Six years of long distance with an eight hour time difference before our K-1 visa
· 3 min read
By the time I had my K-1 visa interview, my wife and I had been together for about six years. Most of that time, we were in different countries.
This post is about those years. It is the least bureaucratic post on this blog, but in the end it was also important for the visa.
The time difference
Between Turkey and the US where she lived, there was an eight hour time difference. When I woke up, she was going to sleep. When she finished work, it was night for me.
That was the hardest part. Not the distance itself, the clock. If you are someone who likes to talk all day, it is very difficult. Messages wait for hours. Calls happen when one of you is tired. One of you is always in the morning and the other in the night.
Where we met
She came to Turkey many times. We also met in other places:
- Denmark
- Panama
- Qatar. She was working there for a while, and I went to visit her.
Every visit was a relief. Every goodbye was the opposite. The worst moments were always at the airport, the day I dropped her off.
Why the tourist visa did not work
For years, I could not visit her in the US. I applied for a tourist visa twice and was refused twice, after interviews of about ten seconds. I wrote about it here: Refused a US tourist visa twice.
So we kept meeting in Turkey and in other countries.
The proposal
In early 2023, I proposed. The video of that day is still on my YouTube channel: watch it here. After that, we started the K-1 process, the visa made for engaged couples. The full story is here: My K-1 visa timeline from Turkey.
The long distance became our evidence
For a K-1 visa, the central question is: is this relationship real?
Six years apart gave us a lot to show:
- Photos and videos from visits over the years
- Messages and calls
- Trips to different countries
- Hotel bookings and places we stayed together
A new relationship can have a hard time here. Ours was long and documented, almost without trying, because we kept everything. At the interview, the officer asked only four simple questions and approved the visa.
Later, for the green card, we again sent about 95 pages of relationship evidence: Filing my green card application without a lawyer.
Now
Now we sleep at the same time, wake up at the same time, and live in the same house. It sounds simple, but after six years of an eight hour difference, it is the best part.
What I would tell a couple in a long distance relationship
- Keep everything. Photos, tickets, bookings, messages. You may need them for a visa one day.
- Find your shared hours. With a big time difference, a fixed daily call time helps.
- Meet in the middle if you have to. If one of you cannot get a visa, a third country is an option.
- Choose the right visa for your plan. If you want to live together, look at the fiancé(e) or spouse visa, not a tourist visa.
- It ends. Hard years, but they end.
Summary
- About six years together before the K-1 visa, most of them apart.
- An eight hour time difference was harder than the distance.
- We met in Turkey, Denmark, Panama and Qatar.
- All those years became strong evidence for the visa and the green card.
Going through the same thing? If you are stuck on this step and need help, send me a message. I read every one.
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I am not a lawyer or an accountant. This is my own experience, written down as it happened. Rules change and every case is different, so check with the official source or a professional.