Procedures for Filing a Fiancé Visa Application and Preventing Marriages for Obtaining a Fiancé Visa

Arranging marriages for the purpose of gaining access to the United States is a real immigration problem. Consequently, the fiancé visa requirements seek to prevent this from happening.

• The fiancé and citizen must both be free to marry.
• You and your fiancé must have met in person at least once in the two years before filing a fiancé visa application. The only way around this requirement is if meeting in person would violate cultural custom or cause extreme hardship for the US citizen.
• You and your fiancé must marry within 90 days of the fiancé coming to the United States.

Be prepared for the fact that immigration officials will check in with you and monitor your marriage and activities through the time period required for your spouse to get their "green card" for permanent residence. While this is a nuisance and something of an invasion of your privacy, understand that many immigration frauds have been perpetrated with fake marriages and consequently these kinds of unions raise red flags at the immigration office, especially in the post-September 11 world.

Along with the fiancé visa, you can also apply to bring the unmarried children of your fiancé who are not of legal age (21) to the United States along with your fiancé. This will keep your family together.

To gain more information about the procedure of applying for a fiancé visa, consider hiring a fiancé visa attorney. To begin to get a feel for the overall process, visit the USCIS service center on the USCIS website: www.uscis.gov. The state department is another good place to get advice. Their site is travel.state.gov.

Should I Hire a Lawyer?

Many people wonder if hiring a fiancée visa lawyer is necessary. Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life and an event filled with logistical planning to get family and friends together. If your fiancé is not a US citizen, a significant amount of paperwork is involved in filing the fiancée visa application. If you do something incorrectly on your paperwork, you risk losing the chance to be married in the United States, since the fiancé visa is only valid for 90 days, and can only be used once. An attorney will save time, money, and frustration in the fiancée visa process, allowing you to enjoy your wedding day.

Getting married should be a stress-free and wonderful experience. The help of a fiancée visa lawyer can ensure that there are no unwanted surprises on your wedding day. Be sure you find a lawyer with expertise in this area. The fiancé visa attorney will help you file all necessary paperwork so you can concentrate on the other wedding details.