We’ve been receiving questions about whether or not you can travel domestically on a K1 fiancé visa. Whether or not you can leave the United States after you receive the fiancé visa. Some people seem to believe that there’s some rumor that you have to leave the country after you receive a fiancé visa.
The K1 fiancé visa is available to individuals who are engaged to United States citizens. It’s a one-page document that will go in your passport and you will use this to enter the United States. From the time you enter the United States, you will have 90 days to get married and file your application for your green card.
Once you’ve entered the United States on your fiancé visa, what are you able to do as it relates to travel?
I want to go over the fiancé visa itself and what it allows you to do.
The fiancé visa will indicate “one” on the entries. This means that the visa only gives you one entry to the United States. So, when you enter the United States, you’ll have 90 days to get married and you’ll be in status during those 90 days.
It’s very important you get married and file your green card application to be in compliance. In regards to domestic travel or travel within the United States, you can travel throughout the United States with your K1 visa. There’s nothing that prevents you from being able to travel domestically within the United States.
Do not leave the United States once you enter on your K1 fiancé visa. If you do, you are essentially abandoning the process, and you would have to start over. International travel is not allowed.
However, once you’ve filed your green card application, part of that application will include a travel permit. That, once approved, will give you the ability to travel internationally if you needed to. Before traveling with that travel permit, you want to make sure that you seek legal advice from an attorney to make sure that it would be safe for you to travel.
In general, we tell our clients, “We apply for these travel permits because life happens and emergencies could happen that would require you to travel. But we recommend you don’t travel until you receive your green card. However, if you need to, please talk to us first.”
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