One of the most common questions I get
comes from couples who are planning to get married.
One of whom lives in the United States.
One of whom lives abroad.
The question is,
"What's the best immigration path
for us so that we can live together
in the United States happily ever after as a couple?"
The question usually comes down
to two different possibilities.
One, the fiancé visa.
Two, the marriage-based visa.
In this video, we're going to explore
both options.
We're going to examine the obstacles.
We're going to examine the concerns
that will help you determine
what is the right choice for you and the person you love.
About a month ago, a couple came into my office.
They fit exactly this situation.
They had met in college in Houston.
They were both graduate students.
She was from China, and she was here on a student visa.
He was a U.S. citizen.
In fact, I had known him
almost twenty years - although I hadn't seen him
in almost 20 years
because I had handled his mother's case many, many years ago.
He was a young man then.
Now, he was in his early 30s.
They were thinking about getting married.
They were wondering what's the best path.
Their decision came down to three requirements,
which we are going to discuss.
They were in the best of all possible worlds
as I'm going to discuss because they had
both options available to them,
if they wanted to make certain choices.
The first requirement is marital status.
You cannot file,
the United States spouse cannot file
for a fiancé visa if they're already married.
The fiancé visa means just that, someone you're going to marry.
So as long as you're not married,
you could file a fiancé visa for the immigrant fiancé.
The second legal requirement
that they needed to be concerned about
was the petitioner's immigrant status,
the sponsor, the U.S. citizen.
In this case, the young man.
The young man was a United States citizen,
and so he could immigrate someone on a fiancé visa
because citizens can.
Lawful permanent residents can't.
We'll discuss that in just a moment,
what a lawful permanent resident,
soon-to-be spouse,
might want to do in such a situation.
The third legal requirement is where an immigrant is living
or plans to live.
Because the Chinese fiancé
had entered the United States legally,
she was in a whole different category than
someone that perhaps entered the country without permission.
Because she had entered legally,
and she had not overstayed her visa
and based on what I could tell,
they have not attempted to dupe immigration,
meaning she did not come here just to get married.
In fact, they were still uncertain when they would get married
whether it be soon, two or three months,
or whether it was still a year or two away.
But in any event they wanted to explore their options.
But because there was no fraud, he could,
if they got married and he's a citizen,
they could do a marriage visa here in the United States.
Of course, during that whole process,
she would have to remain in the United States,
perhaps overstay her visa,
and she would have to be willing to do that,
which is one of the practical concerns that come into these cases.
Now, if he was a lawful permanent resident,
their options would be a little more limited.
She could wait for him
to become a citizen.
Begin the process that might last a year longer.
He could apply for citizen and if he's successful,
well, now he's a citizen
and assuming that the immigrant spouse had come in legally,
then she could immigrate
under him here with a marriage visa.
On the other hand,
if they didn't want to go that route.
If she wanted to go home,
well then as a lawful permanent resident,
he could still marry her
but then she would have to process her papers through the counselate,
what we call counselor processing.
And she would go to her interview in her home country.
That would be an option.
Of course, he could start the process as a permanent resident
and then try to convert it to a citizen later
but that's a little more complicated process,
a little more time-consuming process
and might not be what they really,
what most couples really want to do in that situation.
The other option of course
is that if she stayed here
and he was a lawful permanent resident,
and then she wanted to try to stay here
and not go home and extend past
her visitor visa
or her student visa,
and she now was accruing unlawful status,
then they would have to file what is commonly known
as a family unity waiver,
the I-601 waiver and
show the hardship to the male U.S. spouse
in this situation,
which again is not really a preferred strategy,
not really a preferred pathway
to green card success.
So anyway those are your options.
A fiancé visa, if the United States immigrant is a citizen,
if the United States, they're not married yet.
And if the immigrant is living abroad,
then you can file the fiancé visa.
If the immigrant is living here in the United States
that is not going to happen but you could file the marriage based visa,
and that has a very high likelihood of success,
if the immigrant spouse has entered the country legally.
In any event, I hope I've been able to clarify
the right path for you and the person you love.
And if you like this video,
please feel free to subscribe to my channel.
If you have any questions or comments,
leave them below. You'll notice as you look around my videos,
there are a lot of questions that people ask me,
and at the end of this video,
you'll see access to a free download,
a guide, so to speak, of questions you might face at a fiancé visa interview,
if that's the route you take.
And of course, if you'd like to contact me directly,
my number is 800-287-1180.
In any event, I wish you and the love of your life
all the success in the world. Good luck.
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