K1 visa Versus K3 visa - Which is better? - YouTube

K1 versus K3, which is better? We've all been at  

home during a pandemic and I think that in some ways, that's been good. In a lot of ways  

that's been hard and one of the things people have been doing with their immigration cases  

is trying to unearth secret strategies that maybe will help them skip this whole process. I don't

blame you at all because it's a terrible process and it's taking longer and longer and it's super  

frustrating and it's not efficient at all. I completely understand and I am married to  

an immigrant and I've been through the process myself. I totally get why why we all have  

that impulse to look for- there must be a better way. Surely, the situation can't be that  

I have to wait a year to just to be with my fiancé or spouse. That just seems totally ludicrous. It is  

totally ludicrous but unfortunately, a lot of these alternate theories that people are unearthing  

are just things that simply don't work right now. The K1 visa is specifically for fiancés.  

If you're already married, you can't get a K1 visa. But the thing about K1 visas is that based on the  

way that they're processed, some of the processing actually happens inside the United States after  

the person enters on the K1 visa. Even though over the last several years and  

decades, even the processing times for K1s and the processing times for spouse visas have varied  

a lot but typically, the K1s are always  a little bit faster than the spouse visas.  

Based on the way that they're processed, they're faster in the sense  

not of the entire process but they're faster to get the person actually into the United States.

The fastest way to get the person you love in the United States if you're not married is typically  

to file for a fiancé visa even though you have to do a lot more processing once they're in  

the US that you wouldn't have to do if they were a spouse. Why does this matter? At some  

point, congress said it seems really unfair that you would let fiancés come faster than people who  

are already married. That's really crazy and I think that's totally bizarre, right? You guys  

probably agree with me on that. What can we do about it? They created the K3 visa  

with the intention that people who are waiting on spouse visas could get this other type of K  

visa for people who are already married and then they would be able to come in faster also.

Just like many things with the government, that's a great idea. But based on the execution by the  

government and the bureaucratic hell  that they have created on how to get it,  

it's currently not going to help you at all  unfortunately. I hate to tell you that  

but if you're going to be trying to get a K3, I haven't seen a K3 issued in  

like seven years or something. Currently, they don't  

help because the way the process works to try for K3 visa is that you have to first  

apply for the first step of a spouse visa. You would actually file your I-130 and you have  

to wait to get the receipt back from that and then you file for the K3. What happens is  

based on the way that they run those two petitions, even though the I-130 petitions are  

taking like six to eight months, they're still  beating the K3 petitions. At that point,  

the government just kicks out your K3 application, says K3 application denied because

you've already gotten further along in the process with this other case and then  

they just close that case entirely even though you're still at the very beginning phase of the  

spouse visa. I don't want to get too much of the weeds about why that technically  

happens. But I just want you to know that there's not a secret awesome thing called the K3.

You probably noticed lawyers have not been talking about it. It's not something that's  

presented when you consult with someone and that is why because people who know and who've done  

this and who are working on this just know  that it exists legally but  

in reality, it's not a thing that people are getting right now unfortunately

and that's why we're not recommending it. I just really wanted to clarify that and hopefully 

that gives you a little peace of mind. If you're in a  

traditional fiancé visa or spouse visa route, it really is the best and only way to do this right  

now or adjusting the status under our current laws. Don't worry,  

we're lobbying Washington D.C. every year though to try to get them to make better systems for  

you all. We try to hit it from both sides. I know it's frustrating though.