[rayiner]

The K visa actually proves my point, because someone on a K visa (by itself) isn’t eligible for adjustment of status at all! The K visa only allows admission for purposes of getting married within 90 days.

Under 8 USC 1255(d), the AG can’t adjust the status of someone here on a K visa: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim.... If you don’t get married, you have to leave.

What entitles alien spouses to petition for permanent residency is not the K1 visa, but section 1154: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim.... So, for example, the citizen could marry their fiancé in the fiance’s home country.[1] And they’d use 1154 to petition for permanent residency. The K1 visa just allows the marriage to happen in the U.S. but is unrelated to the ultimate basis for permanent residency.

[1] Our family friend did this. We set him up with the daughter of our next-door neighbor in Bangladesh. They had a wedding over the phone with him in the U.S. and her in Bangladesh. Then she came over on an 1154 petition.

[saltcured]

Right, I met my wife in the US when she was here on a non-immigrant student visa. We actually married in the US before the end of her CPT/OPT quota. After that, I became an expat when we both relocated back to her original country.

After about 4 years there, I relocated back to start a new job, arrange housing, etc. We started the USCIS petition in her country during one of my visits. She eventually finished the whole process and got her immigrant visa to come back and join me.

It worked out smoothly for us, but mostly because we understood the general process timeline and pipelined it to coincide with other professional and personal life factors that drove things. We were going to be separated for a bit anyway, because I wanted to chase the new job back in the US while she still had obligations to wrap up overseas.

[FireBeyond]

> So, for example, the citizen could marry their fiancé in the fiance’s home country.[1] And they’d use 1154 to petition for permanent residency. The K1 visa just allows the marriage to happen in the U.S. but is unrelated to the ultimate basis for permanent residency.

Per my immigration attorney, the K-1 entirely bypasses 8 USC 1154 at the petition stage. 1154 governs immigrant visa petitions (I-130, I-140, I-360, etc.). The I-129F is technically a nonimmigrant petition even though it's understood by everyone as a pre-immigration vehicle.

K-1 AOS does not require a separate I-130. The approved I-129F plus the marriage to the petitioner supplies the petition basis. This is one of the cleaner cases where 8 USC 1154 is genuinely sidestepped, not merely deferred.

For K-1s, the path to residency is firstly via 8 USC 1186a, and is automatic and statutory, granting the conditional LPR.

Then at 2 years of marriage, 8 USC 1186a again handles the removal of conditions.

However, many attorneys will file I-130s, according to her, and such, simultaneously, though not required if you follow the process to the letter. And that does go via 1154.

[rayiner]

USCIS forms aren't the law. The statute is the law. And however USCIS has chosen to structure its forms, the legal basis for a K1 visa holder's eligibility for permanent residency isn't the K1 visa itself, but instead other provisions of the law that confer eligibility for permanent residency on immediate family members of citizens.

This CRS report examples: https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20151215_R44310_34af119...

"Once in the United States, the K-1 nonimmigrant is required to marry the U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days. K-1 visa holders are permitted to work in the United States during this time if they file for employment authorization. The foreign national is eligible for lawful permanent residence as an immediate relative if the marriage takes place within 90 days and the fiancé(e) is otherwise admissible."

It's the status as an immediate relative of a citizen that confers eligibility, not the visa itself.