Bringing fiance back to the U.S.

[Evzob]

Hi there,

My girlfriend (Taiwan citizen) and I (U.S. citizen) have been talking about getting married and moving to the U.S. together (or vice versa) for a long time, but we still haven't started the process.

We have plans with my family in the U.S. for August of this year. She has a tourist visa already, but we would really like to be able to stay for the long term starting in August. Unfortunately, it seems like it's too late for us to arrange this via marriage-related means, since we would be waiting on either the I-129F petition (for K-1 or K-3 visa) or the I-130 petition (for CR-1 or for getting married in the U.S. while she's on the tourist visa), both of which I'm hearing take more multiple months to process.

Is there any way for us to stay in the U.S. beyond the term of her visitor visa if we arrive this August? If not, are there other options besides returning to Taiwan for several months to get all the paperwork through?

Any advice or ideas are much appreciated! Thanks!

-Evan

[Timabee]

Evan-
Have you looked into a Fiancee Visa? That is how my wife and I handled a similar situation. I don't remember how long we had to wait for the Fiancee Visa (USCIS Form DS-156) - might not fit in to your compressed timeframe.

[Evzob]

Yes, the fiancee visa is the K-1, which requires an I-129F petition. My impression from researching it is that the petition plus the visa itself will definitely be more than two months.

[Evzob]

Okay, I have a new question.

If we get married in Taiwan while I am on a 60-day multiple-entry visitor visa, will I have any problems doing visa runs while waiting for our paperwork to go through for her to move to the U.S.?

I know that U.S. immigration gives foreigners a hard time if they visit while they have visa documents pending for marriage to an American (they're afraid you'll skip the process and just stay on your visitor visa). Does Taiwan have anything like that? Is there any chance that Taiwan immigration won't want me to enter on a visitor visa if I'm married to a Taiwanese person?