When a USA citizen meets abroad and wants to marry a non-USA citizen, with the intention of the non-USA citizen pursuing permanent residence in the USA, does it have any effect on the process which country they get married in?
I've heard this and similar concerns from employees of multinationals who meet someone while at an overseas branch. They want to do what they can to avoid snags.
I was in this boat back in 2017, and a lawyer working with my FAANG company advised me off the record that our best bet was to visit the USA, and suddenly have a surge of loving feelings and spontaneously get married in a tiny impromptu ceremony. Then apply for a change of status while in the USA.
I probably should have listened to her.. I did it the "right" way since I wanted to quit that job anyway. Got married abroad and filed an I-130. It took like 18 months to get it, it was nuts. I'm a native-born US citizen and my wife is from Japan, no criminal records or anything, and I was making 3-5x the national median household income this whole time, so it's not like there was anything tricky about our case.
I'd recommend you just talk to a lawyer. I hired a lawyer for our case, and it was about $3k total. It would've been entirely doable without the lawyer's help, but it was easier that way and I helped fund her charity work where she helps refugees and domestic abuse victims.
No you did it the right way. I lived in Canada for 10 years, my partner is Canadian, and we debated what to do when we moved down from Canada to the US. We got an attorney to help advise us.
It is very much a problem if your partner is deemed to have entered the US under false pretenses. That is, if they enter the US on a tourist visa and then you get married and they apply for a change of status, immigration can look askance at your spouse -- "The original tourist visa was a lie, you always intended to get married and change status, they are now barred from the US for 10 years." It might be faster, but you don't want to run that risk, even if the probability of that happening is low.
Yeah what you were recommended lets you kind of "jump the line" (for fiance visas, which take forever), and as long as you consult a lawyer and approach it sensibly it's pretty much risk free.
Same thing in our case -- we didn't want to move to the US right away (wanted to spend ~6-9 more months in Taiwan anyway). It ended up being a 2 year slog through covid, was brutal.
Wish we would have had an overwhelming urge to get married when we were visiting my family in the states instead.
It doesn't matter where they get married as long as the marriage is valid where it occurs and under U.S. law. The location of the process abroad is based on the non-U.S.-citizens's country of citizenship or country of residence. Regarding the specific process, whether in the U.S. through USCIS or abroad through the State Department/U.S. Consulate, definitely consult an immigration attorney to understand the timing, requirements, and risks.
A K-1, "Fiance Visa" I'm pretty sure requires the marriage to happen inside the US. At least that's how the immigration people explained it to us, and their website, while not saying it outright at least implies it:
> With your visa, you can apply for a single admission at a U.S. port-of-entry within the validity of the visa, which will be a maximum of 6 months from the date of issuance. You must marry your U.S. citizen fiancé(e) within 90 days of your entry into the United States.
Only if they pursue a Fiance Visa, which is(last I checked) usually the best way for the non-USA citizen to get their green card. A Fiance visa requires the marriage happen in the USA(after receiving the VISA).
I've heard this and similar concerns from employees of multinationals who meet someone while at an overseas branch. They want to do what they can to avoid snags.