Definition

A Fiancé(e), or K-1 visa, is a temporary (nonimmigrant) visa that allows a United States Citizen to invite his or her fiancé(e) to the U.S. for the purpose of marriage. Upon entering the United States, the fiancé(e) has 90 days within which to marry the petitioner or depart the United States.

For the purposes of this discussion, the United States Citizen will be referred to as the "petitioner" or "sponsor" and the foreign national shall be referred to as the "beneficiary" or "fiancée."

Requirements

To qualify for a Fiancé(e) Visa, there are 3 main requirements which must be met:

1. You must have met your fiancée in person within the past 2 years.
   
2. You and your fiancée are both legally free to marry. This means that if either of you have been married before, then you are now divorced, widowed, or the marriage was annulled.
   
3. You and your fiancée have a serious intention to marry within 90 days of your fiancée's arrival in the U.S.. This does not mean that you MUST get married, but only that you have a serious intention to marry.

Two Step Process

Step 1 -- Obtaining a Fiancé(e) Visa is a two-step process. The first step requires the United States citizen (petitioner) to file a petition on behalf of his fiancée (beneficiary) with the appropriate INS Regional Center. The petition is known as an "I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)" and must include numerous application forms and supporting documentation to prove that you and your fiancée qualify for a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa. It is imperative that the petition submitted to the INS is complete and free of errors or approval of the case will be delayed.

Step 2 -- After the petition is approved by the INS Regional Center in the U.S., the case is then forwarded to the appropriate U.S. consulate overseas. The appropriate consulate will depend upon where your fiancée resides. This is step number two. When the U.S. consulate has completed its work on the case file, your fiancée will be notified to undergo a medical exam and that an interview date has been scheduled. At the interview, your fiancée will submit a number of application forms and supporting documentation. If all the paperwork is in order, your fiancée will receive the K-1 visa, and is then free to travel to the United States.

Our Services

Our goal is to make the Fiancé(e) Visa process as easy and painless as possible. We also hope that by properly filing your petition and contacting the appropriate consulate we can reduce the time it takes for your fiancée to receive the visa and travel to the U.S. to join you.

Upon retaining our firm, we will provide you with a thorough informational packet, which explains the process in general and what steps must be taken along the way. We will also explain what documents you and your fiancée will need to provide for us. Finally, we will ask you and your fiancée to fill out an easy-to-read questionnaire which will enable us to properly complete all the necessary forms for the INS and the Consulate. We would NEVER ask our clients to fill out complicated application forms. 

Once you have provided us with your completed questionnaires and the necessary documentation, we will take care of everything else. We will prepare all the necessary application forms for the INS petition and send them to you by overnight delivery for your signature. Upon return of your signed application forms, we will assemble your petition according to INS specifications, so there is less likelihood of an item getting lost while in processing. We then submit your petition to the appropriate INS Regional Center by Express Mail overnight delivery.

Upon receipt of INS approval of the petition, we will contact the appropriate U.S. Consulate to request a provisional file be opened for your fiancée and an interview date be scheduled as soon as possible. Unlike other firms whose services start and end with the INS petition, we also prepare all of your fiancée's application forms for the Embassy interview. Normally, the beneficiary does not receive these forms until the Embassy mails them to her and then she must correctly fill them out herself. We make sure your fiancée receives her completed application forms well in advance of her case even arriving at the Embassy. This not only ensures that all the application forms are properly completed, but will allow your fiancée to obtain an earlier interview date at the Embassy from the INS Regional Center. We will also provide your fiancée with detailed instructions of what items she will be required to bring to her interview.

K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa Legal Fee
Fee for our services:	$1500 Flat Fee
Additional fee for each child of your fiancée invited as part of the Fiancé(e) Visa:	$200
Fees do not include the required application fees listed below.

Application Fees
INS K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa Application Fee:	$110
INS Request to Cable Fee (if required):	$140
U.S. Consul Visa Issuance Fee:	$65 per visa applicant
Medical Examination Fee:	approximately $100-$150 per applicant
(Your fiancée will pay the Visa Issuance and Medical Examination fees. Please note that if your fiancée has children, they are considered additional applicants and will be charged these fees, as well.)

Notes Regarding Fees

Our fee is a flat fee or fixed fee. We never charge extra for additional services, such as overnight mailings, phone calls, or if any complications arise. However, our fee does not include the application fees listed above. Please take this into account when figuring your expenses for this process. Also, do not forget about travel expenses for your fiancée if she does not live near the Embassy that will issue her visa.