In 2008 alone, the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2008 issued by the Office of Immigration Statistics of the Department of Homeland Security, declared that there are about 801 K1 visas issued in favor of Thai nationals.

A few hundreds more are presently pending. In order to hasten the waiting time to meet each other, as a substitute of applying for the K1 visa, few couples elect to request for U.S. tourist visa in its place. Truly, the processing time for K1 visa is longer than that for tourist visa. More papers are also involved in the former visa. Nevertheless, there still a lot things to consider first before taking this alternative.

Advantages of K1 visa

• The principle followed by consular officers in resolving applications is “All applicants for visitor visa intends to immigrate, in case of doubt, deny the application”.  This makes the officers stricter in handling application for tourist visas. Though the processing time is shorter, the risk of denial is much greater.

• The duty of consular officers in deciding on applications is purely discretionary. If they have the slightest feeling that applicant intends to go to U.S. to stay for good, it will already result to immediate denial.

• Moreover, even if the visitor visa is issued, the applicant could face an enormous trouble later on. Persons who do not disclose their true intention for going to the U.S. is actually committing immigration fraud. This crime is punishable by imprisonment and/or fine and may ultimately lead to permanent bar to legal entry into the United States.

Conclusion

The benefits of getting a tourist visa instead of a K1 visa are very tempting but the disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages. If the couple is planning to marry when they finally meet, the K1 visa is the better option.

Also note that taking your fiancee to the US on a tourist visa for the purposes of marriage maybe be deemed to be illegal and may create problems further down the line.

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Here are some of the advantages of the K1 Visa:

a.    It is specially made for the fiancé of US citizens.
b.    It has relatively shorter processing time.
c.    The probability of denial is much lower.
d.    There is a ninety day period  to get married.
e.    Your fiancé can only adjust her status into legal permanent residence when she marries the petitioner.

The last mentioned quality is perhaps the most interesting. In rare cases the alien fiancé decides not to marry the K1 visa petitioner and instead marry another US citizen or legal resident.

This may or may not be tragic for the K1 visa petitioner, but one thing is definite. The holder of the K1 visa may not adjust his or her status while settling in the United States. In this case, he or she has to leave and go back to his or her home country and undertake the ordinary consular processing. This time the visa that he or she may use will already be an IR-1 or CR-1 visa.

This is most likely the reason why many prefer to apply for tourist visa and then marry his or her fiancé in the US. In this case he or she may marry any US citizen or legal permanent resident and adjust status later on. However, this practice is wholly unadvisable. The person will face great difficulty on adjusting his or her status because he or she will need to prove that there was no intention to immigrate initially.

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