FULL TRANSCRIPT
[The following is the full transcript of the blog video: Is a Fiancé Visa Better than an Immigrant Visa for My Special Someone?]
Hello, this is Erick Widman, I’m an Immigration Lawyer. And a common question we get all the time is, is it better to go with a fiancé visa? Or with an immigrant visa for my spouse? The main way to answer that question is to first recognize that you should ideally be looking at the best solution for you and your special someone, it’s hard enough to find the right person to marry, you should ideally get the immigration system to fit your preferences, ideally. So that’s what we try to do with our clients for sure. Sometimes it’s not possible. But what you want to do is ask questions initially, like, Where do I want to get married? Where would my family be able to attend? Would it be in the spouse’s, a foreign national country, or my own home country if you’re a US citizen? So look at those practical questions from the outset. And quite often, you can find that you can fit your immigration solution into what you want, as a couple, you can get this to work. So but what are some practical considerations for the fiancé versus visa versus the immigrant visa for your spouse? Keep in mind that the fiancé visa has two main steps it in order for your foreign national spouse to get a green card. In contrast, the immigrant visa for your spouse has one main step to getting a green card for your new spouse. So the fiancé visa two-step process is that you have to get a petition filed and approved with USC is initially the I 129. f to bring your foreign national spouse into the US to marry you here. Then, after that happy day has occurred, you’re able to proceed with an adjustment of status. And you’re required to do that in order for your new spouse to get his or her green card. So when I refer to those two main steps, that’s what I mean. First, the K one petition, the marriage, are all part of the first step and then the adjustment of status to get the green card, in contrast, an immigrant visa for your spouse involves getting married somewhere in the world. And then you don’t have to do a separate petition a separate adjustment of status in two different main steps. The immigrant visa for your spouse is one main steps that will bring your new spouse here. And as soon as that person enters on an immigrant visa, they are a permanent resident, they’re a green card holder. And so they have work authorization work authorization immediately, as opposed to the fiancé visa. visa holder who doesn’t have work authorization right away. So Commedia Green Card versus fiancé visa. That allows you to be with your spouse and get married but you didn’t have to apply for a green card. There you go.
