Overview : K Visas for Fiancé/es and Spouses of USCs
Posted Nov 30, 2001

This article is another in our series presenting an overview of U.S. immigration law. We continue with the nonimmigrant (temporary) visa categories. The next in our series is the J-1 category, but since we have recently posted various articles on the J visa category, we take a detour at this time to discuss K visas. Look for additional articles on J-1s in upcoming editions of the MurthyBulletin.

There are a number of ways to bring close relatives to the U.S. and we provide here a brief summary of the ‘K’ visa provisions, which allow for bringing fiancé/es and spouses of U.S. citizens and their dependents to the U.S.

K-1 / K-2 Visas  A U.S. citizen may bring his/her foreign-born fiancé/e to the U.S. by means of a ‘K-1’ Visa. This type of visa requires the U. S. citizen first submit a petition to the INS.

There are several requirements for a successful filing of this K-1 / K-2 petition:

There must be proof of a bona fide intention to marry and proof that the parties have met in person within two years of filing the petition. The latter requirement may be waived for reasons of extreme hardship or custom. In addition, the parties must be legally able to marry.

Once approved, the petition is sent to the Consulate abroad, which will issue the K-1 visa. The consulate must determine that the foreign fiancé/e would be eligible to receive an immigrant visa, before approving the K-1 Visa. The terms of the visa require that the fiancé/e enter the U.S. solely for the purpose of marriage to the petitioner and that marriage must be concluded within 90 days after entry.

Children (under 21) of the fiancé/e may accompany on a K-2 visa. K-1 and K-2 holders can obtain authorization to work under that visa status.

Once the marriage has taken place in the U.S., the K visa holders apply to adjust to residency status. Note that the K holder would first generally obtain a two-year conditional residency and would have to file additional paperwork later for the conditions to be lifted.

K-3 / K-4 Visas  The K-3 and K-4 visas were introduced by the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act of 2000 and allow for the spouses of U.S. citizens and the children of those spouses to come to the U.S. on K-3 / K-4 nonimmigrant visas. Once in the U.S., they would file to adjust to resident status. The reasoning behind the introduction of these visa categories was to enable qualified family members to wait for their immigrant visas in the U.S., reunited with their U.S. citizen family member, rather than awaiting an immigrant visa abroad.

These categories of visas have only recently been implemented through INS regulations.

The U.S. citizen spouse must have first filed a permanent Petition on Form I-130. Once that petition is pending, then the petitioner submits the Fiancé/e petition to a special address in Chicago that is allocated for the ‘K-3 / K-4’ visa categories and other types of LIFE Act cases.

There is no need to submit separate petitions for the dependents of the foreign-born spouses who will obtain K-4 visas. The K-4 visa is a derivative visa that is obtained through the K-3 holder. Children of the foreign spouse who are under 21 years of age are eligible for this type of visa.

Please see our earlier MurthyBulletin article located under the Family Immigration Section of MurthyDotCom, entitled DOS Issues K-3 Instructions, for additional, valuable information on the requirements and procedures for this type of visa.