[CaliPilot]

Hi,

First off, I'm glad I found this forum!



Some facts:

*I'm an American (white)

*She is from Navi Mumbia

*We have a wonderful relationship!  

*She will live here in California (K-3 spousal visa required)



** We plan to marry in about 7 weeks (mid Sept) Its now July 24

** We will marry in the courthouse (note: both Christians) (Under Special marriage act)

** A wonderful reception to follow with FAMILY AND FRIENDS

**Full strong support from both our families.



Questions:



**I read (unless I misunderstand) that some have to "live" in India for 30 days before they apply for wedding?? Is this for ones who plan to LIVE in India?? (I cannot live in India for a month then apply)

**I will be in India for a little over 2 weeks - I understand that its not necessary to mention my marriage to the Indian consulate where I'm going to be getting my visa from here in San Francisco. IS this true?

**How long will it take (from experience) for her to have citizenship here with me in USA?

** Will our planned child(ren) have duel citizenship automatically?

** What is the "interview" like when we prove we have a love marriage and not an arranged marriage. (This seems kind of weird but I guess I understand the "need" for it)



Please TheIndiaTree.com  friends, give us your knowledge and/or experience(s) with these topics and questions.



WE will be eagerly awaiting your thoughts and facts.



Sincerely!

Edited by CaliPilot, 25 July 2009 - 07:21 AM.

[dzibead]

CaliPilot, if you haven't already retained a good immigration attorney, you need to do so pronto.  I will give you a referral below, but first I want to point out that applying for a spousal visa is a very long process and isn't easy.  Many people are under the mistaken impression that once a foreign national who is currently outside the U.S. marries a U.S. citizen, the process for bringing that individual here is quick and painless - some people also mistakenly believe that the marriage automatically "entitles" the foreign spouse to enter the U.S. and have permanent residency status or even citizenship right away.  Wrong!  At least you realize you need a visa and there will be an interview re: the bona fides of the marriage.  

But just to give you an idea of the time frames you'll be dealing with, before you even apply for the K-3 spousal visa itself (issued by the State Department), you will first have to file a I-130 petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (what used to be the INS), which is a Petition for Alien Relative.  As the USCIS website says, the I-130 petition "is only the first step in helping a  relative immigrate to the United States. Eligible family members must  wait until there is a visa number available before they can apply for  an immigrant visa or adjustment of status to a lawful permanent  resident."  Currently the processing time for just the I-130 petition - which is just the first step - is at least five months if the alien relative is a spouse (much, much longer (years) for other relatives).  And trust me, the interview re: the bona fides of the marriage will be extremely probing.

As you appear to be in the SF Bay Area, I recommend that you contact Simmons & Unger, 50 California St # 470
San Francisco, CA 94111-4623, (415) 421-0860. They are one of the best immigration law firms in the area.  Here's a link to the firm's website:  http://www.simmonsun...om/profile.html

As for your residency requirement in India in order to marry there, I'm no expert but it is my understanding that you do have to be physically there for a certain period of time, and 30 days sounds right from what I recall, in order to get married there. It's not like Las Vegas where you just blow into town and have the ceremony.  I also think this rule applies regardless of whether you plan to live there.  There's probably someone here who knows the real deal on this point, and it may also be sufficient as long as one of the partners satisfies the residency requirement, but you really should be contacting the Indian authorities about the requirements.  Your fiancee or somebody in her family can probably get the correct information for you.

Your eventual children will not automatically have dual citizenship.  India does not actually recognize dual citizenship.  If the children are born in the U.S., they will be U.S. citizens by birth.  India won't consider them Indian citizens but they can definitely get either a PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card or they can get OCI status (Overseas Citizenship of India), which is a misnomer because it is really not Indian citizenship (you don't get an Indian passport, can't vote, etc.) - it's really more like a life-long Indian visa that allows easy entry into the country (in contrast, a PIO card is like a 15 year visa and has to be renewed).  You can read up on this on the website for the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. http://www.indianemb...emplate/oci.asp

As for getting your visa to travel to India, first, you no longer get it directly from the consulate in S.F.  The applications have been outsourced to a company called Travisa, which has an S.F. office.  If you go to the consulate website, it will link you to Travisa.  And if you are just applying for a tourist visa, there's no need to mention your impending marriage when you apply -- but you'd better check with the Indian authorities in India - in the town where you plan to marry - about whether you will have fulfilled the bureaucratic requirements for marrying in the country, or you may find yourself not getting married at all.  I don't know how much experience you have actually in India (it sounds as if you may have none - I don't know where you met your fiancee), but don't underestimate the difficulty of dealing with the Indian bureaucracy.

Again, do two things right away:  have your fiancee check the bureaucratic requirements for marrying in India, and contact an immigration lawyer.

[iwanttogoback]

and read bill bryson's story about trying to get his english wife american citizenship. hysterical.

[Hippie at Heart]

There isn’t any specific need to say “am tripping to India so I can marry the one I love, that’s why I need visa”. India isn’t exactly trying to stop travelers/tourists from coming in here, so take it easy and apply for tourist visa.

So far so good but say when u land here you want to marry and get over with formalities asap but that is not the case as Dzi said its not Vegas where father son and holy ghost alone will bless your marriage and you get a certificate claiming to be husband & wife. But here in India we are kind of nosy and want to keep track that who wants to get married to whom and why bother marrying without letting us know first? We are also bothered that largely being a Laissez faire state we still cannot allow our girls to be corn fed and willing to run away with foreigners, never to be heard again from. And viz a viz for our boys surfacing somewhere in back allays of Amsterdam! We are not as advance yet to trace your whereabouts from whatever you write in that certification slip but in the least we can pretend ‘we know who you are and where you are from so mister don’t you get any ideas that we cant get you if there is a need to do so’.

And we propose to do this paper exercise through our not so friendly neighborhood police station. But you have to understand we are not putting fretters in your way by telling you that you have to wait 30 days before you can marry but it is the statutory requirement the police station have to fulfill. These guys just cannot give you ‘all clear’ police certificate unless you are physically and in person and without break not living in the area which falls under their jurisdiction. Poor guys can’t help a bit about it really. You don’t fulfill the requirement of living under their jurisdiction for 30 days; they won’t give you any police clearance certificate. It is as simple.

There might be few around who will advice you to not get bothered at all with PCC (police clearance certificate) but in right earnest I will advice you to not listen to them and play by rules however boring and draconian they might sound.

Now we have nothing to do with your plans, we have given you certificate and blessed you, your next stop is US authorities who will fret and nitpick over ‘tell us why should we believe that this is a valid and legal and a continuing subsisting marriage’. This last sentence is going to be your acid test, so do what all you have to consider about this test and work your way about. Here onwards pay attention to what Dzi has to say and ask your attorney the very first question what does one mean by’ legally subsisting marriage’. That would set the course for you. Good luck

[dzibead]

Check out the info on this website, particularly the section on Legal Requirements for Getting Married in India:  http://goindia.about...ndiawedding.htm

It looks as if the residency requirement can be satisfied even if only one partner lives in the district where the marriage will take place (unless you're getting married in Goa, which I assume you aren't), but there's still a lot of other paperwork involved.

CaliPilot, keep in mind that this is primarily a travel discussion website, not an immigration or legal website, so please consult the appropriate authorities to make sure you are taking all the steps you need to be taking in order to get married and bring your wife to the U.S.

[WonderWomanUSA]

CaliPilot, I have a client (Indian man) who is a USA citizen, and has been trying for years to get his Indian wife over here. She's still living in Gujurat, waiting for a visa.

[dzibead]

WonderWomanUSA, on Jul 27 2009, 09:51 AM, said:

CaliPilot, I have a client (Indian man) who is a USA citizen, and has been trying for years to get his Indian wife over here. She's still living in Gujurat, waiting for a visa.