About face, maybe. Knowledge Required, pls help.

HI, I am brand new to this site, I have a fiance who is English. Our original plan was to move him to the US. We have filed for a K-1 but they seem to work at snail speed. 3 Months and counting so far with no news for the 2nd stage of 4.

So we had a re-think, we don't really care which country we end up in just as long as we're together (SOON!), my guy said that he read a thread somewhere where a Brit had married a USC in the US and gone to the British Consulate and asked them for her visa in person along with marriage cert. and had it stamped in her passport by the end of the day. All websites though point to filling an online application and it taking a month, (still far better than the US).

So I guess, does anyone know if this is true of the current times, (the story was 8 years ago) and if so is there any legal aspect we should be aware of when it comes to my government (US)? We know we can't adjust his status as it's against the terms of VWP but it seems to read that as long as the no-US citizen returns home then getting married is fine.

Any help gratefully received.

Andie 

So we had a re-think, we don't really care which country we end up in just as long as we're together (SOON!), my guy said that he read a thread somewhere where a Brit had married a USC in the US and gone to the British Consulate and asked them for her visa in person along with marriage cert. and had it stamped in her passport by the end of the day. All websites though point to filling an online application and it taking a month, (still far better than the US).

Doesn't quite work like that any more- you can't apply in person yourself anymore, I'm afraid. But the UK visa process is still miles faster than the US!  The current process is more like- fill out the online application, schedule your appointment for biometrics (the wait for which could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on where you are), go to your biometrics appt to get your fingerprints and photo taken and then either send your application/supporting docs to the consulate and wait (processing times are around 20 days once they have all your documents) or pay a courier agency to walk your application into the consulate for you (processing time shortened to a couple of days.)  The whole process from start to finish would probably take less than 2 months.

As far as getting married in the US, yes it's fine for him to come over on visa waiver to get married as long as he's planning to return to the UK afterwards.

I can't speak for the whole of the US and I think Florida is slower than most states, but when I got married here (I'm from the UK) it took months and months to get things sorted and took almost a year to get a work permit! When she later applied for a UK visa it took TWO WEEKS!

So from my own personal experience, getting a UK visa is a lot quicker and easier than getting a US one.

My Fiancée's father is working on getting his K-1 visa for the states, She applied for it in July... they are looking at March before they get either an approval or denial. We had looked at both countries and one of our deciding factor in getting me to the UK was process time. You can see my time frame on my signature but basically I put it in a month after her and I was approved end of September will be there in October... hehe

Been there...done that. My story was similar to the one you fiancee quoted. We waited for about 5 months with nothing happening on DH's app to come to the US (we got caught in the IMBRA fiasco 2 years ago...and those people waited something like 18 months). I went to the British Consulate in LA and had mine and my daughter's visas that day...back when you could still go in person. But if you marry in the US...apply online...and courier...you are probably looking at only a month apart...tops of two.

Thanks all, really appreciate your answers.