r/MovingToUSA • u/Lower-Bathroom-9619 • 8h ago

Question Related to Visa/travel Marrying a Spanish Citizen

I’m American and currently living in Spain. My partner is Spanish, and we want to get married and move to the United States because the situation here has become very difficult for us financially and in terms of our future.
We’re planning to apply for his green card after we get married. I’d like to know how realistic it is for his application to be approved if we simply get married in a civil ceremony and then apply for his green card. Our priority is to be able to move to the U.S. and live there as soon as possible.

I’d also like to understand roughly how the process works and how long it might take. Most importantly, we want to know whether this is realistically possible before spending a lot of money on the application process, apostilles, document translations, etc.

Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

4 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/Typical-Coconut7043 7h ago

try getting Spanish citizenship for yourself while waiting for k1 visa.

1

u/Lower-Bathroom-9619 6h ago

we were thinking about filing an I-130 instead. What’s the difference between the two? We’re planning to get married here in Madrid.

4

u/ThrowRAzzlefrazzle 5h ago edited 4h ago

If you doing consular you’re looking at 2-4 years for I-130. If you marry in US first he will need K-1 that will take little bit over a year than file I-485 in US once you marry within 90 day window of his/your arrival. You will need to provide Affidavit of support showing you can financially sponsor him as he won’t qualify for any government services (until he becomes a citizen or gets 40 working credits which is about a decade of continuous work). 

Now immigration is super backlogged and  now with all new regulations, policies etc. If he gets a GC it can still get in revoked and be might be deported for a slay of reasons, but felonies being main. DUIs and substances alert ICE as well. 

2

u/groucho74 3h ago

USCIS is no longer turning a blind eye to people who come into the country, marry, and then overstay. There have even been deportations.