Canadian to marry American outside of our home countries?

Hi all,
I noticed there were a lot of forum posts of canadians and americans wanting to marry, and wanting to marry in either the states or Canada. Here is my situation;

I am Canadian
He is American
We live in Asia
We want to be married (but probably outside of Canada and the US) and we want to go back to the states once we are married abroad.

Anyone done this or know any info about this? I want to do this the legal way, and we really do not want to have to spend time apart. I realized the fiancee visa is for those who plan on getting married in the states, but we want to get married before we land in america to work. anyone have any info on this? How long does it take and will I have to spend time in Canada before I join him in the states? ideally, we would like to arrive to the USA together already married and able to start work right away...

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Your American spouse will have to sponsor you before returning; you can do it from where you are now, check with local US embassy for timeframe. See visajourney.com for details.

Check the DCF forum at http://www.visajourney.com for information on Direct Consular Filing. You may or may not be eligible. DCF will take a few months to process, but if you're not eligible, then the standard spousal sponsorship will take about 1 year. And for that you may want to return to Canada rather than stay where you are. The US consulate in Canada will potentially be easier than an asian one. Depending where in Asia you are currently living.

Again, go to http://www.visajourney.com for information.

thanks for this! we are in japan.... i have already taken a look at the visajourney.com and it is mind boggling. i am leaning towards the K3 (spouse visa) only because we had thought about getting married outside of both canada and the u.s. but do i have to wait till it processes in canada (where I am from?) while he tries to process all of it in the states? can we start the processing from japan? if we go to america with the k3 visa, can i work right away? generally, how long does it take? i noticed it said that the fiancee visa is generally shorter to process but from what i have been reading, it still seems very hard as you can work, and you may have to be separate too... any advice?

Take a look at the visa wait times at the US consulates of Japan and canada. There is no reason to have to come to canada and and wait, if you want to wait in japan if you have status there unless the wait in canada is much shorter.

And you can both wait together in japan if you wish, which you both may not be able to do in canada if he does not have status there. No need to be apart for any time.

If you can DCF in japan (direct consular file) that is usually the fastest route! But One has to have some sort of official status in that country

k3 and cr-1 (for most canadians that reside in canada) are pretty close on par timewise, which makes the k3 the LESS desirable visa of the two.

VJ is probably the best site on the internet for immigration thru a relationship. Their are stickies on the top of each forum, giving you step by step instructions. And if ya look at the top, you will see EXAMPLE OF FORMS, already filled out!! And one can always ask all the FREE questions you want. The paperwork really isn't all that hard, it is the WAITING that will kill ya!

One can hire a lawyer, but in most cases they are not required. Really al they are is a $$$$$ proof reader. You still have to gather the necessary paperwork ie criminal background checks, marriage cert (divorce cert) LONG form birth cert (long form one has your parents info right on the birth cert) We had a lawyer (had not found VJ) She charged us $2500 and while she was nice, i knew more about the process and how the interview would go all because of VJ. At the top right, you can find peoples experiences at the various consulates throughout the world. And there is a Canada section, where the msot of us canucks hang out, were a friendly group, and people are always happy to answer questions, even though they have already been asked a 1000 times before,lol As well one can do a search on VJ, but the search feature is a bit lacking

Compares the different visas (DCF would be a cr-1 or IR-1, depending on how long ur married, under 2 yrs is cr-1, 2 yrs and over is IR-1)

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index ... ge=compare

Best of luck

DO NOT do the K3! Seriously waste of time and money, and you WON'T be able to work in the US immediately.

Go for the CR1 instead.

Again, I will point you to the Guides at Visa Journey. ALL the info you need is there already. Along with the forums with people who've completed the process who can help guide you.

Depends to some extent on how long you plan on staying in Japan, but basically he files an I-130 for you together with a heap of other bits of paper with the embassy, you eventually get an immigrant visa after the paperwork is processed. Check carefully on the website for whichever consulate you will be using because some of the attachments differ.

If you're going to be there awhile, it may make more sense to wait. Once you've been married a couple of years you can get an IR-1 visa instead and you get LPR status straight off the bat, instead of "conditional" LPR status which requires you to apply for the removal of the conditions after a couple of years.

This sort of question has been asked on here about 100 times, and the usual hang-up is that the US citizen stopped filing tax returns in the US when he left. US citizens must file a 1040 every year and a 2555 as well if they're non-resident. Previous tax returns are required for the sponsorship forms. If he hasn't done it, he needs to go back and do it now before you he does anything else.

Again, 2555 is not mandatory.

Thanks for all this info! I definitely would like to do the DCF way if its quickest and if not, then the Cr-1.

I do have a couple of concerns though....

My boyfriend has unfortunately only done his taxes for the first 2 years in the US and the remaining four years he has been in Japan, he has not, and figured he could do it when he is back in the US. Steve had mentioned that if we wanted to do it the DCF way, that we may run into problems if we havent done the taxes. If he does them now, how long do you think it would take and then how much longer would it be to do the DCF way? Anyone have any clue?

In regards to the CR-1 way, it sounds very appealing as many have said that it is faster than the K3 and that you can work right away in the US. My only concern is that we really want to stay together and not separate and when I looked at the details on the Visa Journey site about each visa's pros and cons, it mentioned that the minus of the cr-1 was that "separation from family for sometimes longer than the K-3 or K-1 visa option. Applicant will most likely not be able to enter the US during this time."

Ideally, we would love to get the visa process started now while we are in Japan, then by the time we would leave in the spring, be able to leave japan and head to the US and work right away.

Any advice on which is the best option and why? Very much appreciated!