When a U.S. Citizen marries a foreign person outside the U.S. or in the U.S. who does not have a K1 visa, the law requires the U.S. Petitioner to file an I-130 visa petition so the foreign person gets a CR-1 (Conditional Residency) visa to apply for, or have permanent residence in the U.S.A. There are Non-Immigrant and Immigrant visas. A CR-1 is an Immigrant visa. K1 and K3 visas are Non-Immigrant visas.
NOTE that the I-130 form for a CR-1 Relative visa takes over a year (normally 2 years) to process! If this is too long for you, there are other options like the Relative / K3 visa combination, and in some cases, a Concurrent filing.
If you marry outside the United States, you must file an I-130 Petition form for Alien Relative because you now have a relative spouse. This is required by law, whether you care to go for a K3 non-immigrant spouse or not. The purpose of a K3 visa is to avoid the long I-130 Relative visa process, which takes about 2 years at present. (08-15-07).
We get people who are married and living outside the U.S.A. and one of them is a U.S. Citizen. Sometimes they are in no hurry to get to the U.S.A. because they already have a home and or business there. So they choose to just take the time to get a Relative CR-1 visa.
Some may already be here and wish to bring the foreign person's child or parent here later. Then a K1 or K3 visa cannot apply because both are primarily for a fiance(e) or spouse, and since the visa was already used and the unmarried child under 21 did not apply as a K2 or K4 derivative of the foreign parent's visa, a relative visa must be petitioned and applied for.
When a foreign person, married to a U.S. Citizen, also becomes a U.S. Citizen, the new Citizen may use a Relative 1-130 visa petition to get his/her parents here. If interested in doing this, let us know!!
NOTE: The above only applies to Immediate family visa category rather than "Preference" category. We do not deal with "Preference" category visas because a visa number cannot be immediately available. The "Preference" category visas are on a quota system - only so many per year are issued, and usually backlogged 5 or more years.
There are two separate visa petitions involved in filing for the K3 visa. First, you must file a I-130 Alien Relative petition as required by law since you are married.
The second petition for the K3 visa is filed AFTER the first petition. That's why our Combination Spouse service exists. Our fee is higher of course, because two different petitions are involved. With the Apex Combination Spouse service you get a discount over doing the two separately and the gathering of support documents are much easier and faster to do that way.
Beware: If choosing to marry your sweetheart outside his/her country, you must remember that this will be the country your spouse will have to go to for the visa interview! This can be a very major hassle. Read that again so there's no misunderstanding!
