Being one of the most sought-after type of US VISA, we are going to present you a detailed explanation about how to apply US Fiancé Visa or K1 Visa from Thailand and list of documents that you and your fiancé need to prepare.
On this article, we will explain the details of the this K1 visas, how to get the visa, who is eligible to apply for it, and what are the important documents that need to be prepared or examined by your visa consultant first.
We assure you that after you have read this article you will certainly clarify all of the information that you may use for preparing your visa application.
Many people are probably familiar with the sentence that love across the sky, love across borders. Couples who found love even though they are half the world apart but have met each other until it became true love. This is type of relationship is not new to us as we have managed and handled US visa applications since 2015.
And the fact that couples of different nationalities can live together although a proper Immigration legal process is required in regards to obtaining a visa so that the couple can legally join each other in the US.
On this article we would like to talk about couples who want to ask their girlfriend to go to America. To get married and live together permanently.
Again, this article will teach you and give you information on how to apply for the US Fiancée Visa (K1 Visa) from Thailand. If you are applying for the US Fiancée Visa or K1 Visa or are interested in this type of visa. We will tell you every detail, topic, and steps you should know.
Therefore, absolutely do not miss, start!
Table of Contents
- What is a US Fiancé Visa or K1 Visa?
- Basic qualifications for apply US fiancé visa
- Fees for US fiancé visa
- List of documents for applying for a US K1 fiancé visa from Thailand
- Learn how to apply a US fiancé K1 visa step by step
- What do I need to do after getting a K-1 visa?
- US fiancé visa timeframe
- Frequently asked questions
- US fiancé K1 visa service
- Conclusion
1. What is a US Fiancé Visa or K1 Visa?
The US Fiancé Visa or K1 Visas is an option for interracial couples seeking a visa to register their marriage in the United States. You will be qualified for this type of visa if you have a fiancé who is a US citizen.
The marriage must be registered within a period of 90 days from the date the visa holder traveled to the United States.
In case you already registered marriage with you spouse, please read information from this article: US K3 Visa
Since this fiancé visa is only a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of marriage registration.
After registering a marriage with an American citizen the Application for adjustment of status to Permanent Residence, also known as Green Card Holders (LPR), must be submitted.
If an applicant has a child under the age of 21 and they intend to bring the child to the United States they may be able to apply for a primary applicant visa or a K2 visa at the same time. Without having to submit a separate application from the main applicant of the K1 visa.
Under the condition that the child must be unmarried, under 21 years of age and in the sole custody of the applicant.
You can find information from the embassy at this link: US Fiancé Visa
And the K1 visa is totally difference from Tourist visa or B1/B2, we suggest you to read the additional information via this article to compare: US Tourist Visa Thailand
2. Basic qualifications for apply US fiancé visa
Before you apply for the K1 visa you must first learn what are the basic qualifications in order to be qualified for this visa.
If you and your US partner meet the requirements listed below, getting a K1 visa will not be difficult for you.
For the American petitioner:
- Be 18 years old
- Single status
- Have income in the most recent tax year meeting the required minimum threshold.
- Have never been convicted of a serious criminal case or have a history of double crimes
For an Applicants
- 20 years of age
- Single status
- Good health according to the specified criteria
- Never have a history of working illegally
- Have never been convicted of a serious criminal case or have a history of double crimes
You and your American Party must also have met at least once within the last 2 years before applying for a visa.
Don’t worry too much if you have not met the qualifications above.
You can seek further advice from the company’s experts in order for us to help take care of your application and make your visa application work.
3. Fees for US fiancé visa
Visa application is not free, there are certain fees you need to settle and for the US fiancé visa, there are a number of fees and expenses, mainly for you to prepare the funds for the visa application as follows:
Descriptions |
Fee |
| I-129F Petition Fee | 535 $ or 16,500 ฿ |
| Fiancé visa fees | 265 $ or 8,215 ฿ |
| Police certificate | 100 ฿ |
| Health examination fee | 6,000 – 12,000 ฿ |
4. List of documents for applying for a US K1 fiancé visa from Thailand
When you know the basic qualifications and fees as already mentioned above the next most important part of getting a visa is to prepare the documents required for applying for a US K1 fiancé visa from Thailand.
Prior to submitting the documents to the US Immigration Services, you need to thoroughly check it first to avoid mistakes and omission.
Once you are confident about your documents you can submit it to the US Immigration Services to consider issuing a visa for you.
The main list of documents used to apply for a fiancé visa are as follows:
- Petition for the Fiancée Visa (I – 129F)
- Letter of guarantee from petitioner (I-134)
- Form G-1145 is a form for entering a phone number, email, as a way for staff to contact applicants.
- Certificate of marriage registration within 90 days
- A copy of the applicant’s personal documents with English translation and seal certifying translation such as birth certificate, name change certificate, divorce registration (if divorced before).
- A copy of the petitioner’s personal document, such as birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate, driver’s license, name change certificate, divorce certificate (if divorced before), etc.
- Petitioner’s copy of the petitioner’s US residence document, such as a lease, house and land ownership documents. Evidence of payment for home payments or mortgage statements, bills of water and electricity bills, etc.
- Copy of petitioner’s employment and income documents, such as the latest year’s income tax document or the latest Tax Return Transcript, Work certificate etc.
- Conduct certificate from the applicant’s police department.
- Two colored photographs, 2 × 2 inches in size, with a white background of the applicant.
- Two colored photographs, 2 × 2 inches in size, with a white background of the petitioner.
- Relationship evidence
- Applicant’s health examination results
Please be note that you may need other documents beside from above list as it need to consider case by case.
5. Learn how to apply a US fiancé K1 visa step by step
US Fiancé Visa can be considered as one of the most complicated type of US visa compared to Tourist Visa.
If you have no idea about the procedure on how to apply for the US Fiancé Visa, we suggest you to keep reading.
To give you a clear picture, we will divide the US fiancé visa application process into five main steps:
Step 1 Submit Form I-129F to USCIS.
The first form that applicants must submit is an I-129F. The forms can be downloaded from the USCIS website at the following link. https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f
Now let’s look at how to fill out this form we should understand the basics as follows.
- Petitioner for this Form I-129F is a US citizen who will sponsor and wants a foreign girlfriend or fiancée to register for marriage in America. Therefore, the person who will sign this form is an American citizen.
2. Applicant is a national of any country wishing to marry a US citizen in the United States. In this form, the applicant is a beneficiary, be careful not to enter information alternately when filling in the form. You must ensure that you will enter correct information all parts of the form and in which parts should be filled up with the information of the petitioner or beneficiary.
Once completed, submit the completed I-129F Petition Form, along with a copy of the Applicant and Petitioner’s personal documents, to the USCIS office in the United State.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, is the first petition screening agency.
After the petitioner submits the application to USCIS, they will normally receive a message or email with the Receipt Number used to check case status of the petition within 7-14 days after submitting the documents.
Aside from receiving a message or email, they will also receive a Form I-797C, Notice of Action, also known as a Receipt Notice, which will be sent to the petitioner’s postal address as stated in the claim within 30 days of submission.
In this first step, there will be a $535 petition fee.
This petition fee must be submitted only as a check or money order issued by a US financial institution or from a credit card and will take the time to consider the petition with an average of 4 – 6 months.
After the I-129F petition is approved by the USCIS, the petitioner will receive a Form I-1797, Notice of Action, also known as an Approval Notice, to confirm that the USCIS has approved your petition.
And, your approved petition is being sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) so that the NVC will create the case then forward your case to the US Embassy in the country of residence of the applicant.
When the embassy received your case, the embassy will send a letter to the applicants by post. It is a detailed case number or case number to use in the visa application process in the following step.
Step 2 Submit an online application and request an appointment with the US Embassy in Thailand.
After receiving the Case Number, Applicants must complete the Nonimmigrant Visa Application Form DS-160 online.
The DS-160 online form can be accessed through this link. https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/
It will be noticed that the fiancé visa uses the same online form as the nonimmigrant tourist visa.
At the start of filling in this DS-160 online application, you will be offered another visa type, select FIANCE (E) OR SPOUSE OF A US CITIZEN (K) as shown in the web.
After submitting the information in the DS-160 you will need to pay the fiancé visa fee of 8,215 baht [information on April 10, 2020]
You can login to the system to pay the visa fee from this link. https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/?language=Thai&country=Thailand
Of which you must complete the registration first, then the system will give you two options to pay by credit card or pay by cash at Krungsri Bank.
After completing the visa fee payment, the Applicants must wait for the notification from the Immigrant Visa Unit of US Embassy, instructing the applicant to make an interview appointment. This notification will be sent to the email which the applicant provided when registering the system. Do not book an appointment even the system allow you to click any available date shown on the system until you gets the notification from the embassy. If you do so, the embassy will cancel your appointment booking and you have to pay the visa fee again if the embassy canceled your booking twice. So please be patient and wait for your turn.
Step 3 Health check
After your interview date is confirmed by the embassy
Applicants must make an appointment with the hospital that is accredited by the embassy at least 1 week before the scheduled interview appointment with the Embassy. Then that they can perform a medical examination for the purpose of using in visa applications such as Bumrungrad International Hospital, BNH Hospital.
At this stage, if the doctor sees a physical abnormality and determines that further testing is required. This may result in a delay in the visa application process as well.
Because the embassy will not allow applicants to be interviewed without the medical examination results to show to the staff.
The health examination results will be valid for only 6 months.
Going for a health examination before an interview appointment has been issued or 1-3 days before the appointment is not recommended because it may result in extra costs.
The documents that must be prepared on the day of the health check are as follows:
- Current passport (original)
- Case number letter and confirmed email, interview appointment date
- 4 photos of the same size as the holder for a US visa
- History of vaccination (if any)
Step 4: Prepare interview materials
Preparing documents for the day of the interview is another important step in applying for a K1 Visa.
Applicants must hold all original personal documents on the interview date.
The petitioner’s essential documents used in this process are letters of guarantees. Also known as I-134 Affidavit of Support, the real must be signed by the petitioner. And submit together with the latest petitioner’s tax record You can download the I-134 form from this link. https://www.uscis.gov/i-134
In which the official will determine whether the petitioner’s income is qualified to certify the fiancé by filling in the income information in this form.
As well as considering the latest personal income tax filing documents of the petitioner’s family size and the state in which the petitioner lives.
The income threshold of the petitioner must pass the level of 100%. In this case, the annual income of the petitioner must be greater than or equal to 21,720 $, see the example table below.
You can check additional income criteria from this link. https://www.uscis.gov/i-864p
Another indispensable document is evidence of relationship.
Be it photos or conversation history or any evidence that your relationship with the petitioner is still ongoing and is genuine.
It must be presented to the staff on the day of the interview as well.
If the applicant and the petitioner cannot provide complete documentation, there may be a delay in getting a visa by at least 10-15 working days.
On the day of the interview, the officer will give 1 sheet of paper detailing the additional documents to be submitted.
We call this type of a 221 (g) case where the applicant must submit the documents requested by the embassy within 1 year or your visa application will be automatically canceled.
Step 5 K1 Visa Interview
Before going to the interview, make sure you have all of your documents completed and please arrive at the embassy earlier than your interview appointment to prepare yourself for the interview.
Our visa team always advice our clients to be calm and do not get intimidated otherwise it will go downhill from there.
At this stage the staff will review all documents and interview the applicants. The most frequently asked questions are related to the applicant-petitioner relationship or just questions about the petitioner.
To check whether the two of you actually know each other or are you really a couple? what’s your real purpose in applying for the visa? Along with viewing the relationship documents you have submitted.
You may also be interviewing about any job history you have taken including your overseas travel history. The staff will be interview you in English at the communication level.
The reason why the interview will be in English Language is because if you can interact with your fiancé in English then the interview should not be too difficult for you. However, if you are too nervous to speak English you can inform the staff for an interview in Thai as well.
If you are granted a visa, the staff will keep your passport. After that, they will send your passport attached to the visa page along with a package of documents that you will need to carry on the date of your entry into the United States. This will be sent via the post office within 7 business days of your interview.
6. What do I need to do after getting a K-1 visa?
After the applicant has been granted a K-1 visa, you should check the validity on the visa page and submitted packages to see if they are in good condition.
If there is undue damage you should contact the embassy to request that it should be wrapped and sealed again.
An approved US visa applicant will be granted a K1 visa within a period of 6 months from the date of issue. One-time travel in and out applicants must enter the United States within the period shown on the visa and before your medical examination results expire.
The applicant must be married to the petitioner within 90 days of their entry into the United States.
After registering the marriage, the applications for adjustment of status to permanent residence, also known as Green Card Holders (LPR), must be filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) immediately to convert your visa into a Permanent Resident type.
7. US fiancé visa timeframe
The process of getting a US fiancé visa will have several steps. Each step takes a different timeframe and the process is different from the other.
Mainly, the US fiancé visa application takes the following steps:
The waiting period for I-129F applications is approximately four to six months from the date USCIS receives the I-129F application by looking at the date of the Notice of Receipt.
The period for issuing a case number is roughly around 1-1.5 months from the date the application is approved.
Due to the effect of Covid-19, the waiting period for the interview could not be estimated at this moment. The embassy is working on the long queue of visa cases.
The waiting period for passport and visa pages is approximately 7 working days from the date of interview.
*Overall, the procedure yields an average of 8 months.
However, in the current situation facing the Covid-19 epidemic, the period could be extended to 8-12 months.
8. Frequently asked questions
Our Visa specialist and Immigration Consultants do this visa quite often and with our experience we already memorized the most frequently asked questions to the applicants and for the petitioners as well. We take an average of 7-10 cases per month and the interested parties or our customers will have questions or questions that we ask frequently.
To assess the possibility of obtaining this visa you need to know or to answer the following:
If I entered the United States but did not register a marriage within 90 days, what should I do?
- Visa holders must leave the United States before their visa expires.
If the applicant’s relationship with the petitioner is less than 2 years, can I still apply for a fiancé visa?
- Can apply for a visa but the applicant and the petitioner must have met in person before two years prior to the visa application date.
I have been refused a tourist visa before, will this affect my application for a fiancé visa?
- In most cases, a history of travel visa denied does not affect the consideration of a fiancé visa. Applicants should actually state their history of visa rejection on the Nonimmigrant Visa Application (DS-160).
The income of the petitioner is not up to the threshold, can I apply for a fiancé visa?
- In the event that the petitioner does not reach the minimum income threshold, this may affect the visa application process. Applicants and petitioners may be required to switch to a spouse visa or CR1 / IR1 instead by registering their marriage in Thailand and applying for a spouse visa. Because this visa can be provided to third parties with American citizenship or have a green card permanent residence status and have income meeting minimum criteria as a joint sponsor together with the main sponsor or the petitioner.
What are the risks of being denied a fiancé visa?
- The applicant’s health examination results do not meet the criteria.
- Criminal history, various cases of applicants and petitioners
- Illegal work history of the applicant
- Income of the petitioner who does not meet the minimum threshold
- Can’t prove to be related or the relationship is not genuine
9. US fiancé K1 visa service
If you read the information above or have read it on the Internet and still do not understand or you are not confident in doing it yourself, do not worry because Siam Attorney International is a well-known law firm but also a well-known US or K1 fiancé visa service provider.
We have provided US Visa services since 2013 and we are happy to share that we have a 90% chance of approval rate from all of our clients.
We really want to take care of you. Because if you do it yourself in the wrong way either from the lack of knowledge or lost in essence of the nature of the visa you are applying then your visa will then be denied.
In addition to paying fees, the most important factor you should consider you’re your visa has been denied is all of the wasted time for the visa application process which is not a joke since it takes almost 9 months from start to finish.
If you think you have met all the qualifications that we have listed above then your chances of getting that visa are within reach and we can even make it to the point where there is a guaranteed visa approval.
Knowledge of the procedure methods including complete documentation, will make applying for a visa hassle-free.
However, if you are disqualified in any of these conditions, this does not mean that you will be denied a visa.
We encourage you to reach out to our team to discuss any issues and concerns in order to find solutions together, we will be more than happy to give you a consultation and advice from our visa team.
The services that you will receive from our team are as follows.
- Assess the possibility and risk factors of obtaining a visa for each client.
- Consultation at every step of the visa application.
- Provide the list of documents required for customers and petitioners.
- Complete the online application form and any other relevant applications.
- Translate and certify documents.
- Prepare documents for both the applicant and the petitioner.
- Submit a package of documents to USCIS.
- Submit documents by email to make an appointment with the US Embassy.
- Contact assistance in obtaining a police conduct certificate.
- Make an appointment with the hospital and take care of the customers on the day of the health check.
- Prepare interview questions and practice interviews.
- Check and update results for the applicants.
- and a lot more
Applying for a fiancé visa takes many steps and takes quite a long time, at present, about 8 months and due to the current COVID-19 epidemic situation, it will take an additional 1-month total of 9 months for the process.
In some cases, the process of writing a request or the submission of documents is incomplete.
This may lead to a long-consideration period to be prolonged.
Therefore, having advice and assistant who takes care of every step of the way will make your US fiancé visa application smooth and comfortable.
Our visa team has been on the Visa industry for more than 10 years in total experience.
We are also suggest you to read more about this visa from this article: K1 Visa for Thai.
We are ready to be your consultant and take good care of you in every step of your visa application.
You can contact us for further inquiries about visas and our services by email. support@siam-attorney.com or call us at 02-258-1763 or 095-750-0888.
Conclusion
At the heart of applying for a US Fiancé Visa or K1 Visa is a proven relationship between the Petitioner and the Applicant.
Furthermore, it is also about the income of the petitioner and criminal record and the eagerness and will of the applicant.
If you can pass all these requires that we have mentioned above then you can consider that you are almost 100% victorious.
The rest is about providing information or filling in various applications which will have a lot of details more than a temporary tourist visa. It may actually be several times harder.
Therefore, you must read carefully the questions in the application form to have a clear understand and be able to answer the questions on the topic, correctly and completely.
However, any important information that has been entered in the application should also be submitted with supporting documents accordingly.
All of the above will give you a better idea of how you can apply for a US fiancé visa.
Although it is difficult and comprises of complex multiple steps and takes a long time but we can tell you that it’s worth the wait.
Other than the above information, we cannot wait to see you have a great life in the US with your partner!
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