Please Help: Do we need a US K1 visa or just a UK fiance visa...?

Hello everyone,

My apologies in advance for a somewhat complicated post and confusing situation! I'm really hoping someone else has had experience with this and can point me in the right direction. (: Any help at all is much appreciated!

My fiance (UK citizen) and I (US citizen) are marrying this summer. We will be living in the UK for one year immediately after we are married while he gets his masters degree. Our plan for after that time is (probably, but not definitely) to move back to the US while I go to grad school, and then we aren't sure where we'll live after that. Oh yeah, and I am the US citizen, he the UK citizen.

Up to this point, we had planned on having a ceremony in the US for our friends and family here, but not filing any official paperwork for it (because we thought we had to have a K1 visa to do it). We planned to apply for my UK fiance visa as soon as he arrives (July 17) and then have the "official" wedding in England after we get there (August 22), and go through all the normal procedures for me to then have leave to remain there, etc.

However, I just realised (by reading some other very helpful posts here!) that the K1 Visa is for "A fiancé(e) of a United States citizen who will travel to the United States to marry and take up indefinite residence after marriage."  Now here is where I am a little excited/confused. Since my fiance and I are definitely going to live in the UK for one year after our marriage, does this mean that we could 1. officially marry in the U.S., 2. then apply for my UK spouse visa instead of the fiancee visa, and 3. once we arrive in the UK then start working on his US Spouse visa for our return to the US the following year? This would save us some time/effort/money! However, I am really scared because of all of the "if you botch this up you risk not seeing each other for a long LONG time, don't get married here without a visa" talk at the US consular affairs website.  I don't know if us marrying in the US, living in the UK for a year as husband and wife, and then trying to come back a year later needs a K1 or not. It seems like we don't need one because we are going to live in the UK straight away, but on the other hand it seems like we would need a K1 to marry here since he would eventually want to "take up indefinite residence" here.

Has anyone else had a similar predicament? Better yet has anyone else had a similar predicament with a success story attached?

If we could marry here without the K1 visa, it would really simplify things for us both. I can't believe after all of our planning/research that I just figured out this strange scenario regarding K1/no K1. (Ages ago we had decided we were going to go for the K1 and marry here, then immediately return to the UK, but when we realised it took 6 months we decided that the 1 week UK fiance visa was a way better way to go.... Of course, we  hadn't realised that since we weren't staying here right away the K1 might not be needed at all...or is it? I just can't work this out in my head. I keep being able to see how it could go either way. Gah!!!)

Why does this have to be so complicated?  I just want to marry the love of my life for over 6 years!

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Cheers,
Amanda

You can get married in the US and your fiance will not need a visa because you will not be living in the US after the marriage.  Before you leave the US,  you'll apply for  UK spousal visa, which will allow you to work immediately upon arrival in the UK.

If you're only planning on living here a year, you'll have to go the "long way" to get your then-husband to the US.  If you live here for two years (i.e., if you have your ILR), you can go the direct consular filing/DCF route, which will get you to the US a bit quicker.

Wonderful! That's just what I wanted to hear.

Thank you so much for your help!

One thing though: when he's entering the country, and they ask him his reason for visit, advise him NOT to say "i'm getting married."

Suggest he tell them he's on holiday, or visiting a friend.

I've been waiting on a K-1 for my fiance, which I'm abandoning now in order to go live with him there for a year.  We were going to do exactly as you are: have him fly in, get married, then fly back with a spousal visa... but he can't take the time off work for that, so I'm just going to go over there on a fiancee visa and we'll take it from there.

good luck! and congrats!

::nods:: that makes sense - don't want to complicate things any more than necessary. 

thanks! & good luck to you both as well!

One thing though: when he's entering the country, and they ask him his reason for visit, advise him NOT to say "i'm getting married."

Suggest he tell them he's on holiday, or visiting a friend.

I would never advise lying to immigration.  There is nothing wrong with coming to the US, marrying and returning to your country of origin.  If you are concerned that immigration will give you hassle, you need only carry documents that prove you have ties to and are returning to the UK.

Those documents could be: a lease/mortgage papers, a letter from your employer stating that you are expected back to work on a certain date, etc.  You could even supply papers showing your other half's appointment for a UK spousal visa.

If you tell immigration that you are coming for a holiday or visit and they become suspicious and search your belongings only to find evidence that you are coming to be married, this could throw up all kinds of red flags.

I would never advise lying to immigration.

I agree completely and would never lie to immigration or suggest that my fiance do so either.  (Far too much is at stake to lie to the people who have absolute power over whether we see one another!) Besides, we're both nervous people anyway. I have also found over ages of traveling back and forth that it is not necessarily wise to go into detail about things they don't ask about directly either. When an immigration officer asks me a question, I tell him or her the answer to that question - no more, no less. We don't ever have anything to hide, so I guess that simplifies things a bit.

He'll be bringing tons of material with him from the UK for my spousal visa application, so I figured that would be ample evidence of our intention to return. He's a grad student, so we've not got employment records for him, but he's going to bring along his acceptance papers from uni. We've also got letters from his parents stating their intention to help us financially when I arrive in the UK, etc. Hopefully this will make everything crystal clear to whomever he encounters at the point of entry. ::crosses fingers:: I guess we'll find out in 7 more days!