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K-1 Visa: Expiration And Reissuance?
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-1 Fiancé Visas, specifically we are discussing the issue of expiration and reissuance.
Now K-1 Visas are issued with a certain expiration date. Generally speaking they have a 6-month validity, although it may depend on the underlying validity of the documentation associated with the underlying petition for the K-1 itself. So again 6 months is kind of the rule of thumb, but it may be issued with less validity depending on circumstances. So the thing to take away from this video is first off you really do not want to let your K-1 Visa expire; you want to use it. This is also something, there is a bit of a misnomer on, upon arrival in the United States, that person is granted 90 days of lawful status. Presumably during that time, they need to marry their fiancé and go ahead and file for adjustment of status in the US in order to get their Green Card sorted out.
But is it possible to get a K-1 Visa reissued? Maybe, but understand this is a situation you do not want to find yourself in where you are needing to go in and get a K-1 reissued for whatever reason. I have seen it happen precisely one time in my entire career when I was working with another lawyer on a really complex K-1 case; it involved a whole bunch of factors that basically aren't going to come up very often, it's not going to come up very often in most cases, but yes it may be possible to get a K-1 reissued. You do not want to put yourself in that position. You want to go ahead and just get your K-1, go ahead and use it, go into the country get your 90 days and presumably marry and file for adjustment. Failure to do that could result in problems, further delays. Just generally speaking, it's not an optimal position to be in.