For the petition of the K1 fiancee visa, you must complete application and compile documentation about you and your fiancee.
You will also need to provide information to proof your relationship and your ability to support your Colombian bride.
To start the process, your fiancée in Colombia must complete and sign the G-325A application (the form can be downloaded here) or obtained in Spanish at the US Embassy in Bogota. Also she has sign a letter of intent to marry you, and have visa photos taken.
Some of the items you will probably need to provide in your petition include:
– Application fee ($455)
– Cover letter
– Declaration of how you met
– Letter of intent to marry
– G-325A form (Biographic Information)
– I-129F (Petition for Alien Fiancée)
– I-134 (Affidavit of Support)
– A photocopy of your United States citizen’s birth certificate
– Employment letter
– Bank statements
– Pay stubs
– United States Federal Income Tax Returns and W-2 forms for the previous two years
– (If you have married before Divorce decrees)
– Photocopy of airline tickets used to travel to meet your fiancée
– Photocopy of passport stamps, one passport photo
– Photographs showing the two of you together
– Copies of email or instant messengers exchanges (no discussions of money) that show a continuous and loving relationship
– Telephone bills that document calls placed by you to her
– Engagement ring receipt
– Invoices for English lessons for your Colombian fiancee.
You will submit your fiancée’s information along with your applications and support documents to the closest of four processing centers located in California, Nebraska, Texas, or Vermont, which normally has the fastest turnaround time.
The typical approval time is between two and four months, but we have had clients approved in one week and others with background complications that take up to a year.
The proper preparation of the petition paperwork (completeness, accuracy, supporting documents) will determine the length for approval.
Once approved, you will be notified, and the processing center will send documentation to the United States Embassy in Colombia.
You will need to send your fiancée, copies and original documents of all the items listed above.
The Embassy will contact your fiancée by mail with instructions of what to do and what to bring to her visa interview.
Once your fiancée, has obtained all her documents she will sign two forms, which can be mailed or faxed to the United States Embassy. The Embassy will promptly send her a letter with an interview date, approximately five weeks from the date of the letter.
The sense of the interview is to verify that the two of you are in a legitimate relationship with the intent to marry.
A couple in a sincere and healthy relationship should have no concerns about the interview.
While you are not required to attend the interview of your Colombian fiancee in Colombia,
your attendance does add support and will likely limit the interviewer’s questions.
At the US Embassy in Bogota, it is common that your fiancée may have to wait a few hours before her name is called; there may be over 70 other applicants.
The most common reason for being turned down is missing documents.
If she knows you and knows what’s on the forms and her paperwork is in order, she need not be nervous.
Click here to read the most common interview questions and make sure that you provide your fiance with the information, in order that she will be able to respond to the questions at the interview.
Some of the documents she should have with her include:
– Original birth certificate
– Passport
– Police certificate
– Sealed medical exam test results
After the interview, she will be informed whether or not the Embassy will issue her a K-1 visa.
If approved, she may be able to return to the Embassy in two or three days to pickup her passport and visa or it will be mailed to her.
The fiancée visa will allow your fiancee entry to the United States and is valid for six months.
If your fiancée has minor children, they will be included in your petition and she will apply for a K2 visa for them.
She can bring the children under age 21 with her immediately or within a year.
When your fiancée arrives in the United States Customs may require her to attend a short orientation class before you can see her.
They will explain such things as the limitations and duration of her K1 visa, the consequences of staying past the 90 days without marrying, the need for changing her status once married by using the I-485 form (Adjustment of Status) to become a permanent resident, and what to do in an abusive situation.
After your wife has been granted Permanent Resident status, she can apply to become an American citizen.
The above information is subject to change and serves only as a general introduction to the fiancée, visa process.
The above information is subject to change and serves only as a general introduction to the fiancée, visa process.
