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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawTravelling to the USA on a Tourist Visa While a K-1 Fiancee Visa Application is Pending

Travelling to the USA on a Tourist Visa While a K-1 Fiancee Visa Application is Pending

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing the K-1 fiancée visa and we are also discussing tourist visas.

There are certain circumstances where an individual will have been issued a B1/B2 or just simply a B-2 tourist visa or even a B-1 visa in the past; a non-immigrant visa best colloquially described as a tourist visa where an individual will have a tourist visa for the United States but they will want to go ahead and seek a K-1 fiancée visa in order to be processed into the United States and marry their fiancée therein and go ahead and adjust status to lawful permanent resident.  But the question arises, "is it possible to travel into the country using a tourist visa while this K-1 fiancée visa is currently pending; while it's currently on file with either the Department of Homeland Security's USCIS or the Department of State? Is it possible to use the tourist visa sort of simultaneously, for lack of a better term?" 

First a quick overview on the intentions inherent in the K-1 fiancée visa. As noted in a previous video on this channel, it is what some would call a dual intent visa insofar as it is a non-immigrant visa where the applicant is allowed to have immigrant intent and in fact the applicant for a K-1 Visa is denoting their intentions specifically with respect to emigrating to the United States which makes traveling into the United States on a tourist visa somewhat problematic as the tourist visa, or the holder of a tourist visa, and the entrant into the United States needs to go ahead and have a non-immigrant intent at the time that they travel into the US. This is going to come down to the circumstances of a given case.

So what we are basically saying here is there is going to be some circumstances where this is heavily not advisable. There is going to be some circumstances where the matter might be a little bit gray, and sort of trying to understand it may require perhaps a little teasing and then there may be some circumstances where it is perfectly warranted because the individual may only need to be traveling into the US for a very brief period of time and they intend to go ahead and continue processing their immigrant case abroad. What I recommend under the circumstances of one or a couple who are sort of wrestling with this problem, contact a legal professional as the circumstances of a given case are going to dictate what actions to take because traveling into the United States on a tourist visa, you have to signify non-immigrant intent and if those intentions are blurred or immigrant intent really does exist or could exist within that trip, that is a real problem. That could be fraud and misrepresentation or a finding of inadmissibility as an intending immigrant without proper documentation could be made so for those reasons it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional if this situation has arisen in order to get a better idea of where one stands with respect to how the provisions of each type of visa actually operate in order to understand how they specifically interact with the facts of a given case.