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How To Get Your Foreign Spouse A K3 Visa
The marriage visa, or k3 visa, was established to help families live together while a member(s) of the family are waiting to receive permanent residence or full citizenship within the United States. Obtaining this kind of visa will allow for the spouse to reside in the US and complete their immigration process. If a k3 visa is granted, then children of the applying spouse can receive a k4 visa. This is usually done in tandem with the application for the k3 visa.
Although the immigration process can be daunting, especially for spouses and children, the k3 marriage visa process is fairly straightforward and can be easily completed without necessarily needing to pay for the services of an immigration lawyer.
Eligibility for the k3 nonimmigrant visa is summarized into two brief points. The applying, noncitizen spouse must be married to a US citizen and that spouse must have filed the Petition for Alien Relative, otherwise known as form I-130. The children of the noncitizen spouse are eligible for the k4 visa if the child is unmarried, under the age of 21 and of course is the child of the spouse applying for the k3 visa.
Common law husbands and wives may be eligible depending on the laws of the country that acknowledged the common-law status of the couple. Partners that have cohabitated for an extended period of time, however, are not eligible. If either spouse was married prior to applying for the k3 visa, then they must provide documentation proving the marriage was legally terminated in the country where the previous marriage took place.
The first step in a filing for a marriage visa is for the spouse that is a U.S. citizen to file an Immigrant Petition for Alien Relative form (an I-130) with a U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (the USCIS) office. The USCIS will then send you another form (the I-797) to let you know they have received it.
The Petition for Alien Fiance is the next form to submit. This form, form I-129F should be filed with form I-797 by the US citizen spouse on behalf of the noncitizen spouse and any children apply for the k4 visa. These children should be listed on the form I-129F to ensure a smooth application process.
These documents will all be processed through the National Visa Center. If the couple was married in the US, then the approved petition is sent to the US consulate or embassy in the country of the spouse's nationality. However, if the spouse applying for the k3 visa is from a country where the US has no consulates or embassies, then it is sent to the country which issues visa for that country.
In addition, a k1 visa, or fiance visa, is available to a U.S. citizen's significant other, although there are several additional requirements. If a k1 visa is approved, the fiancee entering the United States can only do so once and a marriage must take place within 90 days. The non-citizen fiance applicant cannot leave the country after entering it without filing additional request forms to travel. Additional paperwork must also be completed for the fiancee to work in the United States while awaiting permanent resident status. Since the fiancee is considered an immigrant by the United States, the k1 applicant must meet all the requirements of an immigrant visa.
The debate of whether or not you need to use the services of an immigration attorney or service to obtain your k3 visa can only be answered by the applying family. The process can sometimes seem daunting, but it is something that can be done on your own. It still boils down to if you want to devote all this time and process yourself or use the expert services of an attorney. Their specialization in this field can sometimes be the deciding factor in a smooth application process or a difficult one.
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