• K-1 Fiancé visa is designed to marry the original US citizen petitioner
• It will not be possible to proceed with an adjustment of status from inside the US, it has to go through the US Embassy in your country

Raw Transcript:

Jacob: Hello everybody, this is Jacob Sapochnick and welcome to another episode of Ask An Immigration Lawyer. This question is from Suki. Suki is asking about the K-1 Fiancé visa.

So came into the United States with a fiancé visa that was approved for 90 days to marry her fiancé but unfortunately things didn’t go well and Suki did not marry her fiancé. And the question is now that Suki is here for about a year now after the fiancé visa and she met somebody else, can she marry the new US citizen and proceed with adjustment of status in United States as well as getting a green card.

Well, Suki, unfortunately the K-1 Fiancé visa is a very, very tricky visa. It’s specifically designed for the fiancé to marry the original US citizen petitioner otherwise it’s not going to be possible to proceed with an adjustment of status from inside the US. What’s going to happen is that you’re going to need to leave United States eventually after the I-130 immigration petition is processed and you’ll have to collect your green card and process everything through the US Embassy in your country, in this case Japan.

The problem is that because you overstayed more than a year you’re going to be subject to a 10-year bar and you’re going to need a waiver. And so this is a waiver that you could process inside the United States because you can be eligible for the I-601 waiver because your only violation is an overstay and then we help you from spending too much time overseas.

So there are definitely options but it’s very important for people who come with a fiancé visa to understand that if you don’t marry the original US citizen sponsor, the fiancé, then there is no way to adjust your status in the United States by marrying a new petitioner, a new United States citizen. The only way will be to deport the United States at some point in the process and go through US consulate on what is called a consular processing on a spouse visa. But because you overstayed a bar will be triggered but there’s a waiver you can use.

Hopefully this was helpful. Once again I want to remind our listeners that this information is provided as a courtesy as a service to our podcast listeners. You should not rely on this information. This is not attorney-client relationship. Immigration laws continue to change all the time so it’s important for you to … before you take any action, to check with a qualified immigration attorney.

Once again thanks for listening. You ask, we answer, simple. See you at our next episode. Keep those questions coming.