American citizens have two means of bringing their foreign husbands or wives to the US to live.
- You can "sponsor" your spouse's immigrant visa for entry to the United States. If you follow this process, your foreign spouse will complete the visa process completely outside the US, and then arrive in the US and obtain permanent residency status immediately. You will need to submit an immigrant Petition for Alien Relative, Form I-130. After USCIS, the National Visa Center and the US Embassy complete all the necessary administrative processing your spouse will be granted an immigrant visa. Your spouse will receive an IR1 or a CR1 visa.
(Note: An IR-1 (IR stands for "Immediate Relative") visa allows your spouse to immigrate to the U.S. A CR1 Visa (CR stands for "Conditional Residency") will be given to you if your marriage is less than 2 years old. It is conditional for two years.
- You can obtain a K-3 visa. The K3 visa is a non-immigrant visa for the US. K3 visas are granted normally within a few months. You should use the K3 visa to start the process outside of the US, then travel to the US to complete the immigration process. Please note that in this case, the application must be made in the country where the marriage took place. If your marriage took place in the US, your spouse must apply for a K3 visa through the US Embassy in the country of his/her residence. Furthermore, and somewhat confusing – the applicant needs to have form I-129F (called "petition for alien fiancé(e)) also filed on his/her behalf. Since K-3 is a relatively new visa category, USCIS continues to be using the Form I-129F and it is still called a "petition for alien fiancé (e)" rather than a "petition for alien spouse". After the visa has been issued, the spouse can travel to the US.
To obtain either visa, you must meet the following requirements:
- You must be legally married. Merely living together does not qualify a marriage for immigration Unmarried partners are ineligible to sponsor visas to the United Stated.
- In most cases you must have a residence in the US to apply. If you live outside the US, see the next section below.
- You must be 18 years old before you can sign the Affidavit of Support, which is a form that will be required later in the process.
