Petition for Alien Fiancé (e): Help with I-129 Process

The Petition for Alien Fiancé (e) is the first step in the process of bringing your fiancé (and the children of your fiancé) to the United States via a Fiancee visa. This is sometimes known as the visa K-1 Fiance. 

Process for Alien Fiance Petition

You must provide documentation that you and your fiancé intend to marry within 90 days of arrival in the U.S., and have met in person in the past two years (unless proof is offered that religious custom does not allow meeting or it would mean extreme hardship to meet) in order to get a visa fiancee.   You must provide documentation of your status as a U.S. citizen.  You must provide documentation that you are free to marry (by providing necessary consent if age-required or providing dissolution paperwork if previously married). These are the basic requirements of the petition for alien fiancé. 

Other requirements are necessary if you used an international marriage broker to find your fiancé or if you, or your fiancé has been convicted of domestic violence.  The information provided in the petition will be sent to the U.S. Department of State for investigation.  The Department of State may disclose information regarding your criminal record established through their records or records provided through this process to the beneficiary of your petition. 

The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) is designed to discourage the practice of selling people into marriage in the U.S.  The business of selling contact information between U.S. citizens and aliens is scrutinized and only those engaged individuals who met through organizations who are not breaking any laws of the U.S., including the IMBRA, will be allowed to petition for alien fiancé visa. Traditional forms of matchmaking are allowed, as are social networking sites which do not exclusively serve U.S. Citizens looking for aliens. 

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR FORM I-129: PETITION FOR ALIEN FIANCE

• You must disclose if you met your fiancé through any kind of marriage broker and the USCIS will determine if the process used was in fact legal before approving the petition.  It is important that you disclose this information from the start.  Do not try to hide any details of how you met your fiancé. The consequences of lying on any immigration form are too high to risk it.
• Unmarried children of your fiancé under age 21 may be listed on this form and may come to the U.S. with your fiancé.
• If you do not have a document you need, you need to go to the appropriate agency and get a certification declaring that the form cannot be duplicated.  You will then need to submit more documentation such as affidavits of other people who can testify to your status.
• If your name (or your fiancé’s) has changed you must provide documentation of the name change from the appropriate court.
• You can also file a Form I-129 for your spouse, but send it to a different address than for a fiancé.
• Your fiancé’s children can come with your fiancé on a K-2 visa which can be filed along with the application for your fiancé.
• Your fiancé will have conditional permanent resident status for two years at which time your fiancé can apply to have the conditions removed.

HELP WITH FORM I-129

There is perhaps a higher level of scrutiny for the petition for alien fiancé (e) than for other types of petition because of the fraud which has historically occurred between engaged U.S. citizens and aliens.  The two most common types of fraud involve aliens essentially being sold as brides to men in the U.S. and aliens using U.S. citizens to get a quick path to citizenship, i.e., marrying for citizenship rather than for love.  It is against the law to do either and the consequences are very high The law states  that any person who knowingly enters into a marriage contract for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall be imprisoned for not more than five years or fined not more than $250,000, or both.

Due to the higher scrutiny involved and the high consequences it would be wise for a U.S. citizen to consult an immigration attorney before submitting a Petition for Alien Fiancé (e).  If you met your fiancé (e) online or through any kind of dating service, you should definitely get help from an attorney to avoid any unnecessary delay or questioning.

To get free help on completing and filing Form I-129F, call the USCIS National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 or go online to www.uscis.gov.