K1 versus K3, which is better? We've all been at
home during a pandemic and I think that in some ways, that's been good. In a lot of ways
that's been hard and one of the things people have been doing with their immigration cases
is trying to unearth secret strategies that maybe will help them skip this whole process. I don't
blame you at all because it's a terrible process and it's taking longer and longer and it's super
frustrating and it's not efficient at all. I completely understand and I am married to
an immigrant and I've been through the process myself. I totally get why why we all have
that impulse to look for- there must be a better way. Surely, the situation can't be that
I have to wait a year to just to be with my fiancé or spouse. That just seems totally ludicrous. It is
totally ludicrous but unfortunately, a lot of these alternate theories that people are unearthing
are just things that simply don't work right now. The K1 visa is specifically for fiancés.
If you're already married, you can't get a K1 visa. But the thing about K1 visas is that based on the
way that they're processed, some of the processing actually happens inside the United States after
the person enters on the K1 visa. Even though over the last several years and
decades, even the processing times for K1s and the processing times for spouse visas have varied
a lot but typically, the K1s are always a little bit faster than the spouse visas.
Based on the way that they're processed, they're faster in the sense
not of the entire process but they're faster to get the person actually into the United States.
The fastest way to get the person you love in the United States if you're not married is typically
to file for a fiancé visa even though you have to do a lot more processing once they're in
the US that you wouldn't have to do if they were a spouse. Why does this matter? At some
point, congress said it seems really unfair that you would let fiancés come faster than people who
are already married. That's really crazy and I think that's totally bizarre, right? You guys
probably agree with me on that. What can we do about it? They created the K3 visa
with the intention that people who are waiting on spouse visas could get this other type of K
visa for people who are already married and then they would be able to come in faster also.
Just like many things with the government, that's a great idea. But based on the execution by the
government and the bureaucratic hell that they have created on how to get it,
it's currently not going to help you at all unfortunately. I hate to tell you that
but if you're going to be trying to get a K3, I haven't seen a K3 issued in
like seven years or something. Currently, they don't
help because the way the process works to try for K3 visa is that you have to first
apply for the first step of a spouse visa. You would actually file your I-130 and you have
to wait to get the receipt back from that and then you file for the K3. What happens is
based on the way that they run those two petitions, even though the I-130 petitions are
taking like six to eight months, they're still beating the K3 petitions. At that point,
the government just kicks out your K3 application, says K3 application denied because
you've already gotten further along in the process with this other case and then
they just close that case entirely even though you're still at the very beginning phase of the
spouse visa. I don't want to get too much of the weeds about why that technically
happens. But I just want you to know that there's not a secret awesome thing called the K3.
You probably noticed lawyers have not been talking about it. It's not something that's
presented when you consult with someone and that is why because people who know and who've done
this and who are working on this just know that it exists legally but
in reality, it's not a thing that people are getting right now unfortunately
and that's why we're not recommending it. I just really wanted to clarify that and hopefully
that gives you a little peace of mind. If you're in a
traditional fiancé visa or spouse visa route, it really is the best and only way to do this right
now or adjusting the status under our current laws. Don't worry,
we're lobbying Washington D.C. every year though to try to get them to make better systems for
you all. We try to hit it from both sides. I know it's frustrating though.