Is waiting necessary?

[OhKae]

Hello! I have been wondering about how long a newly married couple should wait to apply for family reunification?
Especially if the applicant would be recently divorced. My fiance and I have known each other for 11 years so it´s not two strangers running into each other somewhere. If I was asked to document 11 years of knowing him, I wouldn´t be able to. We started talking online and became friends through a mutual friend and that was only 3 years after Skype was born and I didn´t even know what Skype was! We had no reason to ever think we needed to document our friendship for something like this. So on the family reunification form for "When did you meet your spouse?", I plan to put the year we first ever got introduced. I´m not expecting it to mean anything (due to lack of documentation) compared to the love relationship length. I presume it will just show we stayed good friends for a very long time.

Before I continue, I should give a "long story short" back story.

Back story:
1. I am a US citizen. My ex was a lawful permanent resident in the US and isn´t anymore due to his questionable life choices.
Fast forward to 4 years later (2017/2018)..

2. Marriage to (abusive) ex: 4+ years but 1 year and 4 months
During the separation I reconnected with my now fiance about 11 months ago and we met in person for the first time about 6 months ago. I´ve visited him here in Denmark twice now so we´ve spent a total of 6 months in the same place (come 3 months, leave 3 months, come back for 3 months).

3. By the time our marriage takes place, I would have been divorced for barely 2 months (yes, crazy, I know.. ).

4. This doesn´t matter but I would have been divorced sooner but my ex hasn´t been making this easy for me.

My thought is that 12 months of being around each other is more than enough to decide that you love each other and want to be married, regardless of nonsense going on around the world. That´s my opinion though.

I was thinking that what really matters is the time between when you get married and actually file. Of course, I know they´ll look into everything but would think that would be the most imporant. We still plan to get married but I´m just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the situation as a whole that doesn´t include telling me to get a lawyer. It´s a complex situation but not THAT complex. If it really comes down to it, we´d wait to apply. We just hope we don´t have to so we don´t have to wait to be together. Other than this, there isn´t a problem. We fit all the current and (so far) the coming new rules.

Thanks in advance!

[mh1]

People have been known to hand in their (successful) application the same day they married, so no, there is no rule about 'waiting time'.

[OhKae]

People have been known to hand in their (successful) application the same day they married, so no, there is no rule about 'waiting time'.

Thank you for replying.

Yeah, I figured there was no specific time limit but I remember reading someone else’s post where they got denied involving something like this. But there was way more to it. I guess the other person’s visa was expiring soon and they looked like they didn’t know each other for a long time. I don’t remember what else but it looked suspicious. I don’t think they had even applied yet though. We don’t have either of those problems but I was wondering if it would look odd (to the point of possible denial) that my old relationship and my new one AND us applying are so close together? On paper it looks like they’re so close together but in reality, they’re actually very far apart.

The FR application is surprisingly detailed and I appreciate that because it means the gov is aware that people have unique situations. It doesn’t pin point our specific situation but at least it gives us a chance to show we have known each other a long time. The gov doesn’t just give up on people because they’ve met online, haven’t lived together, or don’t get married.

I was just thinking there is a visual (?) difference between..
1. Divorce ex, marry fiancé 2 months later, AND apply the same day/week/month.
2. Divorce ex, marry fiancé 2 months later, apply 5-12 months later.
3. Divorce ex, marry fiancé 5 - 12 months later, apply same day/week/month.

Maybe I’m overthinking it but I would rather ask questions than assume. Expect anything. Just wondering if anyone, as a 3rd party (like you), has ever heard of a problem involving this? If we were patient, maybe we could try #2 or #3. But technically, we have been waiting so long in general that we think enough is enough. We just want to be together.

[mh1]

Online friendship/communication before meeting in person does not count, period. You should put the date where you met in person as the date you got to know each other. If there is space for it, you can mention the online communication, or mention it in the interview.

By the time you marry it will be about a year since you met in person, and you have been together several times for longer periods of time, so there should be no risk of refusal because of suspicion of 'marriage of convenience'.

[OhKae]

Online friendship/communication before meeting in person does not count, period. You should put the date where you met in person as the date you got to know each other. If there is space for it, you can mention the online communication, or mention it in the interview.

By the time you marry it will be about a year since you met in person, and you have been together several times for longer periods of time, so there should be no risk of refusal because of suspicion of 'marriage of convenience'.

Yeah, I figured! There is an option for all of that. It gets very specific.

Thank you for this information. I really appreciate it! I’ve actually had someone (who hasn’t done the process yet) repeatedly tell me it will look bad. I see how it would look that way but I don’t think she is looking at it like you and I are. No idea. I feel confident about this so I hope it goes well. I’m really excited!