My boyfriend and I have been together for nearly 4 years, he’s from Ecuador and I’m from USA, and we’re ready to get married. We run a business together in Ecuador (main reason we want to get married) so we obviously want to stay here and we know what to expect on Ecuador’s end when we get married. We’re just not sure how to maneuver the US side of things. We were just going to get married in Ecuador and start the process of getting me citizenship but here’s the problem: my boyfriend cannot come to the US and never has actually visited because he was denied the tourist visa twice. I don’t want to get married until I have a clear idea of what we need to do pre- or post- wedding to ensure he gets some kind of access to the US. We are NOT getting married to help him get into the US, or to earn US citizenship, and we have absolutely no intention of ever living in the US. That being said, I would love if my husband could someday travel home to visit my family with me. So what is the best way to get my future husband access to the US? I know K-1 visa has been recommended to me and while I don’t like the idea of getting married in the US, I wonder if this is the most reliable way? But I also wonder if it’ll force us to wait out the process in the US, which we can’t afford to do...? Or is there a pathway specifically designed for our situation? People who marry a US citizen but don’t want to immigrate; my boyfriend doesn’t ever want to immigrate to the US. He would basically be acting like a tourist every time he visited, not working or staying for long periods of time, just vacationing and maybe buying things. But I heard getting a tourist visa is significantly harder AFTER you marry a US citizen (??? can someone explain why ???) We have a business in Ecuador that we cannot afford to abandon so living in the US for 2-5 years (or even months) just to secure him some type of residency isn’t feasible. That being said, we make well over $30,000 a year (I read something about needing to make over the poverty line in US) and we’re not really in a rush to get started on marriage things since the whole pandemic thing happened. I just want to get my facts straight. And I would love any advice, similar stories, warnings, literally anything that might help. Sorry if this isn’t the best place for this question. Thanks in advance.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/gsinua/what_comes_after_the_k1_fiancé_visa_do_we_have_to/