Instead of choosing our Full Service option, clients may choose from the individual services listed below. The options and fees below are only for fiancee and spouses visas.  The options and fees listed below are not for Marriage-based Adjustment of Status (concurrent I-130 & I-485 filing).

1.  Visa Application Summary & Document Checklist:  $525

2.  USCIS Forms Preparation:  $525

3.  USCIS Petition Review:  $1,050

4.  Financial Review & Affidavit of Support Preparation:  $500

5.  NVC/Consulate/Embassy Forms Preparation:  $500

6.  Interview & Medical Exam Instructions (written form):  $500

7.  Attorney Interview Preparation (telephone, Viber, WhatsApp or Skype):  $500

To support and honor our troops, we provide a 10% discount on all our fees to all active duty U.S. servicemen and women.

The I-129F petition is prepared and submitted according to the highest professional standards. We have the training and experience to be able to recognize the hidden issues that may lurk in the data and documentation, and we know how to quickly resolve any problems found therein. We know the “unwritten rules” regarding what constitutes a persuasive petition, and what does not. Our whole approach is to identify and resolve any potential USCIS or Embassy issues in the first days of the representation, rather than wait for problems to arise later, where one may get caught in a long, arduous battle with a government agency (to imagine what dealing with the USCIS or Embassy is like, just think of your local Department of Motor Vehicles, but imagine it ten times worse). Finally, when we are confident that the case is ready, the I-129F petition is assembled so to be as complete, accurate and easy to review as possible, so that the USCIS examiner is encouraged to approve the application as soon as possible, with the chances of the petition being returned with a “Request for (Additional) Evidence”, which could cause months of delays, having been reduced to near zero.

Numerous changes in the K visa field have taken place over recent years with little or no advance notice to the public (e.g., the elimination of “provisional files” in consular processing, new rules regarding police certificates,, the obsolescence of the K-3 visa for most visa applicants, the initiation of background checks by the NVC rather than by the embassies, the introduction of new Embassy forms and procedures, the implementation of more rigorous background checks, the requirement of dual parental consent to a child’s emigration in some embassies, the elimination of any interview waivers, etc.). If notice is given at all by the government, it is measured in days, not months. Government web sites have often continued to show the outdated information weeks after the changes have occurred. But our clients are not surprised by such developments because our firm constantly monitors new statutes, legal publications, and other sources of information, and we are constantly learning from our on-going experience with dozens of K1 clients per month, so that we can quickly advise our clients of any changes and adapt to the new environment.

An attorney is available throughout the fiance visa petition process to provide answers and solutions to the client and fiance’s questions. Even though we take the vast majority of the case and it’s complexity out of the client’s and fiance’s hands, and provide detailed instructions and updates throughout, we nonetheless find that every member of our office spends most of his or her day answering telephone calls or emails from clients who have new questions, problems, and concerns that appear as the case moves forward. We typically know the answer and solutions immediately, or if a novel issue is presented, we set about solving it in the shortest possible time.

All forms contained in State Department Packet #3 (initial Embassy mailing to the fiancée) and State Department Packet #4 (final Embassy mailing to the fiancée) are prepared by our office and mailed to the fiance prior to the first Embassy mailing, so that the interview can be scheduled for the earliest possible date.

All required telephone, mail, and fax contact with the U.S. Consulate is handled by our office. Our attorneys have visited numerous other embassies and consulates in recent years (China,Warsaw, Bangkok, Manila, Rome,and Tokyo, to name just a few) and we maintain close contact by e-mail, fax, and telephone with all embassies for which we have cases. This permits us to maintain excellent working relationships with Embassy personnel and make personal appeals to the visited Embassy for clients whose petitions are pending at the time of a visit.

Unfortunately, many members of U.S. embassies have skeptical attitudes toward fiancees, viewing them more as interested in securing an immigration benefit than in establishing a bona fide marriage. This can lead to perfectly good relationships running into problems in the Embassy interview. Our long experience with the embassies give us a nuanced understanding of the staff members’ psychology, and the factors they use in evaluating fiancees, allowing us to present the case in the most favorable light during the Embassy interview.

Marrying a foreign national in the U.S. is rather easy. In most counties in the U.S. all is needed is to fill out an application form, provide identification and wait a short period (often, only 24 hours) until you legally marry. The hard part is keeping the new spouse here. Hollywood movies skip the legal hassles, and don’t suggest that the foreign-born spouse may have to go home to obtain a valid visa (it’s gets in the way of the romantic story line). The fact is that in many cases the spouse MUST go home. In other cases, however, the spouse may remain in the U.S. while the application for a “green card” (more accurately, conditional permanent residence status) is being processed.

Adjustment of Status after marriage in the U.S.

The procedure for adjustment based on marriage in the U.S. involves filing an I-130 Relative visa petition and I-485 Application to Adjust Status to Permanent Residence (and perhaps also a work authorization and travel document request as well) – and then the couple waits for the meeting with a U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (“CIS”) examiner. The applicant remains lawfully present in the U.S. while the petition is pending. An interview between the couple and a CIS examining officer usually occurs in six to twelve months. During the interview, the examining officer will check carefully to make sure that the couple are in fact living together as husband and wife and that the marriage is not a “sham marriage” entered into for immigration rather than romantic purposes. This is standard procedure for all marriage based immigration cases, whether the marriage occurred overseas or in the U.S. But there’s another very large issue in play if the couple married while the foreign national was on a temporary visa to the U.S. The couple must convince the examiner that when the foreign national entered the U.S. and promised to stay for a limited time, s/he was not in fact planning to marry and remain in the U.S. permanently. If the officer believes that the couple planned to be married in the U.S. before the applicant’s entry on the non-immigrant visa, then this will mean that the applicant lied when (s) he promised that she will return to his/her home country when the visa was issued. In the jargon of immigration law, the Service will “retroactively impute immigrant intent” to the applicant at the time of receiving the non-immigrant visa, thereby rendering him/her ineligible to adjustment in the U.S., and subject to deportation.

Timing of the marriage

The timing of the marriage relative to the date of entry of the foreign national is a critical issue in such cases. In general, the sooner the marriage after entry, the more likely the examining officer will think that the intent to marry was formed before entering the U.S. Many people refer to the “30/60/90 day rule” (sometimes the “30/60 day rule” based on the Foreign Affairs Manual standard) which roughly translates as marriage within 30 days of entry -> forget about adjustment in the U.S.; marriage between one and two months of entry -> adjustment is possible but you had better have very strong documentation of no prior intent; two to three months after entry -> getting easier; over three months -> the safest approach. However this “rule” is merely a rule of thumb as there are many other factors besides the timing of the marriage that go into the officer’s decision of whether or not to grant the adjustment. Theoretically, it’s possible to win an adjustment of a foreign national who married within days of entry. For example, let’s say Mary went to a doctor feeling nauseous the day after her entry on a B-2 visitor visa, learns that she was pregnant for the first time, and the doctor recommends that she not travel anytime soon. Mary, being from a strict family, decides to marry her American fiancé the day after her doctor’s appointment. Mary can show that she left a good job and countless other commitments behind in her home country, and that her abrupt and unplanned marriage in the U.S. caused her many problems, rather than just being a shortcut to adjustment. Not only does she have a great narrative, she has terrific documentation to support all of her claims. Further, Mary can handle herself with poise in an interview, and, she has the sense to hire Law Office of Laurie Y. Wu to help her. We believe Mary gets the visa without having to go back home and wait many months to receive a visa from a U.S. Consulate.

Intent to marry in the US

On the other hand, a couple who marries six months after the foreign national entered on a temporary visa with a “clear conscience”, fully intending to go home, but deciding to marry after entry, might nonetheless not be able to adjust status if they can’t come up with the documentation needed to convince the examining officer that intent was formed after entry. In other cases (often!), couples shoot themselves in the foot by inadvertently including in their petitions information or documents that provide evidence for the officer that intent to marry in the U.S. was actually formed prior to the entry on the temporary visa. In still other cases, the examiner believe that the applicant worked unlawfully while on the temporary visa, thereby rendering him/her ineligible for adjustment in the U.S.

You definitely shouldn’t plan to enter the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa with an intent to marry in the U.S. Many such people get stopped in the airport and sent home when the customs officer realizes what the “visitor” is intending to marry in the U. S. and remain. In other cases, the foreign national gets in to the U.S., marries, and tries to get a green card but is refused because the CIS officer decides that the application had immigrant intent all along. Still others are caught by the USCIS examiner making a “material misrepresentation”, and are banned from the U.S. for several years or even for life.

Just couldn’t be seperated again

However, if you entered the U.S. intending to return home, but decided while you were here that you just couldn’t postpone your marriage any more, or be separated again from your beloved other, give us a call and we can probably help. We strongly encourage you to call us before you marry if at all possible.

Once the receipt notice for the I-130 is received (this usually takes about two weeks) a K-3 visa petition may be filed as a means to request the government to allow the spouse to enter the U.S. while the more time-consuming I-130 petition is pending. The two petitions are rather similar in terms of forms and documentation, but they have two completely separate lives as they go through processing, and there are different rules that apply to each (for example, the visa interview for an I-130 must take place in the beneficiary’s home country, whereas the K-3 visa interview must take place in the country of marriage). Although the typical I-130 visa takes about a year to process through the various government agencies (USCIS, NVC, and Embassy/Consulate), and the K-3 visa is usually approved a few months before the I-130. The beneficiary enters the U.S. on the K-3, and adjusts status to lawful permanent residence without having to leave the U.S. Entry on the I-130 does not require subsequent adjustment of status.

Unmarried children under 21 years of age qualify for “derivative status” from parent, gaining the same rights as the parent from the same petition, and may travel to the U.S. with the parent upon visa issuance. However, a derivative child who was 18 or older at the time of the parent’s marriage to the U.S. citizen can NOT obtain permanent residence status in the U.S. Such children must leave the U.S. after the two year K-4 visa expires (unless they qualify for another visa, such as a student visa) and wait for the immigrant parent to gain permanent residency and be able to petition for the child. Even then, there is a several year wait for a priority number before being able to receive the visa.

In some countries, an I-130 visa for a spouse may be filed directly with the US Embassy/Consulate that will interview the foreign spouse to issue the visa. This typically greatly reduces the waiting time to receive the visa, requiring in most cases less than two months from beginning to end. In such cases, the petitioning US citizen gets married overseas (or is already married) and files the same I-130 petition with the Embassy that normally is sent to the USCIS in the U.S. A CIS officer in the embassy reviews the file, and if “clearly approvable”, forwards the case to the consular section within the Embassy for interview scheduling. The US citizen does not have to remain “in country” at all after this filing takes place.

Most US embassies have strict residence requirements on the US citizen that must be met before they will accept a DCF case. A typical requirement, for example, is that the US citizen has resided continuously in the local country for six months, or has a specific level of legal residence or work status in the local country. Thus, in most countries overseas only U.S. workers or servicemen stationed overseas as a practical matter may take advantage of this highly convenient arrangement.

The various embassies change their policies with regard to DCF often (maintaining an up-to-date listing of embassy policies on the web is therefore a near impossibility) and therefore great care must be made before making marriage and travel plans before embarking on the DCF plan.

Waiting times for DCF cases that our office has filed have varied from two weeks up to four months total waiting time, with the average wait being about five weeks.

A person entering the U.S. on an I-130 receives his or her conditional permanent residence status at the airport or border entry point. If a spouse chooses to enter on a K-3, however, the spouse must file an I-485 Application to Adjust Status to obtain lawful permanent resident (“LPR”) and to advance their integration into American society (this procedure is also known as applying for a “green card”). The application is form and document intensive in much the same way that the I-130 and K-3 petitions are. The sponsor of the spouse must meet the somewhat stricter I-864 requirements for minimum income to support the alien. The final decision as to whether the foreign born spouse qualifies for LPR status is made by an immigration official during the adjustment of status interview. Almost all married couples are obliged to attend the interview to convince the immigration authorities that their relationship is based on real love and that they have a bona fide marriage. If you successfully pass the interview, your spouse will receive the actual green card in mail within about 30-60 days.

Work Authorization

K-3/K4 visa holders are allowed to work in the United States while the alien relative petitions are pending. Employment authorization may, as a matter of law, be provided by border enforcement at the time of entry into the U.S., but in most cases it is not, and the beneficiary must file a form I-765 application for employment authorization after entry. It’s usually a good idea to file for the employment authorization document (“EAD”) even if the beneficiary doesn’t intend to work immediately, because the EAD is often required to obtain a social security card which in turn is necessary to receive a driver’s license in most states.

Travel Privileges

The K-3 and K-4 visas are multiple entry visas, which means that there is no need to apply for any additional permission to travel outside the United States while the application for permanent residence is pending. A K-3/4 visa holder may travel outside the U.S. without worry about needing Advance Parole or other travel document to return to the U.S.

If your spouse is granted her/his permanent resident status before you are married for two years, whether he/she arrived on a K-3 or an I-130 petition, (s)he will receive a conditional or a temporary permanent residence status. The “condition” on your spouse’s permanent residency will need to be removed later by filing an additional joint I-751 petition. The “conditional green card” is good for 2 years, and you must file your petition to remove conditions a few months before your spouse’s temporary green card expires.

A person who obtains LPR status by virtue of marrying a U.S. citizen is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship three years after first obtaining LPR status (whether conditional or not) rather than the five years required by most other green card holders.
of legal residence or work status in the local country. Thus, in most countries overseas only U.S. workers or servicemen stationed overseas as a practical matter may take advantage of this highly convenient arrangement.

The various embassies change their policies with regard to DCF often (maintaining an up-to-date listing of embassy policies on the web is therefore a near impossibility) and therefore great care must be made before making marriage and travel plans before embarking on the DCF plan.

Waiting times for DCF cases that our office has filed have varied from two weeks up to four months total waiting time, with the average wait being about five weeks.