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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawK-1 Fiancée Visas: Is the I-134 Affidavit of Support Legally Binding?

K-1 Fiancée Visas: Is the I-134 Affidavit of Support Legally Binding?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing the I -134 Affidavit of Support specifically in the context of the K-1 fiancée visa.

What is the I-134 Affidavit of Support? Well as a necessary component of the visa package which must be submitted to the United States Embassy abroad, here in Bangkok we call it Packet 3, you have got to submit an Affidavit of Support; in a K-1 context you are dealing with the I -134 Affidavit of Support. Let me quote directly from US, Citizenship and Immigration Services website, that is uscis.gov, 30.8 Affidavit of Support for non-immigrants. Quoting directly: "Every non-immigrant seeking admission or extension or of change of status must satisfy the inspector or adjudicator that he or she is capable of maintaining status and will not become a public charge." So that is the purpose of the I-134 Affidavit of Support. "Such affidavits, although helpful in judging financial ability, are not legally binding. Form I -134 may only be used in non - immigrant cases." This is one of those situations where the K-1 sort of straddles the line between immigrant and non-immigrant Visa cases. The K-1 was created to provide 90 days of lawful status for non-immigrant fiancée to come to the United States, make a determination about whether or not they want to marry their American citizen husband, although they need to have the genuine intention to marry at the time they leave their home country and travel into the United States, they then need to make the determination as to getting married and once married they need to go ahead and file for something called "Adjustment of Status". There are other videos on this channel which deal specifically with Adjustment of Status, specifically affidavits of support in the context of adjustment of status, suffice it to say the i-864 is associated with the adjustment of status process and there is another video on this channel that I have made contemporaneously with this one that deals directly with Affidavit of Support in the context of an adjustment, but the thing that should be taken away from this video is strictly speaking the i-134 itself is not legally binding. That being said it does need to be signed by the petitioner in the given case and I think it is arguable if not irrefutable that purposely misleading or mis-communicating  or misrepresenting oneself in an immigration adjudication could lead to a finding of immigration fraud or a finding of a legal ground of inadmissibility associated with fraud and misrepresentation. So simply because the document itself is not legally binding, does not mean there is not a duty to tell the truth on an I-134, so first things first let's understand that. But strictly speaking the I-134 itself is not legally binding because it's this sort of interesting narrow aspect of the law with this K-1, where although you can have immigrant intent it is a dual  intent visa essentially; one could have immigrant intent, intend to remain in the United States at the time they are applying for it, you are not dealing with an I- 864 Affidavit of Support and for that reason it is kind of a genuinely qualitatively different Affidavit of Support when compared to the I- 864 Affidavit of Support. There is another video in the specific context of marriage visas and the I-864 Affidavit of Support and the legally binding nature thereof. I urge those were watching this video to check that out to understand all aspects of this overall issue.