K Visa Another marriage question

[heike0908]

My fiance (US citizen) and I (german citizen) plan on getting married.
He's with the US military and I own a very succesful business in Germany, which doesn't allow me to immigrate to the US right now.
Since both of our jobs make itr impossible for us to plan a long time ahead we decided to get married while I'm in the US as a tourist on the Visa Waiver Program.
I'll have to leave the US shortly after the wedding to take care of my business again, but I plan on coming back to the US 2 or 3 times a year to stay there for 2-3 months at a time.
What would be the best way to make sure that I won't have any trouble re-entering the US? Should I apply for a K3 visa or can we apply for 'adjustment of status'? Can we do both at the same time? If so when is the earliest date for my husband to petition for a K3 visum? Could he petition with me still being in the US or does he have to wait until I left the US?
Or is there a better way to solve this problem?

 

[NYClex]

This is a tricky problem, because the law does not really have provisions for your case. All the known visa like K-1, K-3 and the Green Card assume that the US citizen's foreign spouse will want to live in the U.S.

The tourist visa (B-1 B-2 and Visa Waiver) on the other hand assume that you are just that, a tourist.

There is no exact provision for someone who as a spouse of an American citizen does not want to live in the US but spend several months a year there.

The pitfalls of the alternatives are these: If you marry and do not apply for permanent residency, you might be turned away at the airport if the officer suspects that you are abusing the visa waiver program.

If you do file for permanent residency but do not really intend to stay in the country you risk being denied permanent residency.

The solution I would suggest, and you should may be discuss this with an immigration attorney, would be this:

File for permanent residency and establish a residency in the United States. There are certain rules about what a residency is, you should be able to show that you are in fact putting some roots down in this country, establish a domicile, etc.

Then, while waiting for the adjustment of status, you can file for an advance parole that allows you to travel outside the US and be readmitted. However, you should not abuse this parole, meaning you should not use it too much or stay away too long so you won't create the impression that you are not interested in establishing residency in the US.

Even after being granted permanent residency (green card) you must keep your domicile in the U.S., that means you must spend a considerable time in the year here, otherwise the Green Card can be taken away again.

As you probably know there are three ways to file for permanent residency:

-Use the K-1 Visa to enter the country, then marry, then file for adjustment of status
-First marry, then use the K-3 Visa, then file for...
-Enter on the Visa waiver program, then marry, then file for...

Of course, if your American husband would move to Germany with you, you would not need all that. You always could enter the US as a tourist when you both want to visit.

 

[heike0908]

ok..that leads to another question

thanks for the detailed answer.
My future husband loves his military job and his country way too much to live with me in Germany.
And actually I'm planning on selling my business in Germany to live with him in the US, just not right now...selling a business takes some time.
Here is what I thought we could do:
1. get married
2. as soon as possible petition for a K3 visa and if possible for an immigrant visa/adjustment of status for me at the same time
Is that possible?
I thought I could leave the country again and wait in Germany for the processing of both visa and could travel on the K3 visa back to the US after 2 or 3 months. I understood the processing of an immigrant visa would take a much longer time.
Or do I have to get a K3 visa first and have to go to the US to file for an immigrant visa and await the processing in the US?
How long would the processing take? (We'll be residents of West Virginia, so I understood the Service Center at Vermont is responsible for us,right?)
My problem is this: I have to go back to Germany for a few months after the wedding to sell my business, but I don't want to be stuck there because some visa processing takes longer than calculated.

 

[NYClex]

Yes, you can marry any time and then spend as much time as you want in Germany and then come back on a K-3 Visa. K-3 Visa in Frankfurt or Berlin take a couple of weeks up to a few months to be processed.

Once you are in the country you would then apply for adjustment of status to become a permanent resident (Green Card), that process can take up to two years. You can travel in that time, with an advance parole, as long as you can show that you have no intention to abandon your domicile in the US.

 

[heike0908]

Thank you.
I got it now