K Visa K1 vs. K3 Visa advantages and drawbacks question

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dsallen

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Thanks in advance for your help.

I am planning to marry my girlfriend, a Thai national who has a 10 year old daughter. I have been looking at the K1 and K3 visas and am trying to figure out which one will work out best for our situation. My concern with the K1 visa is her abillity to travel back to visit Thailand during the first 2 years of our marriage. From what I understand we would need to petition for special permission to leave and return to the US. She has never lived outside of Thailand and I am concerned that she would get too homesick if we had to wait 2 years for her to be able to visit her family.

From what I understand, if we had a legal marriage in Thailand and came in under the K3 Visa - her travel would not be restricted, but she might have to wait a while after we are married before I can bring her to the US. If we plan for a wedding in Thailand this summer would there be anything we could file or set up in advance to help expedite the process, or would she still be stuck waiting months in Thailand after we are married and she and her daugther are approved to come here?

We are prepared to go either way here, but I am looking for ways to mitigate the downsides of either the K1 or K3 visas if there may be a solution to this I had not heard about.
 
Citizens get first class priority for visas. If you marry first, it would take an average of 9 months to get her here. This site has questions and answer which would help you.
http://www.visapro.com/Fiance-Visa/K1-Fiancee-Visa.asp
The choice it yours.......... Both are fast and you could always have travel documents anytime if you apply..........either way.
 
K1 vs. K3 continued..

Thanks for the information.

So basically you're saying there's no way to expedite the K3 process so the
K1 would appear to be the lesser of the two evils with the K3 causing a possible 9 month delay.

I will start filling out the K1 forms. I was looking on the USCIS website and they mention the K2 visa for my fiancee's daughter. Do I have to file seperately for her, or is she included just by including her information on the I-129F?
 
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