Massachusetts Immigration Lawyer Blog

The K3 visa and the K-4 visa are completely useless, particularly for Massachusetts residents.  I say this with confidence as an immigration lawyer in Boston with extensive experience in marriage-based immigration.  I've prepared countless green card cases at consular posts around the world.  To explain why I believe filing a K-3 or a K-4 visa is a waste of time and money, let me first provide some background information on the K-3 and K-4 visas.

The K-3 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows the spouse of a U.S. citizen to enter the U.S. while an immigration petition (Form I-130) is pending with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS; the immigration agency formerly known as the INS).  The I-130 is a petition that U.S. citizens with foreign spouses must have approved in order for their foreign spouse to be eligible for an immigrant visa in the United States. The K-4 visa is available for the children (unmarried and under 21) of a K-3 visa holder. Ideally, a U.S. citizen would submit the I-130, get the receipt notice shortly thereafter, and then apply for a K-3 and/or K-4 visa so the non-american citizen spouse and/or children could reside in the U.S. while the I-130 is pending.  

However, the process does not work so smoothly. If you live in Massachusetts, you can file for a K-3 or K-4 visa by filing Form I-129F with the USCIS Vermont Service Center. In order to do so, you need to have a receipt notice of your I-130 application (a document from USCIS that confirms they have received your I-130 application), which takes a minimum of 3 weeks from the date you submit your I-130. But, if you look at the current processing times for the I-130, the K-3 and the K-4 visas on the USCIS website, it currently shows it takes about 5 months to process each of those applications. In other words, it is likely that an I-130 would be approved before the K-3, or K-4 visas approved!  

Let me rephrase this because I know that what I'm saying may sound a little crazy.  But accordingly to USCIS's own website, the I-130, K-3 and K-4 visa are all processed in exactly the same estimated time frame.  Since you would have to wait about three weeks after filing an I-130 receipt to file for the K-3 or K-4 visa, and all three applications take about the same amount of time to be processed, your I-130 application will almost certainly be approved before your K-3 and K-4 visa. What this means is that if you file an I-130 immigrant petition for your husband or wife and then apply for a K-3 non-immigrant visa, it is almost certain that your I-130 will be approved before your K-3 visa.  Given these estimated processing times, why would anyone apply for a K-3 or K-4 visa?

I hope my insight saves you from needless frustration.  And if you have any further questions about consular processing, immigration through marriage or anything else.  And if you are seeking an immigration attorney, I can always be reached in my Boston office at (617) 722-0005.

Many people in Boston and throughout Massachusetts mistakenly believe that marriage to someone with U.S. citizenship is a relatively easy and fast way of obtaining permanent residency or green card status and other immigration benefits.  Stop by City Hall in Boston, pick up your marriage certificate and you are automatically entitled to a green card.  And it is believed that once you get married, a work permit will arrive soon after you put your immigration petition in the mail.

Despite this persistent fantasy, a green card through marriage often proves to be difficult path.  For starters, it can be extraordinarily hard to convince U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the Boston District Office that your marriage is truly based on a real and bona fide relationship.  The immigration authorities will be expecting you to produce extensive documentary evidence that you and your spouse have a shared life that involves love and companionship and that your relationship is not just a sham to obtain permanent residency.  At a bare minimum, you can be sure that USCIS will scrutinize all Massachusetts public records to confirm that you and your spouse truly live together in marital union.

Once you get to an immigration interview at USCIS Boston District Office, you may encounter what is called a Stokes interview.  If this occurs, an immigration officer will interrogate you and your spouse separately with an identical set of probing, personal questions.  In this game, there are no wrong answers.  But if the answers that you and your spouse provide don't match, your immigration case will be denied.

Every so often, I'll have an initial immigration consultation in my office in Boston where the potential clients tell me, quite frankly, that their marriage is bogus and then try to enlist my help as an immigration lawyer with the marriage-based green card process.  This would be a kin to a criminal lawyer advising someone how to rob a bank!  Furthermore, aside from the obvious ethical considerations, an immigration petition based on a fake marriage is very unlikely to be approved by USCIS.  The reality is that I have enough difficulty getting USCIS to approve petitions based on marriages that are truly genuine.

Anyone thinking of trying to get a green card based on a fake marriage would do well to remember a line from Mickey Rourke's character in the film Body Heat, which I once heard paraphrased by a Boston Immigration Judge:  "when you commit a major crime, you got fifty ways you can screw up, and if you can think of 25 of them you're a genius, and, counselor, you ain't no genius."  No matter how smart you think you are, USCIS is smarter.  If you can come up with 15 ways to prove that your sham marriage is genuine, USCIS will probably be looking at dozens of other pieces of information, any one of which will blow your cover.

The likely result is that you'll get caught and your immigration application will be denied.  But a denial is not your only risk.  Marriage fraud is a specific ground for deportation.   It gets worse:  under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a fraudulent marriage finding may bar the approval of a subsequent immigrant visa petition.  To understand why this penalty is particularly harsh, let's imagine, for instance, that after the petition based on fraud is denied, the would-be immigrant gets divorced and remarried to another U.S. citizen.  This second marriage is a real marital relationship.  This couple continues to live together for 10 years in utter marital bliss and have 5 beautiful U.S. citizen children together.  In this scenario, the marriage fraud penalty would generally stop this person from ever obtaining a green card.  Immigration waivers for marriage fraud are extremely limited.

And it could be worse!  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents investigate marriage fraud and prosecute U.S. citizens and foreign nationals for criminal violations.  Severe penalties for marriage fraud include sentences of up to 5 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

In short, when it comes to marriage fraud and a green card, the risk of getting caught is high and the punishment severe.  It's blatantly illegal.  And it's unethical.   For these and other reasons, my best advice as an immigration attorney is to steer clear of marriage fraud.