USCIS Grants Waiver to Our Client of the K-1 Requirement that U.S. Citizen and Her Fiance Must Have Met In-Person At Least Once in the Two Years Prior to Filing

Getson & Schatz, P.C. provided immigration representation to a U.S. citizen who petitioned for her fiancé to obtain a K-1 nonimmigrant visa. A K-1 nonimmigrant visa allows the fiancé of a U.S. citizen to come to the United States for the purpose getting married within 90 days of arrival. To apply for a K-1 visa, a petitioner must file Form I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé. One of the eligibility requirements is that the citizen and the fiancé must have met in person at least one time within the two year period immediately preceding the filing the petition. There are two exceptions to this strict rule. The first exception is that if the requirement to personally meet would infringe on the well-established traditions of customs of the fiancé’s culture, then a waiver of the requirement is available. The second exception is if the requirement to personally meet will result in extreme hardship to the U.S. citizen, then a waiver of the requirement is also available. In the case that we handled the US Citizen was unable to personally meet the fiance because she was unable to fly on an airplane to leave the United States and we therefore submitted detailed evidence in support of the second exception. Our client’s fiancé lived in Africa. They met one another through Facebook. Her fiancé applied for a U.S. visitor nonimmigrant visa to come to the United States to meet her, but it was denied. Shortly after that, our client was in a very serious car accident that left ongoing injuries including a serious head injury that prevented her from traveling to Africa to meet him. Her doctor determined that she was medically unable to fly to meet her fiancé because it would endanger her life. They were thus in a situation where he could not come to the US to meet her because he was denied a visitor visa and she could not go to Africa to meet him because she was not able to fly. After receiving our evidence, USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) granted our client a waiver to the requirement to personally meet and approved the I-129F Petition.