Foreign National Spouse?

[Pakin]

Has anyone ever been in a position whereas their spouse started out as a foreign national (such as without a green card or US naturalization)? What do I need to do first if we are to get hitched?

I'm a newly commissioned LT about to EAD in two months. I punched this question off to my Det NCOIC but he needed to research a bit and ask some questions off to others as well. I basically have no idea where to start and would like to look for some additional experiences.

The marriage paperwork I understand is straight forward, but everything else, such as the security clearance (I have a current TS) and the fact that she is not a US citizen, is unknown territory for me.

My fiance is from China (which may complicate things further). I have reported my foreign contacts to the assigned security officer at my det a few times before. The last few inquiries they said I don't need to do any physical changes until after 5 years of my initial TS issue (kind of weird to wait that long). I have reported foreign contacts before during my TS clearance since 80% of my family/relatives are foreign contacts.

I want to do this right and not cause any issues before I start UPT.

Any insight or suggested POCs would be appreciated.

Thank you!

[rancormac]

Im no expert, but good luck.

Start collecting records of her entire family and anyone else you/she contacts that is foreign.

I'd say things have been complicated further

[TAMInated]

What he said. Also, document everything, not just when/where you travel abroad, but where exactly you stay, who was with you, phone calls made to relatives or friends abroad, etc.

[Chida]

There are 4 things: security clearance, immigration, military, and SSA.

-Security clearance: just report your marriage to your security manager and chain of command. They should know what needs to be done, if anything. When I got married I had recently re-done my security clearance in which I listed everything for my then-fiancee and reported her as such, so I didn't do anything after we were married. Since then I've had an additional periodic re-investigation and there were no problems.

-Immigration: You should know that if she is not currently in the US on some type of visa, and then you get married and try to get a marriage visa, that it takes about a year from application to acquire the visa and that she cannot stay in the US with you during this time. I did the fiancee visa which is the quickest way to get your fiancee over here (but also most expensive) and then get married in the US and adjust status to permanent resident. During the adjustment of status she is to remain in the US. See visajourney.com and uscis.gov.

-Military: Once you are married, go to the ID card office. Bring her passport and marriage certificate. She should have a visa in her passport which will be OK for the 2nd form of picture ID. She does not necessarily need a social security number at this time. Go by the tricare office if you want to sign up for Tricare Prime, otherwise you're on Tricare Standard by default. You can also sign up for Tricare Dental at this time if you want to. They will take ~$12 out of your monthly pay on your LES for dental premiums. Update your life insurance beneficiaries (SGLI) and your record of emergency data (VRED).

-Social Security: If you do a marriage visa, SSA may give you an SSN as part of that process, but if they don't go to the social security office and sign up for a SSN for her. This took me 3 visits and a month and a half since they're basically unfamiliar with the fiancee visa and there were some issues with the name check. The issue was her visa was in her maiden name, then we were married so her name changed and everything from that point was in her new name except that her passport still showed her old name.

I'm pretty sure that's about it. The immigration process was the height of bureaucratic foolishness, but they didn't give me any problems. The time from application for the visa to the actual visa issuance was 5-6 months. She came over, we were married within a few days and then we applied for adjustment of status so she could get her green card. I taught her how to drive and she got her license within a few months. It cost me more than $3000 for her entire process, the majority being USCIS application fees. Other associated costs are embassy fees, doctor's fees, immunization costs, document fees, etc. She's from Japan.

[Pakin]

Chida

That info is gold, thank you for sharing, I appreciate it!

For China, what I've seen (online research and one personal account in-country) is that the marriage visa seems to be a faster process than the fiance visa. Perhaps it varies between countries?

I'll be getting ahold of the NCOIC and I'll update this thread with any new info.

I fully understand the documentation of foreign contacts. I basically printed out the SF-86 as a hard copy and have updated with a pen new names and contact info as well as travel dates. Never thought about recording every single call made though.

[TAMInated]

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I meant make a record of how often you call and who you talk to.

[Guest]

Never thought about recording every single call made though.

Record everything, on video if possible.

And get your car uparmored. Now.

[Chida]

Yeah I just looked at visajourney.com's stats for China on CR-1 and K-1 visas and it looks to be about the same amount of time. I'd also go with the CR-1 visa in this case since it's a lot cheaper and easier. I only went with the K-1 because it was faster for Japan at the time.

So I guess since you're doing the CR-1 you'll want to get married ASAP so that she can join you once you're halfway thru UPT or maybe done with UPT?

[Pakin]

Yep, CR-1 and with the approximate 10 month processing time, it will be halfway though UPT.

Seems like the wildcard is the security clearance. Diplomatic terms/relationships between us and China are not as nice as Japan unfortunately.

Been browsing visajourney today, good stuff. I'll admit the first time I saw it during a google search I completely ignored it as the URL looked like another immigration services ad site.

[brabus]

I would absolutely pass exact info to the security dude at your DET for every stage of this, i.e. from known contact to engaged to married. Leaving big changes like that for the next 5 yr investigation can completely fuck you over. Good luck.

[SocialD]

I would absolutely pass exact info to the security dude at your DET for every stage of this, i.e. from known contact to engaged to married. Leaving big changes like that for the next 5 yr investigation can completely fuck you over. Good luck.

This!