Spouse Immigration - Who Can Apply For the K3 Visa?
Spouse immigration is the 00004000 process where a U.S Citizen living aboard marries a non U.S Citizen. The foreign spouse can join the U.S Citizen by applying for the K3 Visa. This is similar to the K1 Visa, yet provides its own unique set of difficulties.
Under the K3 Visa the U.S Citizen needs to give proof of income, residency and foreign bank account activity. These are hard to prove if the U.S Citizen does not truly live within the country of the foreign spouse.
A big mistake some couples make is marrying within the foreign country, then proceeding to use the K1 Visa process as means to bring their spouse into the U.S.A. Keep in mind the K1 Visa is only for a fiance and not a spouse. Homeland security will check the entire background of the non-immigrate. If they find a record of the fiance already married to the U.S. Citizen, then things could get very complicated.
A crucial criterion for the K1 Visa is both parties cannot be married. A valid petitioner and beneficiary status is single, widowed or divorced. The couple has a really good chance of running into complications if the marriage already happened. There are ways around this, but it is not ideal. It is better to follow the instructions to the law.
Let's say the immediate family in the foreign country is expecting the couple to marry within the country where the fiance resides. How does the couple handle something like this? There are a few ways to discuss this; the first is to set a date to return to the country to marry once the entire process within the U.S.A is completed. The second way is to marry in the foreign country, yet not have this publicly documented. It is kind of like having a mock wedding without the formal legalities. Going about this any other way can put your immigration process in jeopardy.
If after reading this article the couple still would like to go ahead with a K3 Visa, then the recommendation for the couple is to seek counsel before proceeding. As mentioned above there are ways around some of the limitations of the K3 Visa, yet they are not ideal and need good legal support to go ahead.
For all those who are live aboard and have married a person from the foreign country in which they live, then the K3 Visa applies to you. All others should go ahead through the K1 Visa process.
