Understanding The 90-day Marriage Requirement

When you live in North Carolina but plan to wed someone who was born in a different nation, you need to follow a specific process in order to do so. The first thing you need to do in your efforts to secure a K-1 nonimmigrant visa for your fiancé is to file a form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé.

Per U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, you and your fiancé need to meet certain eligibility requirements to get this type of visa, and you also have to follow certain rules and deadlines once you do so.

What determines if you get a fiancé visa

To get a fiancé visa for your betrothed, you both must be free to marry one another. You also have to prove that you met in person at least once within the two years prior to filing your petition, unless you demonstrate how doing so would be a violation of strict social or cultural norms or result in extreme hardship to you. Furthermore, you and your fiancé must agree to marry within 90 days of his or her arrival on U.S. soil.

How the 90-day marriage requirement works

A fiancé visa requires you to marry your foreign-born fiancé within 90 days of his or her coming to the U.S. on a K-1 nonimmigrant visa. If you fail to wed within the 90-day window, your fiancé visa expires. There is no way to extend it, either, and if you fail to do so, your fiancé must return to his or her home nation.

Failing to marry within 90 days also has the potential to hurt your fiancé’s future immigration chances.