Fiancee Visa

A K-3 visa allows the foreign spouse of a United States citizen to enter the United States under a non-immigrant visa while a relative petition for the foreign spouse is pending. The child of a foreign spouse will also be able to enter the United States under a non-immigrant visa referred to as a K-4 visa and await the approval of his/her relative petition. Before a K-4 visa can be issued to a child, the parent must have a K-3 visa or be in K-3 status.

K-3 and K-4 visas are attractive to many seeking to immigrate to the United States because it alleviates the separation involved when waiting for an immigrant visa petition to be approved, which can take months, depending on the circumstances of the case. Husband and wives do not want to be separated from one another and K-3 and K-4 visas allow loved ones to be together while the immigrant petition is being processed by USCIS.

The process of obtaining a K-3 visa involves filing a relative petition first by the petitioner spouse. Once a relative petition is filed, the petitioner spouse would then be allowed to proceed with filing for the K-3 visa. USCIS will provide a receipt showing that a relative petition has been filed, a copy of which the petitioner spouse will file along with the K-3 visa application. Because the purpose of filing for the K-3 and K-4 visas is to get the spouse and his/her children to the United States sooner, applications for K-3 and K-4 visas are approved before the relative petitions.

Recently, however, USCIS has been approving relative petitions and K-3 and K-visas at the same time, eliminating the need to file for the K visas. Effective February 1, 2010, it is the policy of USCIS that when both an application for a K visa and relative petition have been approved and sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) and if the NVC receives both petitions, the K visa will be administratively closed because the need for a K visa is ends. If the NVC does not receive the relative petition and K visa at the same time, the NVC will move forward in processing the K visa application and the NVC will forward the application to the embassy or consulate in the country where the couple’s marriage took place. If the marriage occurred in the United States, the NVC will forward the petition to the embassy or consulate responsible for issuing visas in the foreign spouse’s country of nationality.

If, however, the marriage took place in a country that does not have a U.S. embassy or the embassy does not issue visas, the NVC will forward the petition to the embassy or consulate that is responsible for processing visas for citizens of that country. The U.S. embassy will contact the foreign spouse and the foreign spouse will have to present himself/herself to the U.S. embassy for processing of the K visa.

The K visa is valid for 4 months from the date of its approval. A consular officer can extend the validity of a K visa petition if the K visa expires before the visa processing is completed. A person with a K-3 visa will be allowed to apply for work authorization. K-3 and K-4 visa holders can also travel outside of the United States and return under their K visas. If an adjustment of status application is pending prior to the K visa holder’s departure from the United States, USCIS will not consider the K-visa holder’s departure as abandoning the adjustment application.

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