Nonimmigrant K3 Spouse Visa

On December 21, 2000, President William Jefferson Clinton signed into law the Legal Immigration Equity Act. This Act created a special K visa category, K-3 and K-4, for spouses of U.S. citizens and their children. The special category allows the spouse or child of a U.S. citizen to enter the United States in a non immigrant category and complete the processing of their immigrant petition in the United States. Under this visa category, a spouse in K-3 visa status can obtain an employment authorization card and is allowed to travel and return to the United States on their unexpired K-3 non immigrant visa even if an application for adjustment of status is pending.

Eligibility Criteria for K-3 Visa:

To qualify for a K-3 non-immigrant visa, you must:

  • Be legally married to a U.S. citizen;
  • Have a relative petition (I-130) filed by your U.S. citizen on your behalf;
  • Seek to enter the United States to await approval of your petition and subsequent adjustment of status; and
  • Have an approved I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiance, forwarded to the American consulate abroad where you wish to apply for the visa.

To qualify for a K-4 non-immigrant visa, you must be:

  • Under 21 years of age;
  • Unmarried; and
  • The child of a foreign national eligible for a K-3.

Please Note: The U.S. Consulate abroad should be in the country in which the marriage took place. If the marriage took place in the United States, the consulate should be one with jurisdiction over the U.S. Citizen spouse's place of residence.

Approval of a K-3/K-4 visa does NOT confer immigrant status. Upon entry and availability of an immigrant visa, the foreign national must file an application for adjustment of status [I-485].

Hiring a K3 Visa Lawyer

A competent K3 Visa Lawyer will keep your best interests in mind and provide you with relevant legal advice. Sometimes, a K-3 Spousal Visa is not the best option for a client and a good K3 Visa Lawyer will tell you that. It is important to retain an attorney for the K-3 Spousal Visa process because a petitioner files for two different immigration processes and it can get very complicated. In order to file for a K-3 Spousal Visa, the U.S. citizen spouse must first file the immigrant relative petition. If that is not done properly then a subsequent K-3 Spousal Visa will not be approved. Please check with a K3 Visa Lawyer should you have any doubts

To see if you or your spouse qualify for a K-3 visa, please call us at (845) 353-3500, email us at info@visalawyergroup.com, or SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION and speak to one of our attorneys. Our K3 Visa Lawyers are also available at any of our offices in Nyack, New York and Manhattan, New York City.

Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

We also encourage you to read our Immigration Resource Blog and our K3 Visa related posts.