Think “90 Day Fiancé” is how the K-1 visa really works?

Think again. In this episode, Rosanna strips away the TV drama to reveal the long waits, piles of paperwork, and strict requirements couples face before that 90-day clock even starts. With decades of immigration law experience, she explains why the K-1 is rarely the fast, romantic path it’s made out to be – and why patience (and a lot of proof) is everything.

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Transcript

Everyone’s talking about U.S. immigration law, but nobody really knows how it works. I’m Rosanna Berardi. I’m the daughter of an immigrant, a former immigration inspector at the border, university professor, and founder and managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law.

I’ve done nothing but U.S. immigration law for over 30 years, and it’s time to stop the misinformation on all sides. I’m going to tell you how it all works, the inside story. This is Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi.

The Truth Behind 90 Day Fiancé

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Immigration Weekly with yours truly, Rosanna Berardi. All right, I know, raise your hand. I’ll admit it.

We’ve all watched 90 Day Fiance on TLC. God, I think it’s in like the double-digit season. People love it.

It’s fun. It’s interesting, but you know what? It’s not really true how they have it all set up.

So today, today, today, we’re going to talk to you about 90 Day Fiance. You know, it’s got a lot of drama, tears, romance, plot twists, but how much is it really accurate? Not that much.

Today, we’re going to separate fact from fiction. I’m going to talk to you about the K-1 Fiance Visa, clunky visa category, pain in the neck. We avoid it at all costs, and you’ll be like, oh yeah, I get that once you hear this entire podcast.

We’re going to talk about what’s real, what’s magic. Rather than 90 Day Fiance, it should be called the long and arduous way to a U.S. green card. So here we go.

The K-1, you know, I guess when Congress created this a zillion years ago, it was okay, but the K-1 visa category was created under the Immigration Nationale, the act to allow fiancés of U.S. citizens to come to the United States so they can get married within 90 days, hence the name 90 Day Fiance. On TV, you know, they make it seem like the couple meets, they fall in love, and boom, they’re together. There’s a clock ticking, oh my god, do they get married, do they not?

In reality, that 90 day timeline really refers to the part after the fiancé gets here, and trust me, the part before that takes forever. That’s why we don’t recommend this category to many people. Sometimes people insist it’s their only option, and we do it.

But the 90 day clock is really once the foreign national gets here, and the 90 day clock requires them to get married within that 90 day period. So that’s what the title really means, but it is not representative. It does not take 90 days to get a green card this way.

I wish that were true. So let’s go over the process. What do you have to do to get a fiancé visa?

Well, to sponsor somebody, you have to be a U.S. citizen. Both parties have to be free to marry. Now, I know this sounds crazy, but people call all the time and say, well, I’m not legally divorced yet.

We haven’t lived together yet. Anyway, must be legally divorced and able to freely remarry. The couple has to meet one time in the last two years, whether it’s for 10 minutes at an airport, but it’s got to be physical.

It’s got to be in person. The online chat rooms and FaceTime and all that doesn’t count. They’ve got to meet at least once in person.

And this is the hard part. They’ve got to prove the relationship’s genuine. Now, when we build these cases from a document perspective, we create almost a storybook scrapbook of the couple’s relationship.

When they first met, pictures of them engaged, on vacation, texts between each other. I’ve done this for so long. We used to submit letters to one another.

Nobody does that anymore. You know, the government wants to see this is a real relationship. Awkward selfies.

It runs the gamut. But we really have to document that this is a legit relationship. You know, 90-day fiancé, they always make it like these dramatic airport reunions or, you know, the steamy beach scenes.

The Long Road to Approval

But in reality, the government really wants to see the couple at Olive Garden or, you know, in Cancun on a vacation, showing that you’re in love during that time. So let’s say you meet all the criteria. You’re a U.S. citizen, both free to marry. You’ve met once in person. You show that your relationship is genuine. What do you do?

You take that. And like I said, we make it like a storybook scrapbook with all the necessary government forms. And we get letters from people in your family saying, I know them to be a true couple.

And then we package it all up neatly, put it in a FedEx and send it. Where does it go? It goes to USCIS, Citizenship and Immigration Services.

They’re the agency in the United States that’s charged with making decisions on these cases. How long does it take them to make those decisions? Well, I hope you’re sitting down when you’re listening to this.

Anywhere from 12 to 18 months. A year to a year and a half. Ouch.

Before that 90-day can start. So really, 90-day fiancé has a nice rhyme to it, but it should be really like 545 days before the 90 days, but that wouldn’t make a good soundbite or title. So after USCIS approves the case and says, it is so obvious that this couple is in love, we’re going to approve this.

Does that mean the person can come in? Oh no, that would be way too easy. What happens?

Well, the USCIS agency sends it to this place called the National Visa Center. That’s kind of like an intake processing facility. And then ultimately to the foreign national’s home country.

So let’s say that the foreign national in question here is a native and citizen of Spain. He’s going to schedule an appointment for a K1 visa at the U.S. consulate or embassy in Madrid. And while there, he’s going to request the fiancé visa.

It’s going to require a medical exam from a doctor appointed by the government, making sure he does not have a communicable disease, police checks, making sure he’s not a criminal, and also an in-person interview to really confirm the veracity and the truthfulness of the documents that were submitted. This is hard. This takes forever.

This is jumping through a thousand hoops and obstacles. And if you’re lucky at the end of all of that, the visa officer says, congratulations, here’s your K1. Yes.

Wow. It’s in my password. I had it.

That takes forever. So it takes about 12 to 18 months on the first part of the process to USCIS. Then it goes to the National Visa Center and your home country consulate, which depending on where you’re from, it can take another three to 12 months.

All right. So we’ve got what, two, three years invested in this. The day has come.

The K1 visa is issued. Your fiancé books a flight, comes through LAX, shows the K1 visa, Customs and Border Protection, the agency that says, yeah, come on in, stamps him. Boom.

90 day clock starts. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. What has to occur during those 90 days?

The marriage. Why? I guess they put a timestamp on it because they didn’t want people like lingering around the U.S. for too long. So 90 days from that date you’re admitted, you must marry your U.S. citizen fiancé. And this is when it gets all like slicey and dicey and weird on 90 day fiancé. Should they get married?

Reality vs. TV Drama

Should they not? Can they have that or that? There’s so much that goes on prior to that.

Holy crow. And I think they do have a show called Before the 90 Days because it’s nuts and takes a lot of time. So anyway, let’s just say within that 90 day window, the person gets married.

Are they a green card holder? Hell no. Too easy.

We’ve got another hoop to jump through and that’s called adjustment of status. So upon the marriage, then your U.S. citizen spouse can say, okay, government, can you please adjust my beloved status from K1 fiancé to green card holder because now we’re married and here is the marriage certificate. Guess how long that request takes?

You got it. 12 to 24 months. Crazy.

Biometrics, fingerprints, photos. Takes a long time. Now luckily in the meantime, there are some work permits that can be issued during that time.

But in total, from filing the first petition with USCIS to holding that green card in your hand, you’re looking at several years, two to three, not three months, not six months, years. The only thing that’s happening in that 90 days is the marriage itself. So because of the popularity of the show, people call here all the time and say, can I get my green card for my fiancé in 90 days?

No, that’s not how it works. 90 day fiancé is called that because it rhymes and it sounds good and they edit the story for drama. They don’t show all the paperwork being gathered.

They don’t show the foreign national checking the USCIS website every couple minutes or days to find out if their case is approved. They don’t show the strain on the relationship. They do a little bit of people in two different countries that are in love.

They don’t show the foreign national going for a medical exam or police certificate. You know, we see all the window dressing, the romance, the love, kids, all this stuff, cliffhanger endings, great TV, but not necessarily factually reflective of this process. So why do people do this?

It’s a terrible category. Well, they do it because they have to, because for certain nationalities, there are no other options but this. And it’s really complex and really takes a lot of attorney time.

People hire attorneys to do this because if you make one error or mistake, it could set the case back for another year. So what you don’t see on TV, because it’s boring, is the amount of time that goes into making these cases. Now, they often show an immigration lawyer and it’s usually like two seconds like, okay, your petition has been approved and now your fiancé must go for their visa or, oh, hi, fiancé, welcome to the U.S., go get married in 90 days. Very superficial. They got to throw the lawyer part in or else it wouldn’t make sense. But, you know, on all of these like tell-all shows, former cast members, they’ve admitted, they play up arguments, fights, surprises.

It’s TV, people. All I’m saying, the takeaway from this is that if you’re considering this category, if you live outside of the U.S. and you’re engaged to a U.S. citizen, this is tough stuff. We handle these cases.

We usually try and talk clients out of this process and talk them into another way of doing this. But for these cases, documentation is everything. You must show on paper that you’re in love.

It’s hard in this digital world. On one hand, we have selfies, text messages, but the government is old-fashioned. They want to see plane tickets.

They want to see pictures, selfies, cards that you send to each other. The devil’s in the details. Like I said, we put together a scrapbook.

I love putting these cases together because I love seeing the journey of the couple. The fiancé visa, it exists and it works. It’s not glamorous.

It’s long. It’s arduous. So much paperwork.

Emotionally draining process. If you’re thinking about it, that’s great. Be patient.

Plan ahead. Do not, under any circumstance, plan a wedding in the United States until you’ve got that K-1 in hand. Do not plan your wedding.

Do not, repeat after me, do not plan your wedding until K-1 visa is in hand and you are in the United States. Not what it seems like on TV. Well, thanks for joining me today.

I’m Rosanna Berardi. This is Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi. Hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at 90 Day Fiancé.

Be sure to share this episode with your friends. It’s fun. It’s fascinating.

Immigration law, I love it so much because it’s an umbrella and under that umbrella is family law, international law, marital law, criminal law. It is fascinating. Thank you for joining.

Be sure to share and subscribe to our next episode. Have a great day. This was Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi.

Thanks for joining. Be sure to connect with me, Rosanna Berardi, on LinkedIn or go to our law firm at berardiimmigrationlaw.com. And if you don’t want to miss the latest and greatest, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share this with your friends.

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