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K-1 Visas: What If We Don't Get Married?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the K-1 Visa. A question that oftentimes comes up after someone has used their K-1 Visa and they have gone into the United States and they are in the United States using their 90 days duration in the country, sometimes relationships don't work out or it might not be logistically convenient or a good idea at the time that the folks are using the K-1, at the time that a person oftentimes contact me, they oftentimes ask me "what if we don't get married?" It is just the circumstances didn't work out; we are still together; we love each other but it is just not going to work getting married right now or whatever the circumstances are. Long story short, well as long as the person does not overstay, the fiancée does not overstay that 90 days, it is really no harm, no foul. 

Now you have to have a genuine intention, a bona fide intention to get married when filing for a Fiancé Visa. If that intention changes and it changes due to unforeseen events or just because the circumstances were not right for the marriage to occur, so long as the person using the K-1 does not overstay their 90 days, in a sense it is no harm no foul. Now there are some ramifications possibly with respect to the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act which precludes substantial multiple filings for K-1 Fiancé Visas, but depending on the circumstances especially if it is the same person, it may be very possible to get a waiver of those restrictions. 

Long story short and this is really critical, Immigration concerns should not drive personal decisions. If two people want to get married, great. If they are just getting married to get a Visa that can be a real problem. It can even arise to the level of even being fraud under certain circumstances. 

So the thing to take away from this video, yes if you use your K-1 and you ultimately don't decide to get married due to bona fide reasons, again so long as you don't overstay, it is effectively for lack of a better term, no harm, no foul.