Often US citizens develop loving relationships with foreign nationals and wish to bring their future spouses to the US to marry and reside.  A fiancé visa petition or K-1 visa petition is one means of re-uniting  with a loved one. 

The petitioner and his or her future spouse must both be free to marry each other.  With limited exceptions the couple must have also had a face to face meeting within a 2 year period prior to filing the fiancé petition.  The fiancé visa petition is filed in the US and after USCIS approval it will be forwarded to the American Embassy where the foreign spouse resides.

As with immigrant visa petitions, the fiancé must establish that he or she is not inadmissible and intends to enter into a genuine marriage with the petitioner within 90 days of arriving in the US.  Children of the foreign national spouse under 21 years of age may accompany or follow to join their parent under a K-2 visa but must enter the US on their K-2 visas before turning 21 years of age.

Once the couple marries the foreign national spouse and children must file for resident status to obtain resident status in the US.  People opt for the Fiancé visa petition because often the K-1 visa is faster than the traditional marriage based family petition.