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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawWhat Do I Do Once My K-3 Visa Is Issued?

What Do I Do Once My K-3 Visa Is Issued?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-3 visas. 

Now I have gone ahead and to provide a visual aid, this is an actual issued K-1 Visa package. We have the passport here. There is nothing on here that provides any information about whose this is because obviously we are not going to do that but this is just to provide a visual aid as to what a K package looks like once a K Visa is issued. This case a K-1 but a K-3 is very similar and they still do use these actual packages. The documentation contained herein is what is used to start one's Immigrant case file in the United States.  US Customs and Border Protection will open this up and they will take the documentation and use it to create one's alien file in the USA. 

The thing to understand about K-3 Visas, they are pretty rarely processed frankly these days although I suspect in the coming months and years, we will probably see more of them due to the underlying backlog associated with Immigrant Spousal Visa cases. That stated, the K-3 Visa much like its K-1 counterpart is Non-immigrant, so in the same vein as the K-1, one arrives with the K-3. Now the K-3 provides longer status in the United States but if one wants to get lawful permanent residence in the USA, much like the K-1 Visa, one needs to go ahead and file an I-485 application to adjust status to lawful permanent residence in order to gain one's Green Card in the United States. 

Now the question is what happens after I get one of these and I get to the United States? What happens in the interim?  Basically you need to make arrangements to get a flight to the US. You need to make arrangements to get accommodation over there. This may be easier said than done under the COVID-19 cloud hanging above us all but that is basically the long and the short of it. You need to make arrangements to travel to the United States, gain lawful admission via US Customs and Border Protection checkpoint, have your K-3 package created; your Immigrant case file created. You will be granted your status by USCBP upon admission to the United States and then thereafter and it is a good idea sooner rather than later, to start seriously thinking about adjusting status to lawful permanent residence.