Is Getting Married a Quick Way to the USA?
(Last Updated 6 January 2017)
Contents
Here’s a very common question I get here at PhilFAQS … how can a US and a Filipina (Phil-Am) couple get together as quickly and cheaply as possible? I’ll keep this short and simple and answer this readers questions as directly as I can. If any of you have similar questions which I don’t cover here, feel free to write and ask. I value all your comments and I appreciate them greatly.
Here’s the reader’s questions and my answers, as best I know. (please remember, I am not a lawyer, this is NOT legal advice and is my personal opinion only).
My Reader Asks, Please Help:
I’m a Filipina and have an American boyfriend of 5 years. We’re both single and never been married.
OK, great to hear. So many of these sorts of queries come in where the couples are hopelessly mired with former marriages and mother legal issues that make marriage hopelessly complicated. Thank goodness for a simple question this time 😉
He cannot afford to visit me before because he has unstable job, but now he got a high paying job as a repairman for a big car company.
Wow another great piece of news. So many couples write me for advice or help and come up with the “I can’t afford a trip to the Philippines” complaint.
All I can say for those folks, if someone can’t afford a trip to the Philippines, I have grave doubts they can afford to get married at all.
There’s an ancient saying about “two can live as Cheaply as one”. Frankly I don’t know that the saying is always true.
But one thing for sure is, three can not live as cheaply as one … or four or five or however many. You must have an adequate source of income before you get married, whether you will live in the Philippines or migrate overseas. So extra credit to you both for having a handle on this issue.
He’s planning to visit me here and marry me already too.
This is fine if you are both sure it is best for you. Personally, I recommend a different route, but you certainly can do this and still get to the USA with no problem.
I don’t recommend these fly to the Philippines, meet face to face for the first time and then try to get married here in the Philippines ASAP, because it outs tremendous pressure on the couple and frankly it costs a lot more than the route I recommend, which is to meet each other for real, meet your family and get to know them at least a little bit, and learn a bit more about each other than you can via online relationships, no matter how long you have “been together” online.
He then goes home to the USA and files a K-1 fiancée visa to bring you to the USA, and you marry there. That’s how my wife and I arranged things and I feel it’s the best way. But that’s just my view … you two certainly can marry here on his first visit … a Fiancée visa or a Spousal visa will work and they both take roughly the same amount of time.
My question is if we get married here in the Philippines, can I easily get a visa to follow him in the US because he’s my husband already? That’s what my boyfriend thinks. He thinks I could already join him there.
Yes your BF is correct that you two can marry here and then he applies for a CR-1 Spousal visa, and after you wait out the time involved in the application process, you can join him in the USA.
I’m not sure about the use of the word “already” at the end of your sentence, though, because either option … marrying you right away or meeting and then applying for the Fiancée visa both take time. There is no “instant” way to marry you and then bring you to the States immediately.
Or what if the scenario is we get married here and I get pregnant too. Then l wait until I deliver our baby. Can I get a visa and follow my husband to the US?
If you get pregnant during his first visit, married or not, the options are still the same. As an unmarried fiancée with a child you merely ask for a K-2 Fiancée visa which covers your children under 18 years of age, and they come to the US along with you. Or if you are already a married spouse with a child, you ask for a CR-1 visa and add the child (or children) come along with you on the same visa. Either way will work fine.
I’m in my mid 30’s and I just don’t wanna wait that long before I could get to the US and so we could start a family. I’m so confused if there’s really a way that we could be together already.
Well I can certainly understand your feelings of urgency. No one wants to wait. When my wife and I did the Fiancée visa the waiting time felt like it would never end. But it did, and we’re both very happy now. I just want to caution you there is no immediate way to do what you want to do. I strongly recommend you join this Yahoo Group. I \t is made up of thousands of Phil-Am couples like you and your BF who have gone through or are going through the same steps you and your BF have ahead of you:
Someone help me.
One thing I am going to suggest is, you might want to give these guys a try. RapidVisa is a commercial service that helps people in your boat submit and process both K-1 and CR-1 or IR-1 Spousal Visas. Even if you don’t think you’d ever want to use a commercial service, I think you will find a wealth of real, up-to-date visa information on their site. (full disclosure, I DO have a business relationship with this service, but it will not affect your price if you decide to avail.)
If you want to know more about RapidVisa’s (paid but affordable) services that will help you get that visa quick and painlessly, just click here.
Well I hope this has helped. Godspeed to you and your BF on your journey. Other reader’s comments, suggestions and contrarian views are welcome.
What can anyone tell us about Is Getting Married a Quick Way to the USA?
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Hello. Hi I am Gold May. I am a filipina. I have an american bf and we were planning to get married here in the Philippines this December and petition me right after the wedding and go to the US this April 2018. What VISA I will get? Thank You in advance.Hoping for immediate response.
@ Gold May
Thanks for contributing. I’m not sure how to answer yout question,though, becuase the article yu are commenting on is one I wrote to tell people all I know about visas for spouses to enter the USA. Godspeed.
Hello my name is Leon,I have been trying to find a website that is legit and not some kind of scam of filled with virus’s,do yu have any recomendations on a website to get a fiancé aplication to get my girlfriend here from the Philippines so we can get married,or is it easier for her to come here as a tourist and then get married once she arrives?
@ Leon
Thanks for contributing. I feel this site is as legit as they come, I’ve been running it since January 2003. Being alert to scams and other trickery is a good thing, but blindly searching and then wondering and worrying is counter productive. This site below is run by the only authority there is on Fiancee’ visas, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). If you read the requirements and rules and follow the steps, the Fiancee’ visa is easy enough to get approved, but it does take time and money.
https://www.uscis.gov/family/family-us-citizens/fiancee-visa/fiancee-visas
On the right-hand side of the page this link leads you too you will find direct links to the required application forms which you can fill out online. It’s all on the up and up and there are no fees (until you decide to actually file the application), which are publicly available and required by US law.
Now as to part two of your comment … the alternative to a Fiancée’ visa by having your fiancee come to the USA on a tourist visa and marrying here there. Not going to happen my friend.
First of all it will be extremely difficult for her to get a US Tourist visa. See this article and the comments and “Related” articles on this subject:
http://philfaqs.com/can-my-philippine-friend-visit-me-in-the-usa/
Now let’s say she “beats the system” and does get a tourist visa and travels to the USA, and you two get married. Easy Peasy, right?
Well not so quick, becuase now she has to file a petition to change her legal status in the US from “Tourist” to “Conditional Permanent Resident” with the good old USCIS. You know how in the movies the hero or heroine is one step away from deportation and marries a US citizen last minute and then stays in the USA living happily ever after? Well that doesn’t happen in real life, especially with Filipinas. It’s totally optional on the part of the USCIS o allow the applicant for Conditional Residency to with for her application to be approved in the USA, or to send her back to her home country to wait … typically 6 months or more.
With Filipinas the most common decision is to send her back, becuase in reality her coming to the USA on a tourist visa with the intention of marrying you is visa fraud, The USCIS doesn’t the kindly to this in the first place, and in the second place, have you read the news lately? It’s a very bad time to be an immigrant on the wrong side of the law in the US these days.
Your safe choices are:
1. The K1 Fiancee’ visa and marry her in the USA
2. Come to the Philippines and marry her here and the file the CR-1 (Conditional relative spousal) visa.
Godspeed.
Hello,
Me and my foreign finance plans to process fiancee visa but since my divorce is not yet final obviously we cannot make such a step.. now we wanted to know if their easier way nor what are the things we need to prepare for processing the said visa. We highly appropriate your advice.. God bless.
I don’t know of any “easier way” than the right way which is following the law and becoming legally eligible for a Finacee’ visa. As far as things to do while you wait, be sure you study all the requirements for the K-1 Visa (see: Fiancé(e) Visas).
You can complete all the requirements …example the Personal History forms that must be filled out by both you and your fiancee’. These typically take a lot of time. Then have every single page of the requirements ready to go on the day your divorce decree comes through, ad mail the package off on the same day the court declares for a free man.
Hi,
I want to marry my internet friend. Yet her family does not like me and are treatening to sue me and said she cannot marry me without there permission. My fiance is over the age of 18 would that not make her old enough to marry whoever she wants? How much water does the families treats hold?
Hi Daniel,
Legally girls below the age of 18 require their parent’s written consent to marry. Those from 18 to 25 most prove that they have received advice on marriage from their parents … not actual parental consent.
So probably you two _can_ legally marry.
But there are many issues here I don’t understand:
What does this sentence mean? “How much water does the families treats hold?” I’m sorry I don’t understand your wording here.
But if you mean to ask how important is her families support, my answer is it is hugely important. Her parents may have friend’s or influence far beyond what you may think, and remember, as a foreigner you have absolutely NO RIGHTS here.
My advice? Back off, cool off and think this through carefully. I wouldn’t dream if entering into a marraige (and a land with no divorce) if I was already on the outs with my inlaws to be. Godspeed.
Hi David,
I met my fiancé during college in the Philippines. We were classmates for four years. He graduated and returned to his home country, Guam. We were planning that he petition me for K1 Visa but he hasn’t been employed ever since we graduated and cosponsor for K1 isn’t allowed in the Philippines. Should he find a job first and establish tax returns for a year (how many years is necessary) or should we marry in the Philippines and just file a spousal visa with cosponsor?
Thank you! Your advise and opinion will be of great help.
Hello Ria, thanks for contributing.
You know there is an old saying, “Never aska question unless you really want to know the answer”? The answer to your question is simple, although I don’t know if you really wanted to hear it … he should get a job NOW and perhaps you too, and you should save your money, avoid smartphones and other gee gaws and gadgets and build up a fund sufficient to support yourselves in a sensible, comfortable lifestyle … and then get married.The idea of someone else sponsoring you appalls me … are you going to start a life together always begging and “borrowing” and waiting for someone’s remittance? Come on now, please think more of yourself than that … you are worth so much more.
Also the financial requirements for a spousal visa are at least as stringent as those for a fiancee’ visa .. for good reason. Two can Not live as cheaply as one and for a certainty three can not either.
I visit Guam frequently. There are jobs there, heck every person I met and talked to about their work was Filipino or Filipino heritage. Maybe he can’t find a job that matches his degree or something like that, but there is work on Guam and there is plenty work here in the Philippines too. In my years here I have watched 5 of my nieces grow up, even helped one through school, and guess what? They are all employed, from right out of school too. The jobs are out there. And financial responsibility laws are there for a reason. I suggest you both put on your track shoes and go after one. Godspeed.