If you would like to sponsor a foreign-born relative or fiancé to immigrate to the United States from another country, you’re probably wondering how hard it is to get a family-based immigrant visa or a fiancé visa. In a survey of readers who had applied for one of these visas, we asked about the outcome of their applications and the difficulties they encountered during the process. Here’s what they told us.
There are many similarities between the applications for family-based immigrant visas and fiancé visas. Both are based on a marriage or family relationship with a U.S. citizen (or with a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. in the case of some family-based visas). Both involve a similar process, including an initial petition filed by the sponsoring citizen or resident, followed by the immigrant’s application and processing (including an interview and medical exam) at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
There are differences, of course. The most obvious difference is that immigrants who aren’t immediate family members or fiancés of U.S. citizens must wait—sometimes for many years—for visas to become available in their category and for their country of origin (as process known as “waiting for your priority date to become current”).
Another important difference is that a fiancé (K-1) visa allows U.S. entry—but not with permanent resident status, as is the case for people who enter with immigrant visas. Only after the couple marries and files for “adjustment of status” can the fiancé obtain permanent residence (a green card). One might think this would make fiancé visas easier to obtain (with less paperwork up front), but the opposite seems to be the case.
Our survey showed that readers who applied for family-based immigrant visas were twice as likely to be approved as those who applied for fiancé visas (82% compared to 41%).
Why the discrepancy? It definitely represents a decline in fiancé K-1 visa approval rates between 2015 and 2017. The reasons are partly political and partly over security concerns. The Trump Administration has started taking a closer look at K-1 visas in an attempt to close “loopholes” in the immigration process. K-1 visas are an easy target, because there’s no official proof of a relationship with a fiancé—it’s up to the applicants to prove their plans to enter into a bona fide marriage. Also, one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino mass shooting in 2015 was admitted to the United States on a K-1 visa, which made fiancé immigrants even more of a target.
We asked readers what single thing they found most challenging about the process of applying for a family-based or fiancé immigrant visa. Interestingly enough, despite the significant difference in approval rates for these two types of visa applications, the most common responses were quite similar.
The most common challenge reported by our readers was proving to U.S. government officials that they had a genuine marriage or other qualifying family relationship with the would-be immigrant or, in the case of fiancé visa applicants, that they really meant to get married. A quarter (25%) of readers who applied for fiancé visas experienced this problem.
Slightly fewer (21%) of family-based visa applicants reported difficulties with proving family relationships, but that proportion was higher (27%) if we looked at only those who applied in the immediate-relative category (spouses, parents, and unmarried children under 21 of U.S. citizens). Based on that difference, it’s likely that most of these difficulties related to proving that the U.S. citizen and the immigrant had a genuine marriage. Proving a biological relationship—for instance, with birth certificates—is usually much easier than proving that two people are married and in a committed love relationship (and avoiding accusations of marriage fraud).
The process of applying for a family-based or fiancé visa requires a lot of paperwork, including lengthy, complicated forms and supporting documents. In some cases, you’ll need to show government-issued originals or certified copies of documents (like birth, marriage, divorce, or death certificates). This could be particularly difficult if the documents were issued in certain countries. So it’s not surprising that many of our readers—18% of family-based visa applicants and 22% of fiancé visa applicants—said their main challenge was finding all of the necessary information.
If you’re hoping to sponsor a family member for immigration to the U.S., you’ll generally need to prove that you have enough income to support the immigrant. This requirement is meant to ensure that immigrants don’t end up relying on government assistance based on monetary need. One in ten of our readers who applied for family-based visas told us the financial-support requirement was the biggest challenge they faced.
The immigrants—whether family members or fiancés—will also have to undergo a medical exam (with an approved doctor) and provide proof of vaccinations in order to demonstrate that they don’t have any of the health conditions that could keep them out of the United States. Only a small number of our readers (3%) said the medical requirements were the most challenging part of the process.
The U.S. immigration process is notoriously complicated. So it’s not surprising that about a quarter of our readers (27% of fiancé visa applicants and 24% of those who applied for family-based visas) reported a number of other major challenges with their applications. Many of these involved applying for waivers or exceptions to various rules that bar certain people from immigrating (known in immigration law as “grounds of inadmissibility.”
When we asked readers about the challenges they faced during the immigration process, we didn’t specifically mention the time it takes to get an immigrant visa. But we did ask them how long the process took, and many readers commented about their frustration with the wait. For details, see our article with survey results and government statistics on how long immigration cases take.
