Immigration Site

Hi, everyone.

First of all, sorry for my English. Im a US citizen, and I met my girlfriend in my hometown in China in summer 2008. I went back to China again in Summer 2009, and stayed there with my girlfriend for about 3 months, from April to July. Now we want to get married, and I have some questions. Please consider that my girlfriend is in China.

1. What kind of visa should I apply for her? Since she is in China and it is always hard for people in China to marry a US citizen, are there any place I can get good help in Houston Area? I would like to pay some money for this.

2. Her parents are very traditional, they want us to meet one more time before we get married. Ive been busy working, and I have no vacation to go back. Are there any way she can come to visit me before I apply any visa for her? If she applies for tour visa or foreign student visa, and if she gets denied, will that affect later when I apply her for marriage immigrant? Again, its about China, US government are always suspicious for marriage immigrants from China.

3. What is my income requirement?

Thats all I can think of for now, any information from you will be greatly appreciated.

Forget about a tourist visa or student visa. The visa application form asks about a fiance in the US; once they know about you, theyll probably deny the visa. And if she pretends that she doesnt have a fiance, theyll catch the lie later once you marry and file papers to sponsor her.

The fiancee visa (K-1) is probably the best for your situation. It allows a noncitizen to enter the US for the purpose of marrying a US citizen and staying to immigrate. You would file form I-129F and its associated papers, then she will interview for the visa at a US consulate in about 3-6 months. Upon arrival in the US with the visa, she will have a 90-day window to marry you, and then you can file the rest of the green card paperwork and wait for the joint interview.

Thanks for your reply. However, I also heard, if I want to apply her to come here, we need have met in person within past 18 months. Is that true?

Also, any difference between I file form I-129F myself and find a lawyer helping me? Both our families are very serious about our marriage, I dont want to have any mistake that might delay the process.

For the fiancee visa, the requirement is that you should have met her at least once within the past 2 years before filing the application. Not 18 months.

Most people dont use a lawyer for this. However, if youre uncomfortable with filing it by yourself, you could pay a lawyer for a half-hour to one-hour consultation to review the form and associated papers after youve filled it yourself, so you can ask questions and they can tell you if you did anything wrong and give you advice of what to expect going forward. That should cost around $100-$300. However, if you retain the lawyer to handle the process end-to-end, thats likely to cost more than $2000.