Our Little Visa Dictionary

In our next newsletters we will try to introduce you to the basic principles of the US Visa system. We have done this before, but since US law is constantly changing, we have decided to re-launch this series. We will not use a boring A-Z structure for this. We will rather react to the numerous requests of our customers and the frequently confusing information online. If you have any special requests for this series, please do not hesitate to contact us.

You will also find an overview over the most common visa types in our How To book "Der Amerilanische Traum. Mit Greencard oder Visum in die USA" (Engl.: The American Dream. With the green card or a visa to the US) (in German). You can find an order form and details about terms of order on our website.

We would like to begin this series with a visa type that may seem the easiest way to the US on first glance - the fiancé(e) visa.

For those of our readers who have already read our book, we have a little correction to make. What once seemed rather unproblematic has become a marathon within US immigration bureaucracy. Let's hope processing times will return back to normal soon!

K-1 Fiancé Definition: The Immigration and Nationality Act contains one non-immigration status (more about this term in the next newsletter) K-1 for foreigners who are planning to marry a US citizen and move to the US.

Processing times: The law states a maximum processing that, however, could not be observed this year. Usually, this should be between six and eight months, and between one to three months at the US consulate, so no more than one year.

One remark about this due to current events: Longer processing times for immigration visas are not unusual on an international level (Canada: up to 12 months, Australia: up to 18 months). The INS currently has to process ca. 2.3 million applications at present due to a currently valid law (the LIFE Act). Also, the number of fiancé visas for EU citizens has increased a lot. By the way, not only K-1 Visas are affected by the delay. The processing times for work visas (L and H) have also become significantly longer, so that the authorities have thought up some new measures for this (more about this in our Short News overview).

Application: You must apply from the US with form I-129F, provided you are not (yet) married. If you are already married, please use form I-130 (petition for alien relative). Please note that only US citizens can be K-1 sponsors. Green card holders must use form I-130.

Those applications cannot be submitted from abroad.

The approved notice of action will be sent by the INS to the US consulate abroad (in Germany only Frankfurt on Main). There, the foreign spouse has to file his or her own application.

By the way, certain visa holders (e.g. J-1) may not be able to obtain a K-1.

The US citizen must submit a number of documents together with the I-129F. We will only mention a few examples, you can get a complete list from our visa service anytime. Documents to be submitted include: US passport number, birth certificate, documentation of a permanent relationship over the past two years etc. These can be letters, phone bills, photos, or sworn declarations friends or relatives. You should keep these documents for interviews in Germany or the US.

After applying, please avoid making too many inquiries about the status of your application to the INS Service Center, you will rather slow down than speed up processing times by this. The same rights for all!

In our next newsletter: fiancé visa: consular processing, visa interview and entering the US.