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There was a forum a while back with K1 visa experiences, which was pretty helpful. My fiance and I went through the process and it took about a year from when we sent in the first round of paperwork until we got the green card. After you get the visa, you have to go through another round of paperwork, resulting in the SSN and green card, valid for 2 years. We waited to buy a house until this was all done and he could establish some credit here.
If you can get a work visa, it might be a little easier to then get married and adjust residency. That said, you have to be careful. If he enters on a tourist visa and you get married, it's a felony!
Good luck with everything - it's worth the wait!
My husband and I went through this. We started filing October 2009 and had the visa by mid March 2010 and the 2 year green card by Aug 2010.
I'm not sure what other work permit you are talking about (maybe it's different for different countries? Mine is from the Netherlands)... There was just one work permit which we got about 2-2.5 months after we submitted the change of status. That work permit was good for about a month while they finalized the 2 year green card for him. Once the green card was approved at the couples interview, they took away the work permit because it wouldn't be needed anymore (i.e. the green card superceded the work permit).
One thing to be careful with, make sure that applying for multiple visa's won't mess anything up with the fiance visa. I kinda think I remember reading somewhere that you could only apply for one visa type at a time, but maybe I'm wrong. I know that once you have a work or student visa, you can adjust status for something like getting married, etc, but it's the applying for 2 types at one time that worries me.
As aruka11 said, if he enters the USA on a tourist visa, and you 2 get married and then he tries to stay while the paperwork is filed, it's considered a felony and could get him banned from the USA for 10 years.
I would highly recommend checking out www.visajourney.com
My DH and I decided to go the CR-1 (Spousal Visa) route instead of the K-1 route. We had hired an attorney who fed us a bunch of mis-information and completely overcharged us for the work he did.
I found VisaJourney and it saved our life. There is so much information there and supportive forums.
We completed the Green Card process in 10 months. Good luck to everyone going through it!!
Thanks for the help guys. I'm in Australia right now but I don't want to live away from my family permanently so we're moving to Chicago ASAP. I'll look into seeing if the 2 visas at once will cause a problem (I hope not!).. thanks for the feedback!
If you actually have residency in Australia at the moment, you should check to see if you're eligible for Direct Consular Filing (I don't know whether this works with the K visas, but it's an option for the CR-1, and can be much much faster than the regular option. Rules vary by consulate, but it's generally available when the US citizen has long-term residency in the foreign country).
I know that you can apply for the CR-1 and H1-B visas at the same time (not sure if this is the other kind of visa that you were referencing). H1-Bs can be expedited, which is a big advantage, but require a sponsoring US employer.
Otherwise, yes, check out visajourney.com. Nolo press also has a good guide to the spousal/fiance immigration visa process, which you can buy online.
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I noticed from another thread that there are a few of you who also have FIs from other countries. My fiance is from Australia and we've been really working on the visa process. How is the process going for you?
Our experience so far: We did the first step for the fiance visa about 3 weeks ago and haven't even heard that they've received our paperwork (they were supposed to text or email?). We found out that FI wouldn't be able to work until 90 days after entering the country and then has to get ANOTHER work permit later. So we're still working on that visa but he's trying to get a 2 year work visa as well so we might just adjust his residency later. Which causes ANOTHER problem, which is that we're going to have trouble getting a home loan.
Please share your experience, it will be REALLY helpful!