Hi all, its been about a year since I posted. Last time I was on here, I told you I was bringing my girl over on a student visa and if we decided to marry, we would and then apply for the green card. It all worked well, but I would still advise not doing this unless you absolutely must.
Getting her the student visa was the hard part actually. I had to line up a sponsoring family, a school that she qualified for, a degree program that she actually wanted to take and was in line with her education goals. She literally just graduated so the timing aspect worked for us.
CAVEAT-Yes getting a student visa for marriage is technically illegal, but we were not engaged or serious about marriage until after she arrived, thus technically legal.
After 2 months here, we officially engaged, got married about 5 months after she arrived to the US. The rush was more of a life timing thing, I didn't have time to get married between early winter and middle of spring, so we decided to go for it, we were already madly in love.
Next was the paperwork, its done just like if you brought someone in on a K-3. I sent it in about 2 months after the wedding (again was too busy and no rush at this point anyway). We had the interview about 3 months later. Less than 2 months after that she got the green card in hand.
The interview was tough. They asked a lot of questions, the worst being about my former K-1 I sponsered. I didn't have to worry about IMBRA because this was not another K-1 though. They also asked a lot about how we met and when we decided to marry, etc. We didn't have to lie, although I completely de-emphasized our romantic connection before she arrived. She is still a student and learning what she came here on the student visa to learn so that probably helped too. I felt like they were more concerned abouthis being a real marriage than if she liked me before she got the student visa. Our photo albums took care of that.
The downside is the embassy denied her mom a B-1 because they said her daughter (my wife) lied to them and used a student visa to immigrate, so they think she is trying too as well.
PS, I'm probably one of the few people here to take my parents over to FSU to meet my wife's family. That was fun. Good luck to all!
