioner" and tries to stay, then he or she will eventually be deported. The 90-day time for marriage cannot be extended. If you do not marry within 90 days, the foreigner must leave the U.S.A. or eventually be deported (with very few exceptions). The rules are strict.

As long as your foreign fiancee enters the U.S. on a fiancee visa and you marry within 90 days, then she is welcome to remain in the U.S. and apply to become a U.S. permanent resident "green card" holder based on your marriage. Eventually, she can also apply for U.S. citizenship. The U.S. allows dual citizenship.

The immigration law firm of Allan S. Lolly & Assoc. APC has been obtaining K1 fiancee visas since 1991, formally know as Holmes & Lolly. We have obtained over 10,000 visas from more than 130 countries for American citizen clients in all 50 states as well as for Americans living overseas, both in the military and as civilians.

If you are interested in hiring us for your K1 fiancee visa, please give us a call. We do not charge for phone consultations as we believe it is the best way for us to learn about your situation and, more importantly, for you to develop a confidence in our level of expertise.
(Please also see, Do I need an Attorney?)

K1 Visas from Poorer Countries

We have had clients who, before they engaged our services, tried every trick in the book to bring foreign fiancees to the U.S. for marriage. Several have had their pastors write invitation letters for their fiancees to come as visitors. Many have had their companies write invitations for business. Others have attempted to obtain visas for students, J-1 exchanges, H-1 employees, etc. Not only were they unsuccessful in their efforts, but some have been accused of fraud and barred from the U.S. for lying to an immigration officer. At a minimum, they greatly increased the time it took us to bring their fiancees to the U.S. on a K1 visa and they made our work much more difficult in obtaining the K-1.

Those who try to take shortcuts with immigration are asking for trouble. Most of the few unmarried women who manage to obtain a B-1/B-2 visitor visa to the U.S. from "an agent" or "travel agent" in her country have been arrested by Border Inspection officers at the airport when they entered the U.S. Often the fiancee does not even know how the agent fraudulently altered paperwork to obtain the visitor visa for her. Those who get past airport screening have been investigated for fraud when the couple marries and she applies for her permanent resident "green card." Once caught, the fiancees (or foreign wives if they married) have been deported from the U.S. and some have been BARRED FROM ENTERING THE U.S. for 3, 5, or 10 years.

Be careful taking legal advice from a "foreign agent" (or from a "friend" who has been through the process). Agents are unlicensed and unregulated. When a problem arises, the agent is nowhere to be found. Friends disappear and you are on your own. It pays to call a qualified, licensed US immigration attorney for advice before taking steps on your own. Sometimes, there is so much damage done to a case we can no longer help.

K1 Fiancee Visa from Developed Countries

If your fiancee is from one of the wealthier "developed" countries of the world (England, Canada, France, Australia, etc.) she can probably get into the U.S. without a K1 visa. For example, she can likely visit on a B visa or visa waiver, attend school on an F or J visa, etc. However, for those who intend to marry a United States citizen, the K1 is appropriate and it is advisable for several reasons to obtain a fiancee visa before the marriage.

Each visa has a stated purpose. The foreigner must declare that purpose when applying for the visa and must again declare that purpose at the port of entry when using the visa to cross into the U.S. Reasons for entry are recorded in the documents and by the immigration inspector. If your fiancee attempts to enter the US for the purpose of marriage, but on the wrong type of visa, experienced officers can often detect a problem and send the foreigner to secondary inspection.

For those who clear inspection, enter the US and marry on the wrong visa, the USCIS generally has the right to require her to depart the U.S. after marriage. When this occurs US immigration laws require you to file for a spousal visa to re-enter the U.S. Your wife will probably not be allowed to visit you in the US while the spousal visa is pending, which will take time. In addition, immigration officials will not be pleased when reviewing your history and your new spouse's visa petition since they know you tried to bypass the rules.
(See K-3 & K-4 visas on this website)

Bottom line, the K1 visa is the only proper method for her to use to enter the U.S. if you want to marry and have her stay permanently in the U.S. with a green card, and without having to worry about being deported.

K2 Visas for Unmarried Children of Foreign Fiancees

The foreign fiancee's unmarried children under the age of twenty-one can be included in the parent's petition and receive the K2 visa with the same privileges as the parent's K1 visa. But, an application for the child to become a U.S. permanent resident "green card" holder must also be filed and fully processed before turning 21 years of age. Otherwise, the child generally must return home and will not become a U.S. permanent resident.

Marriage Outside of the U.S.

If you marry your fiancee abroad, we can bring her to the U.S. by use of the K3 Visa for foreign brides of U.S. citizens. However, K3 visas require more paperwork than fiancee K1 visas and can take more or less time than the K1, depending on your situation. Finally, the fiancee visa is the only good option if there are children immigrating who are 18 years or older.
(See K3 & K4 Visas for more information.)

Either way, if you are engaged and want a K1 fiancee visa or are married and need a K3 spousal visa, we can help you. If you will call our offices we can advise you on how best to proceed. We have been obtaining K visas since 1991. We currently obtain more than 1,400 K visas every year. We have successfully obtained over 10,000 K visas. Our entire immigration law practice consists of marriage immigration, obtaining K visas from all over the world, and we service clients in all 50 states and abroad.

Requirements For K1 Visas

Fiancee visa requirements are simple. You must be a USA citizen. Lawful permanent resident "green card" holders of the United States are not allowed to obtain fiancee visas. Both you and your fiancee must be free to marry. This means that if either of you has been married previously, you are either divorced, widowed or the marriage was annulled. You must have met your fiancee in person within the previous two years. If your fiancee lives in a developing country she generally cannot obtain a visitor visa to meet you in the U.S. This means you must travel outside the US to meet her. Any criminal convictions for either of you cause complications and need to be assessed. Finally, there is a minimum income requirement for the U.S. citizen petitioner.

You may have heard that about 40% of the K1 petitions filed never result in a visa being issued. We believe this to be true for the general public (not for our clients). Notice there is a difference between being "not approved" for a K visa and being "denied" the visa, even though the result can be the same. This is because both the USCIS (formerly, the "INS") and the U.S. Consulates abroad rarely turn down a K1 or K3 visa petition if the requirements mentioned above are met.

What happens instead is that the USCIS finds some technical error or omission in the paperwork submitted to them. After several months they will send you a form letter telling you what you did wrong. Very often, when you submit the required correction, they will again wait several months and again return the forms to you with another cover-sheet informing you of a second minor error or omission. Eventually, the K visa petition can be denied without further comment.

When (and if) your approved K-1 petition reaches the U.S. Consulate or U.S. Embassy handling the fiancee visa for your fiancee's country, you still are not home free. If the Consulate officer who interviews your fiancee can get her or him to give an answer to one of many possible questions and the answer is different from the information you submitted in your petition package, the officer can send your entire USCIS-approved petition package back to the U.S. for "investigation". The minimum delay from this action in getting your fiancee's visa issued is 6-months. Needless to say, your fiancee will be nervous during the interview and it won't be too difficult for the officer to get your fiancee to give wrong answers to questions.

As you can see from the above, neither the USCIS nor the U.S. consular officers want to risk taking the political heat which could result from their turndown of an immigrant petition. However, if they can find an excuse to return it for correction or investigation, they are perfectly within their rights and not subject to criticism. In fact, it is their duty to find problems and return cases. This helps reduce immigration to the U.S.

What often happens in this situation is that one or both of you will give up. Long distance relationships are hard to keep. The added stress and uncertainty of going through U.S. immigration screening only makes things worse for both. Another result of delays can be that the fiancee becomes convinced that his or her American fiancee is not serious about marrying and ends the engagement. The assistance and support of a qualified and experienced immigration attorney helps take the stress and uncertainty out of the equation so that you both can relax and simply enjoy each other's company. Our involvement allows you to focus on your relationship by leaving the details and the worries to us.

Our normal processing timeline from the USCIS receipt date until visa issuance depends on the country of residence of your fiancee and the State in the US in which you reside. When a particular USCIS Service Center or U.S. Consulate gets behind in their work, the K1 processing time can increase. When this occurs we will let you know. The bottom line is that however long it takes us to obtain your fiancee visa, we believe it would take you or anyone else much longer.

In summary, if you are serious about bringing your fiancee to the U.S. on a K1 visa, do not fight the system. The system usually wins those battles. To find out more about a fiancee visa for your fiancee, Contact Us or, better yet, call us.